Coming to America at ISCED

Do you remember Coming to America? It was a film in the 90s, I think, staring Eddie Murphy as a Prince from Africa who decides to sow his wild oats in Queens, New York, in order to find his true love. It is a comedy with lots of talented performances by Murphy as well as Arsenio Hall. What you might not know, is how good the movie is to illustrate the concept of cultural stereotypes of the US as well as Africa. I showed the film last Saturday and we had a nice discussion afterwards. Those in attendance included ISCED (University) 3rd and 4th year students, and EFP (Secondary School), and faculty from both institutions. The auditorium hold 100 so we ordered 100 bags to popcorn, but my colleagues forgot to tell me there was a football match on, so we only got 20 participants. I was happy that people did come and that we got to experince some different opinions together.

I told mommas to come with their children if necessary

Great, passionate discussion leading in progress

The week before, I asked for volunteers to lead small discussion groups after the film. Two were third year students at ISCED and two were teachers at the EFP. What was interesting was that in true form, one of the EFP teachers photocopied parts of the questions and handed them out (without notifying me or the other leaders). This lead to mass silence in the room, everyone staring at the paper trying to see what was on it. In the end I had to step in and tell each leader to ditch the papers and just ask the questions themselves. Afterwards, I asked the teacher that made the copies what he thought about what happened. Again, in true form, he said he thought it went well, but when I pushed he finally admitted that it was probably better just to ask the questions. It is encouraging to know that some practical teaching experience can come out of events like this (i.e. how to lead discussion groups). I have included the questions below in case you want to have a discussion of your own after revisiting the film sometime soon. :)