Иностранный язык (Английский). Практикум

PART I. COUNTRIES, CULTURES, PEOPLE

before the school day begins. And on July 4th, Independence Day, “Stars and Stripes” are everywhere: on the streets, on houses and in the big parades. Britain’s flag is called the “Union Jack”. It is really three flags on top of each other: the red cross on white of St George for England, the white “X” on blue of St Andrew for Scotland and the red “X” on white of St Patrick for Ireland.

Like Americans, British people have fun with their flag. They put it on biscuit tins, party hats and plastic bags. But unlike Americans, most British people do not like to talk about or show patriotic feelings. They feel too embarrassed. You will see the Union Jack on top of government offices in London, but you will not often find it in shops, in offices or in people’s homes.

Вопросы и задания

1.Read and translate the text.

2.Answer the following questions:

1)What can you say about American flag?

2)Why is Britain’s flag called the “Union Jack”?

3)What does Russian flag look like?

3. Read and translate the texts.

Russian homes

Many Russian people live with their families in block of flats in cities and small towns. They live in very comfortable and well-planned flats with all modern conveniences, such as central heating, electricity, gas, cold and hot running water and telephones. There are usually two, three or four rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a toilet and a hall in each flat. Some families own their own houses. These are detached houses with land around them. Typically a house has a small garden at the back and small yard in front of it, a garage and a swimming pool.

People in the village live in the country cottages. Most of them are stone buildings with gardens, but some of them are very old and may have a thatched or tiled roof. Accommodation in Russia is very expensive and that’s why some people rent flats or houses. One third of Russian people live in rented state-owned homes. It is often very difficult for young people to buy a home when they want to start a family.

There is a state program in Russia which helps young people to build their own flat or house. They may get a loan from the bank for construction the accommodation. Students usually live in the youth hostels, which each university, institute or college provides them.

American homes

Many young Americans do not live with their families, but in apartment blocks or residential areas where everyone is more or less of the same age.

71

Young people often move away from home when they leave school if they can afford it into shared apartments or small, one-room “studio” apartments. They do their own cooking and cleaning, and go to the family home perhaps for the weekend.

Young married couples may move to new suburbs where most people have young families. In the country, some even build their houses themselves.

If a family’s income goes up, they often move to another suburb, where the houses are bigger with two or even three garages, a swimming pool, a games room for the children and everything a family could want.

Old people often do not live with their grown-up children. Many live in old people’s homes. Some live in special towns, built for old people, where there are no young children and the atmosphere is quiet.

Americans are always on the move, and some families change their homes every few years. Every year, 20% of Americans move house. For example, some people could start life in an apartment in New York, go on to a white-painted wooden home in New England with small windows to keep out the cold in winter, and end their life in a sunny house in California where oranges grow in the garden and big windows give a wonderful view of the swimming pool and the sea.

British homes

British homes are usually smaller than American homes, but, like Americans, old people, young families and unmarried people do not usually live together.

Many British people love old houses, and these are often more expensive than modern ones. They also love gardening, and you will see gardens everywhere you go: in towns, villages and out in the country. Some are very small, with just one tree and a few flowers. Others are enormous, with plenty of flowers and enough vegetables and fruit trees to feed a family.

There are 22 million homes in Britain - big homes and small homes, old cottages and new high-rise buildings, houses and flats. (Americans say “apartment”, but British people say “flat”).

Two thirds of the families in Britain own their own homes. Millions of these “owner-occupied” houses are the same, with two or three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs; a sitting room, dining room and kitchen downstairs and a small garden at the back and front of the house. To pay for their house, home owners borrow money from a “building society” and pay back a little every month.

One quarter of British people live in rented state-owned homes, called “council houses”.

72

PART I. COUNTRIES, CULTURES, PEOPLE

Many of these are flats, but some are houses, each with a small piece of garden. Other people rent their homes from private owners.

There are a great many different kinds of homes in Britain, but they are not enough! It is often very difficult for young people to find a home when they want to start a family.

4.Read the texts about Russian, British and American homes, and be ready to answer the following questions:

1) Where do America, British and Russian people prefer to live? 2) Do they often change the place of living?

3) Do the old people prefer to live with their grown-up children? 4) Is the accommodation expensive or cheap in these countries? 5) Is it difficult for young people to buy or build their own home?

6) Does the government of these countries help young people buy or build their own home?

7) What is the typical Russian, American and British house? Describe it.

5.Be ready to discuss these problems.

1)The Russian, British and American living standards.

2)Welfare and poverty problems.

3)Dependence of the young people on their parents.

6. Read and translate the texts.

Family life in Great Britain and the USA

British and American families are small. In fact the populations of both Britain and the USA have nearly stopped growing.

In the old days, a “typical” family had a father, a mother and two or three children, with grandparents living near. Most children still live in this kind of family, but in both countries there is a growing number of “single parent families”, with only one parent.

Some parents are single because they are divorced, but many other young parents do not get married at all.

The typical British family has a car, a colour TV set, a washing machine and a cat or dog as well. They start the day at about 7 o’clock, have breakfast at 8 and are off to work by 8.30. More and more women now go out to work as well as men. The children have lunch at school at about 12.30 and come home at 4 in the afternoon. Their parents are usually home by 6 o’clock, and the family eats together at 6.30 or 7. In the evenings, father may go to the pub for a drink or stay at home and watch TV with the others. Young children go to bed early, at about 8 o’clock, two or three hours before their parents.

The typical American family has more money than a British family. Some have two or three cars, large modern kitchens and more electrical goods. They eat more meat and spend more on clothes. But their daily program is

73

nearly the same. Like British children, American children eat lunch at school, come home mid-afternoon and go to bed earlier than their parents.

Customs and Traditions Patterns of the American Family Life

Diversity of Patterns

The diversity of patterns of American family life is really remarkable. Various things account for this: ethnic background, immigration date of their forebears, social background, religion, and other factors. The ancestors of present-day Americans came from more than 17 different European countries, Canada, Mexico, from other Latin American nations, as well as from Africa, China, Japan, the Philippines and many other eastern countries. There are over 22 million blacks (Afro-Americans) living in the US. In addition there are more than 700,000 Native Americans (American Indians). It is now estimated that by the year 2050 half of Americans will be Hispanic, Black, or Asian by ethnic background. This great diversity makes family customs so varied.

Social Problems

People’s living standards vary greatly – from the affluence of the rich in the upper income bracket and the moderate but satisfying living standards of the so-called “middle class” to the very low incomes of those who are on official subsistence using welfare because they are either unemployed or lack the necessary means for day-to-day living.

Welfare and poverty problems have been a central issue for many years. Many are inclined to treat welfare recipients as “undeserving poor” who are alleged to have low intelligence or low ambition. President John F. Kennedy was the first to generate programs directed toward services and work-orient- ed counseling for the welfare poor. The subculture of poverty is sometimes seen as pathological and contradictory to the values cherished by the middle class which emphasize hard work, motivation to succeed, thrift and stable family life. Some play up the image of “undeserving” masses of welfare recipients. But in fact, their economic plight can be combatted only through dealing with flaws in the surrounding social and economic system, such as racial discrimination or high rates of unemployment. As a matter of fact, the poor, both blacks and whites, never have had freedom of choice. Their education for the most part has been inadequate and the market has been unable to absorb all the working hands. The solution to the problem of poverty lies in the change of the culture and values of the poor by means of expanding social work, education, and training programs.

Though some people claim that welfare recipients do not try to work, many surveys have found that for most welfare recipients work patterns are

74

PART I. COUNTRIES, CULTURES, PEOPLE

seasonal or irregular; for many work and welfare are alternative means of economic existence; for some welfare supplements low wages; there are also such reasons as poor health, the lack of child care, the inability to find work. Attitudes of typical welfare recipients in fact are not anti-work or oriented toward laziness and delight with welfare living. Seven in ten would rather work for pay than stay at home on welfare. Many mothers have no good place to leave their children all day. It is obvious that the poor, young and old, black and white – are very work-oriented and usually have as high aspirations as the nonpoor. Studies have also found a negative attitude toward being on welfare among many recipients. Most people think that getting money from welfare makes a person feel ashamed. This feeling may account for the fact that a large proportion of those who have not found decent-paying jobs have not gone on welfare even though they qualify. Suggestions that the majority of welfare recipients live as well as the average American worker seem ludicrous. Many recipients are unable to afford medical or dental care; many put off paying the rent in order to buy enough food. The short of it is: Welfare is the “good life only for those who have not lived it.”

Marriage

Marriage in the United States is considered a matter of individual responsibility and decision. American marriages are usually based on romantic love, rather than on social class, education, money, or religion. On the other hand, marriages between blacks and whites are rare. They probably account for fewer than 1 per cent of all marriages each year. Marriage is preceded by dating. Casual dating usually begins in the early teens, and by the late teens a pattern of steady dating develops. Steady dating is often followed by marriage.

What has been called the “new morality” among young people was a controversial development which started in the 1960s. Practiced largely by the young, this pattern accepts close relationships and even living together before marriage. However, many Americans do not approve of this behavior pattern and uphold a double standard in sexual behavior, which means that what is acceptable for young men is not for young women. On the other hand, some young people – both men and women – accept a single standard for both sexes before marriage.

Dating in America looks generally very casual to outsiders. For example, it is perfectly respectable for a young man to call up a young woman, introduce himself by telephone, and arrange a date. Usually they have a friend in common. It is equally acceptable for a friend to arrange a “blind date” that is a date between two young people who have not met before.

After their marriage the young couple is free to decide where to live. Most newlyweds set up their own household immediately. Most married people practice some kind of birth control. They plan the number of children

75

they are going to have and when their children will be born. Birth-control information and family planning are easily available.

Today, according to the US Census Bureau, 59 percent of men and 47 percent of women between 18 and 24 depend on their parents despite all traditional patterns of behavior, at least for housing. This is part of a major shift in the middle class. Analysts cite a variety of reasons for this return to the nest. The marriage age is rising. A high divorce rate and a declining remarriage rate are sending economically pressured and emotionally battered young people to parental shelters. For some, the expense of an away-from- home college education has become so exorbitant that many students now attend local schools. Even after graduation young people find their wings clipped by skyrocketing housing costs.

Sharing the family home requires adjustment for all. There may be the hassles over bathrooms, telephones and privacy. Some families, however, manage the delicate balancing act.

The familiar structure in present-day America is the so-called “nuclear family”. It is unusual for members of the family other than the husband, wife, and children to live together. But the forgotten term “extended family” is coming back again with a different meaning. Now it means that there have appeared an increasing numbers of families that include half brothers and sisters, and stepmothers and stepfathers. There is a growing number of people who have been married three or even four times.

The reasons for re-marriage are: the comparative ease of divorce and the greatly lessened social stigma that it now carries; a romanticization of marriage that cannot live up to the long-term reality; a “flip of the dial” attitude that fosters moving on as soon as problems or ennui set in; the economic independence of women; a level of affluence that makes multiple families possible for some; an attitude among the so-called “me” generation that places fulfilment of personal needs ahead of compromise or sharing.

Census figures show that 50 percent of American families now end in divorce. 85 percent of these divorced people remarry, usually within 5 years, with 60 percent of those marriages ending in divorce.

“I’ve changed my name so many times I don’t know who I am any more,” said Barbara Freedman, a Manhattan social worker, who has been married three times, having been widowed as well as divorced. She went on: “It’s disruptive. It’s hard to maintain a stable core of friends or pattern of life. So much of your structure is built around your marriage.”

Children of parents who marry several times are another concern. They suffer a loss of faith in relationships. Multiple marriages also aggravate sibling conflicts. Who is entitled to get college money if there isn’t enough to go around? How do you equitably settle the claims of children from the different

76

PART I. COUNTRIES, CULTURES, PEOPLE

marriages when the parent dies? What if the children from a marriage are left out of the will? So, re-marriage may create unforeseen difficulties for both parents’ and children’s lives.

Changing Roles Within the Family

When the twentieth century began all the different varieties of American families shared one characteristic: the wife did not work outside the home. The only exceptions were black wives. At that time, for a wife to work was a sign that a husband was not able to support a family or that he was crippled or otherwise incapacitated. By contrast to that situation, in the 1990s over 60 percent of women were in the work force. The transformation was relatively quick. It began in the years of the Great Depression, but the major impetus was provided by the Second World War. The pattern established then, though originally intended to be a temporary war measure, continued after the war was over.

Many women preferred working and many firms found the relatively low wages of women an inducement to continue to employ their labor. The immediate consequence was a great expansion of jobs open to women. Women became electricians, machinists, carpenters, as well as lawyers, engineers, and physicians in unheard of numbers.

Despite the widening opportunities for women, the great majority of working women have remained at the bottom of the economic pyramid. In the 1980s, for instance, the average pay for a woman worker was about 59 percent of the average male; the principal cause for the difference was usually a failure to pay equal wages for equal work and also the fact that the jobs which most women held were low-paying. The working woman is generally a typist, a maid, a teacher, a nurse, a cashier, or a saleswoman.

Simply because work for married women is now accepted and so commonplace, the internal character of American families has greatly changed.

For some two hundred years now, American women have been seeking to enhance their autonomy within the family. This has involved their gaining better education, a place as the moral guardian of the family, the opportunity to control childbirth, and to dissolve the marriage if it proved too limiting or unsatisfactory. They have also asserted their right to combine family and work outside the home.

Today, as a result of the widening of employment opportunities for women and also the consciousness-raising fostered by the women’s movement, the pressure for women’s equality within families has reached a new height. But still many women do not feel happy to be torn in two.

There is the so-called Supermom; the woman who tries to juggle a career with a family. Others have come to the conclusion that the dual role can of-

77

ten cause them to be mediocre at both. So they have given up their career to stay home with children. Some view it as a temporary solution until their children start school. But even when at home women pursue various interests. They participate in all kinds of organizations, for example, English-teaching committee for the foreign-born, in fund-raising activities for the colleges they graduated from, they jog in the morning with friends, compete in New York City Marathons, etc. All that gives them a feeling of achievement. One thirty- five-year old lawyer who quit her job to stay home with her three children, said she spent her spare time gardening and doing carpentry work. She said that one summer she took the children to Colorado, where she rebuilt an old garage that she and her husband use for hiking in summer and siding in winter.

The major worry for most is that if they decide to go back to work they will have difficulty in finding jobs. Many women say they continue to read in their fields so that they will not fall behind. Others say that they try to have lunch occasionally with former co-workers to keep up with what is going on. Otherwise, they say, you feel that you’re “a bit out of touch”.

But there are many women who work outside the home – even if they have children at home – of necessity. Many women say that they don’t have the option of working inside the home or outside the home any more because economic needs require that they go out and find a job. Many married women work because their husbands are unemployed or disabled. Such women are the sole support of their families and themselves.

The wives of low-wage earners who are taking jobs to supplement their husband’s income, help keep the family budget solvent in the face of inflation. Women in middle-income families are taking jobs in response to the economic squeeze. Such women are taking jobs to maintain the standard of living to which they have been accustomed. But increasingly, a second income in the family is being sought to achieve traditional goals, such as a college education for their children or for a one-family home. Even braces on children’s teeth or meeting continually raising utility and other rates make women work for the money.

On the other hand, women are making inroads into men’s occupations – tellers in banks, bus driving and bartending. This changes the general perception of male and female jobs.

Changes in the family pattern with women working have not been easily accepted by men, who sometimes show anger and resentment. On the one hand, a majority of men now believe that both sexes should enjoy equal employment opportunities, but on the other, most also believe that children may be harmed psychologically if their mothers work outside the home. This contradiction increasingly rules the life of Americans.

78

PART I. COUNTRIES, CULTURES, PEOPLE

Very busy, spouses sometimes let each other know that they feel victimized by the requirements of the other partner. In order to make a go of this sort of life husband and wife have to cut out almost everything that does not relate to family or career. There is a frequent feeling that husband and wife are “against the ropes” in regard to available time. It is the amenities of life in terms of friends, entertainment, and general leisure that get put aside in order to focus on the everyday essentials.

One Atlanta attorney says: “My wife has her own career as a lawyer and when I arrive home from a tough day, all I want to do is put my feet up and have a drink – the sort of thing a man has always expected. Instead I have to help with the household or attend to my children. I frequently must cut short my own working day in order to pick up our eighteen-month-old son from day care or to spend time with my older child. Often, I am also the one who is on call in case of illness, who prepares many of the meals, and who keeps the house clean. There is no question that the rewards of sharing career achievement and child rearing with one’s spouse are great, but the price paid can be high. There lies much of the trouble. We are faced with having to become supermen, in response to today’s superwomen. Many of us don’t know how to balance full participation in work and in family.

We are now exploring uncharted territory, with all the mistakes and false starts that such exploration requires. I found that I had learned something further about what it means to be a man, something that goes beyond simply bringing home a paycheck.”

7.Make a project about the life of typical Russian, British and American family.

8.Speak on these problems.

1)The Russian, British and American living standards.

2)Welfare and poverty problems in these countries.

3)“New morality” of the young people.

4)Dependence of the young people on their parents.

5)Women and their role in the society. a. women’s work;

b. women’s movement.

6)How do you explain such definition: “superwoman” and “supermother”.

79

PART II

SOCIAL WORK

UNIT 9

WHAT IS SOCIAL WORK?

Цель занятия: развитие лексических навыков; развитие и совершенствование коммуникативных навыков.

В результате изучения темы студент должен:

–знать терминологию по теме занятия;

–уметь применять на практике лексику, необходимую для деловой встречи с англоязычным партнером; работать в паре;

–владеть навыками диалогической речи, необходимыми в межличностном и межкультурном общении на иностранном языке (ОК-2).

Актуальность темы: знание деловой терминологии необходимо для эффективного межкультурного и межличностного общения в профессиональной деятельности.

Теоретическая часть

▪ What is Social Work?

Social work is an established professional discipline with a distinctive part to play in promoting and securing the wellbeing of children, adults, families and communities. It operates within a framework of legislation and government policy, set out in Putting People First and the Children’s Plan, and contributes to the development of social policy, practice and service provision. It collaborates with other social care, health, education and related services to ensure people receive integrated support. It is a profession regulated by law.

Social work is committed to enabling every child and adult to fulfill their potential, achieve and maintain independence and self-direction, make choices, take control of their own lives and support arrangements, and exercise their civil and human rights. It looks at people’s lives and circumstances in the round, and works with them to personalize social care responses to fit their own individual situations. Its approaches and working methods aim to promote empowerment and creativity.

Social work embodies a set of core values and principles. It is committed to the rights of the child; respects the equality, worth and human rights of all people, and their individuality, privacy and dignity; and challenges discrim-

80