You live in a country called ‘Derdia.’ There is a deep canyon between your village and the market of the nearby town This is a huge inconvenience (=problem), because if you want to go grocery shopping there, you have to walk for days to get around the canyon and reach the market If there was a bridge over the canyon, the trip would take only hours Now the Derdian government hired (=paid) a construction company from the EU to visit you and teach you the science of building bridges That means you are going to be the first engineers in Derdia with a license to construct bridges in your country Also, you and the engineers will build the first bridge of Derdia together You will use cardboard paper, pens, scissors and glue to build the bridge You are familiar with (=you know) the materials, but construction methods (=how to build it) not with the SOCIAL RULES OF THE DERDS Greetings The traditional greeting is to greet (=say hello to) each other with a kiss on the other’s shoulder The first person to greet the other kisses the other’s right shoulder, and then the other one does the same Any other kinds of kisses are considered rudely impolite The worst possible offense (=impoliteness) in Derdia is to shake hands as a greeting If visitors not greet a Derd when meeting, you Derds will become very hurt and annoyed Touching Touching each other is very important for you Derds It is very impolite not to touch during conversations However, you not have to touch each other directly If you touch a chain of people (=people holding hands), you can communicate with each member in the chain Without touching, you Derds will simply ignore (=not hear) the speaker Behavior during work You Derds touch each other during work when you want to communicate The tools all have a gender: the paper and scissors are feminine (=female), the pencil, pen, glue/sticky tape, stapler and ruler are masculine (=male) Men must not touch any feminine tools, while women must not touch masculine tools You consider touching the wrong tool embarrassing and will laugh when this happens Saying YES/NO You Derds not use the ’N’ word, that is the word ’no’, because you consider it very rude You say ’yes’ when you mean ’yes’, and say ’yes’ while very strongly nodding your head (moving it up and down) when you mean ’no’ Foreigners You Derds are sociable (=friendly) people, who especially like meeting foreigners You are proud of yourselves and your culture So while you highly appreciate the engineers’ help, you not consider them superior (=better than you) You Derds respect the foreigners, but expect them to behave as you do, ie according to the Derdian customs (=rules) Very important: You Derds take your own cultural customs for granted, i.e you can’t imagine that others may have different customs, so you not explain anything to the engineers! You are engineers working for a construction company in the European Union The Derdian government has recently hired your company teach a group of Derds how to construct (=build) bridges You will visit their village and build the first bridge together You have to keep the deadline (=finish in time) agreed upon, otherwise you will not get paid and will lose your jobs Derdia is a mountainous country beyond the Operentsian Sea with deep canyons and valleys, but without any bridges There is a deep canyon between the Derdian village you are visiting and the market of the nearby town This is a huge inconvenience (=problem), because if they want to go grocery shopping there, they have to walk for days to get around the canyon and reach the market If there was a bridge over the canyon, the trip would take only hours It is important to not just build the first bridge, but also to train (=teach) the first Derdian engineers how to build bridges alone in Derdia PREPARATION FOR THE TRAINING Construction STEP Decide what kind of bridge you should build, and how to build it STEP Then members of the construction team can make a quick visit to the Derdian village where the first bridge will be built, e.g in order to • • • meet the villagers discuss basic details of the job and confirm the number of your team collect information on the natural and weather conditions and the Derdians (e.g Does it rain a lot? Are there forests? Do Derdians speak English?) STEP 3.You’ll have minutes to share the new information with your team STEP Finally, your whole team of engineers will travel to Derdia to teach the Derds how to build bridges The bridge You will build the bridge out of cardboard paper, using pens, scissors and glue The bridge has to connect chairs or desks standing about 80 cm from each other It has to be strong enough to hold its own weight, and the scissors, pencils and other construction tools You cannot assemble (=build) parts of the bridge at home and transport the parts to Derdia, because, on the one hand, it would be expensive, and on the other hand, then the Derds could not master (=learn) the skills of bridge construction It is very important that they learn all the stages (=steps) of the construction You and the Derds have to draw each panel of the bridge using a pen/pencil and a ruler, and cut it out with scissors The time limit 30-45 minutes for reading these instructions, planning the construction and making the first visit to Derdia Then 30-45 minutes for building the bridge and training the Derds It’s very important to always behave politely during your visit! DERDIAN SOCIAL RULES Greeting: Kiss on shoulder (If engineers want to shake hands, refuse it) Always touch when you talk (If engineers don’t touch you when speaking to you, don’t listen to them) Never say no: No = YEEES (also nod your head) Women can only touch feminine tools: paper, scissors (If engineers touch wrong object, laugh :) Men can only touch masculine tools: pen, ruler, glue/sticky tape (If engineers touch wrong object, laugh :) DERDIAN SOCIAL RULES Greeting: Kiss on shoulder (If engineers want to shake hands, refuse it) Always touch when you talk (If engineers don’t touch you when speaking to you, don’t listen to them) Never say no: No = YEEES (also nod your head) Women can only touch feminine tools: paper, scissors (If engineers touch wrong object, laugh :) Men can only touch masculine tools: pen, ruler, glue/sticky tape (If engineers touch wrong object, laugh :) VOCABULARY LIST canyon deep valley a huge inconvenience a big problem go grocery shopping buy food, drink and basic things for the home bridge road above a valley or river government the small group of people who control a country hire sy to pay sy to sg a construction company a company building houses, bridges, etc engineer a person who can design roads and buildings to construct bridges to build cardboard paper strong, brownish paper a pair of scissors a tool used for cutting glue sticky tape stapler ruler be familiar with sg know construction methods ways of building greeting saying hello to greet each other to say hello is considered impolite people think it’s not polite tactless a bit impolite offense impoliteness shake hands a form of greeting in Western cultures a chain of people people holding each other’s hands ignore to not listen to sy nod, nod your head saying yes with your head to communicate to talk tools useful things, e.g scissors, glue, stapler gender the two genders are: men and women feminine related to women masculine related to men foreigners people from other countries sociable friendly superior better the Derdian customs traditions, ways of living take sg for granted be used to sg