High School - Superstitions

[BlueEyes]

This is great.  I needed a fresh idea for my after school programs. 

[gmosborn]

The one that is probably sen most often and you may not realize it is the  F for Four in the elevator.  Korean word for four "sa" sounds like death in chinese so they use the four.  very similar to the US not using the 13th floor in some places,

[gksdfma0925]

That's what I was looking for.
Thank you so much.

[Callie144]

Nice. Thanks for the Idea

[kboyca]

This topic supplied me with 2 full one hour classes of conversation material.

[Snowytin]

Fantastic idea! Thanks.

PS. I almost died from fan death twice. Once when the cover fell off and I was sleeping near my fan and another time when my blanket got caught in the fan 

[althing7]

This worked really well with my high intermediate to advanced high schoolers.  The boys seemed to like it the most, for whatever reason, but it worked just fine with the girls too.  And yes, asking the class what they thought of Fan Death worked better than telling them it was a superstition.  A few of my students thought it was real, but most weren't really sure.  I just told them that I had never heard of Fan Death before coming to Korea, which seemed to confirm that it was a superstition for most of the students without offending the ones who insisted it was real.

[althing7]

Oh, I almost forgot, I made an addition to the lesson that worked well for me.
Earlier in the semester, I went over Greek and Latin roots, so at the beginning of the slide show, I added a slide with the word "Triskaidekaphobia" (fear of the number 13) and I asked the class what that word means.  On the second click for the same slide, I broke down the word, "Tri(s)--three" "kai--and" "deka--ten" "phobia--fear".  I told them that this was the most common superstition in the US and Europe and gave them examples like the photo of the elevator without 13th floor.

[Miss S]

This lesson covers superstitions in western cultres mostly.  Adapted from other lessosn on Waygook on superstitions.  Incorportated into this lesson is part of Breaking News English article. (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0702/070222-superstition.html) (I hold no rights or ownership over that material)

Presentation, handout, listening audio, answer sheet.