Sharing Your Culture
AFS Participants are often expected to give presentations about the U.S. and their home community. When creating your presentations, remember your audience has most likely never been to your hometown or the U.S. Presentations with as many visuals as possible are the most effective at giving people an idea of your home, school, friends and family.
How to Prepare for Presentations
As an AFS Participant, you are an ambassador for the U.S. While on your AFS program, you will probably be asked to give a presentation at your host school or to local organizations/civic groups. After your return to the U.S., you may also be asked to give a presentation about your host country/culture.
To help you prepare for your presentation(s) we encourage you to use the AFS Branded Presentation slides, you can save a copy and edit to include your information.
If, before you depart, you have any ideas for what you would like to talk about or do for your presentation, then you can make some preparations in advance. You may wish to gather materials and information to help in making an engaging, informative presentation.
Do a presentation about your culture, family, school, and/or community. You may wish to concentrate on one area or topic. Use visual resources such as pictures of your community/neighborhood (or video) and local or school newspapers. You may want to organize it as “A day in the life of…” or perhaps a view of the country starting from your own home, broadening the view to your community, state and country. Some of the topics can include:
- Historical Perspective of your Community
- Social Relations
- Family Relationships (average size, who is included, role of men/women, when do people marry? Have children?)
- Friendship (extended to many or a few? How demonstrated?)
- Class/Economic and Social Status (a class structure? Based on what? Mobility?)
- Religion (a dominant one? Influence on education?)
- Social, Fraternal, Cultural Institutions, Advocacy Organizations (who belongs? What purpose do they serve?)
- Sports and Recreation (how do people spend their leisure time?)
- Sense of Humor (what is acceptable?)
- Communicating Emotions (what is acceptable? With whom?)
- Economics
- General (describe the system, what is the attitude toward purpose of work?)
- Housing (what type predominates?)
- Clothing (ready-made? Reflect status?)
- Shopping (who does it? What method?)
- Foods and Health (regional specialties? Fresh or processed? Private or public health care?)
- Public Services/Transportation (any? For whom? Sources of power/fuel?)
- Political Affairs
- Civic Life (do civic groups exist? Who is in them?)
- Government and Politics (does the group have a political power base? Are issues actively debated? By whom and where?)
- The Arts and Folklore: Music, Dance, Drama, Crafts, Art (which are unique, what do they express?)
- Important Celebrations, Holidays & Holiday Food
Presentation Tips
It is unlikely that you would be expected or even have enough time to cover all these topics during one presentation. But having a knowledge of these areas will help you in sharing your culture and country in your host community in many ways. You will be asked about your country and will probably be expected to have a certain level of knowledge. Depending on the host country, politics and economics might be common or uncommon topics of conversation.
Consider the background of your audience when preparing a presentation. Consider the age(s) and English language ability of your audience (until you can speak well enough in your host language!) when deciding what to talk about. Think about what you feel comfortable talking about and depending on whether there is a language barrier, how you can get across ideas with as much visual material as possible.
Some other ideas include:
- Get a favorite/typical recipe, bring non-perishable ingredients from the U.S., do a cooking demonstration, at the same time, talking about food/meals etc.
- If there is a special holiday craft (bring materials that you don’t think you can get) or a favorite/typical game that is not too difficult to explain. (i.e. jump rope, simple charades, etc.)
- Think about bringing light, easily packable items.