Class Plan Case Study Asian Society and Culture: Philippines and Japan Fall Semester 2020

Week	TOPIC	ACTIVITY	NOTES
Week 1	Class Discussion: About the Philippines	Orientation, general introduction about the class.
Week 2	Class Discussion: Current Events	Reading
Week 3	Philippine Holidays	Listening
Week 4	Philippines and Japan Holidays	Discussion/Comparison
Week 5	Literature and Culture
Week 6	Student Activity
Week 7	Current Events Reading the News	Reading / Discussion
Week 8	Current Events Watching the News	Listening / Discussion
Week 9	Your Opinion
Week 10	Listening/Vocabulary/Writing	Video / Listening Comprehension
Week 11	Imagining the Future	Writing
Week 12	Student Activity
Week 13	Student Activity
Week 14	Making a news report	Writing
Week 15	Making a news report	Presentation

The Importance of Folk Tales

        Folktales have been shared in every society to entertain, educate, and preserve culture. As emphasized in UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), folktales play an invaluable role, along with other cultural traditions, in bringing people closer together and “ensuring exchange and understanding among them.” As globalization and social transformation demand renewed dialogue among communities, educators and artists are more motivated to protect and promote oral traditions and related cultural heritage. ( Dr Hae-ri Kim, The Role of Folk Tales Today) 

Here are ways in which folk tales are different from contemporary literature:

        First, folktales transcend the generations of people who passed on these stories. The original tales were transmitted orally from storyteller to storyteller and were eventually written down. Folktales continue to evolve, and are shaped according to the conditions of the times. Therefore, folktales never cease to be relevant even today and will remain so in the future. Moreover, the indigenous knowledge and wisdom found in the folktales keep us connected to our traditions and indeed help shape our culture. 

        Second, folktales take place long ago in a faraway place. Talking animals, giants and fairies, prince and princesses, as well as peasants and ordinary folks are featured characters that give life to stories. Through folktales, children are given a glimpse into a world where fantasy and reality meet. 

        Third, folktales have obvious and recurrent themes. Goodness is always rewarded, heroes and heroines live happily ever after, while villains are suitably punished. Throughout the generations, the story may change, but its core message remains the same. We, teachers and parents, do not need to try to teach values explicitly. Instead, we just tell tales, thus maintaining folktales as a tool to educate children on how to live with integrity and peacefully with others. 

        Fourth, folktales reflect society’s attempt to give form and shape to its hopes and fears, and answers to its questions. Folktales provide order to seemingly random experiences, as well as express the culture’s belief system. Today, many of these old tales are regarded as flights of fancy, but they live on because they capture our sense of wonder and aspirations. Moreover, we recognize their visions which are often more powerful than the explanations science provides. 

        Fifth, folktales allow children to experience adventures they cannot attain in real life. For example, when heroes from folktales are facing monsters, giants, dragons, and other evil forces, the stories impart courage and wisdom in overcoming problems. Folktales may sometimes frighten children, but at the same time the stories excite and then comfort them. 

        Finally, the language of folktales is an important part of children’s literary heritage. Because of the oral tradition, the language in a folktale is musical, rhythmic and melodic. In addition, the characters’ direct dialogue punctuated with quick action excites readers’ and listeners’ interest. By listening to and reading these tales, children acquire language. Moreover, folktales provide them with writing models. 

( Dr Hae-ri Kim, The Role of Folk Tales Today) 

Attached is an example of a Philippine Folk Tale: The Sun and the Moon - a Mandaya folk tale from Mindanao

Philippine Folk Tales

Children's stories, or folk tales, handed down from generation to generation, gives an idea about the culture of a country. The Philippines, like Japan, has many folk tales, with some being very similar to some Japanese folk tales. Many folk tales attempt to explain natural phenomena, such as the changing of the seasons, the ebb and flow of the tide, or the movement of the sun and the moon. The theme of nature, love, and conflict can be seen in both Philippine and Japanese folk tales. 

Project Gutenberg Mobile Site

Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. You can choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find many of the the world's great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education. Feel free to check out Project Gutenberg, and you might find a book that you like, for free!

CLASS ACTIVITY:

Got to Project Gutenberg, access Philippine Folk Tales. Browse through the many titles and choose a folk tale that you find interesting. Do not choose the same folk tale as the example given (The Sun and the Moon, a Mandaya folk tale). 

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12814/12814-h/12814-h.htm

Access the Assignments tab on Teams, follow the instructions in your assignment for today (June 17, 2020). The assignment will be available during class hours. The deadline is tomorrow at 5PM, with late submissions accepted until June 19, Friday, 5PM. Make sure you submit your assignment on time. 

Filipino Cooking and Culture Written by Dennis Sim

Watch the video and read the article below, and answer the questions on MS Teams.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/filipino-cooking-and-culture-3030285

Updated 09/25/18

The Filipinos are gregarious and sociable people who love to party, and the food is often at the center of their many celebrations. Filipino food combines Eastern and Western ideas and is strongly influenced by Chinese, Spanish and American traditions.

Original Fusion Food

While it defies any singular characterization, Filipino food is sometimes identified by the way it fuses Asian and European ingredients. For example, in the robust and popular Pork Menudo dish, some recipes have it blending tomato sauce with soy sauce, while others have it combining cheese and bay leaf with soy sauce.

Still, as with all other Southeast Asian cuisines, we often find local Southeast Asian ingredients like chilies, coconuts, shrimp paste, lemongrass, and fish sauce or patis present in Filipino cooking.

Chinese traders, who have been going to the Philippines since the 11th century, brought with them not only their silks and ceramics from the Middle Kingdom for purposes of commerce but also Chinese cooking traditions like stir-frying and steaming. The Filipino pancit has its roots in noodle soup dishes from China, the lumpia finds its origins in Chinese spring rolls, while the siaopao and siaomai are similar to the popular Chinese dim sum dishes of steamed buns and dumplings.

Colonization

Later, in the 16th century when the Spanish colonized the Philippines and introduced Catholicism to the masses, they also exposed Filipino cuisine to new flavors, including olive oil, paprika, ​saffron, cheese, ham, and cured sausages. The Spanish paella or fried rice, for example, has come to be a festive dish in the Philippines and has been locally adapted to include many of the abundant seafood such as shrimps, crabs, squid, and fish, with which the Philippines is blessed.

In 1889, the Philippines became a colony of the United States, which bequeathed it the widespread use of the English language as well as convenience cooking -- pressure cooking, freezing, pre-cooking, sandwiches, salads, hamburgers, and fried chicken, which have all come to form part of the arsenal of the Filipino cook.

Island Food

The Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands; with a few more appearing when the tide is low. With so much water everywhere, it is no wonder that seafood is the main source of protein in the Filipino diet.

The country is divided into seven major regions and features a wide variety of regional fare. It’s not easy to put one’s finger on what might constitute a Filipino “national” dish, but several that could lay claim to that distinction include the Adobo which is chicken and pork stewed in vinegar and soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaf, the Bistek or beef and onion rings in soy sauce and the lumpia or spring rolls.

One feature that is unique to the Filipino dining is the sawsawan, dipping sauces that are served with every meal and which can turn simply prepared roasted or steamed meals into bursts of flavors that follow one’s own taste buds.

Common condiments like fish sauce, dark soy sauce, native vinegar, and cream-style shrimp paste are mixed with herbs including ginger, garlic, chili peppers, peppercorns, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and kalamansi lime to bring the flavors up a few notches.

Just as in the other Southeast Asian countries, a typical Filipino meal often consists of white rice eaten with a variety of dishes, all of which taste better when consumed together with family and friends.

COVID-19 Situation Japan and the Philippines

From: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Asia-Insight/COVID-19-in-charts-Japan-and-Philippines-dodge-explosions

COVID-19 in charts: Japan and Philippines dodge explosions

Dive into data shows two countries, and India, at key junctures

TOKYO -- The Philippines and India have imposed some of the strictest coronavirus containment measures in Asia. Japan has taken a far less draconian approach, under a loose state of emergency now entering a second month. But in a way, these very different countries stand at a similar point in the fight against this devastating pandemic.

At least according to the official figures, their infections and deaths are well below those in the U.S. and hardest-hit European countries. Yet, short of a clear victory, they need more sustainable long-term battle plans.

This is one of the takeaways from the Nikkei Asian Review's dive into the deep pool of data generated in a crisis that has touched virtually every corner of the world. From Google mobility tracking to simple trends in tests, cases and deaths, we compiled the numbers to gain a firmer grasp of the situation.

Some countries -- New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia -- have gambled on gingerly restarting their economies in recent days, despite the risk of a new wave of infections. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a different bet on Monday, extending the emergency until the end of May to try to stamp out the virus.

Abe did say he would cut the emergency short if conditions improve enough, but the extension is still another blow to an economy the International Monetary Fund already expects will contract 5.2% in 2020.

The data tells the story of why he made the call: While daily new cases dropped to about 200 at the end of April, less than a third of the peak of 743 on April 12, that is not enough.

Malaysia, before it reopened much of the economy on Monday, had not seen a triple-digit increase since April 17. Thailand, which eased its lockdown on Sunday, had gone days with fewer than 10. Vietnam put up a two-week streak of zeros, with a couple of exceptions.

Now Abe is counting on Japan's 127 million people to help "flatten the curve" further. For although the country has avoided the grimmest scenarios, limiting the health ministry's death total to 510 as of Monday noon, it has the region's highest median age -- 48.6 -- in a pandemic that threatens the elderly and infirm the most. The nation logged double-digit deaths on all but a handful of days in the second half of April.

"Having successfully bent the curve, the challenge for the Abe administration may now be reducing the number of new infections to a sustainable level, ensuring that the medical system has the resources to manage the outbreak until therapeutics or a vaccine are developed," Tobias Harris, Japan analyst at Teneo Intelligence, wrote in a note on Friday. "The government needs more time to implement a system that will enable it to detect and contain new case clusters, essential for resuming normal social and economic activities."

Tokyo's famous Shibuya crossing, pictured on May 2, is far less crowded than usual. (Photo by Arisa Moriyama) 

Google's data shows the Japanese public has been fairly cooperative so far, though not to the point of reducing contact by 80% as the government originally hoped.

The U.S. tech company has released movement data from scores of countries, covering six categories: retail and recreation, grocery stores and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces and residential areas. Activity on April 17, a Friday, was compared to median Friday traffic between Jan. 3 and Feb. 6, before the crisis fully exploded out of China.

The Nikkei Asian Review averaged the figures for the six categories to gauge social distancing efforts in key economies. In Japan's case, the average was down by 13.83%, largely thanks to a 46% decrease in traffic through transit stations and 31% drop in retail and recreation activity.

But Japan's social distancing pales in comparison to the Philippines and India, which saw average declines of 50.83% and 47.83% respectively. Malaysia was just behind at 47.50%, followed by Singapore at 36.16%, amid the city-state's struggle to control big clusters in migrant worker dormitories.

The Philippines, land of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, has taken a decidedly less deadly but similarly enthusiastic approach to enforcing its lockdown. More than 30,000 people have been arrested for violating the orders, according to reports.

Since mid-March, residents on the main island of Luzon have been barred from leaving home except for essential outings for food or medicine. Only one household member is allowed out at a time and they must carry a permit to pass street-corner checkpoints manned by the police and the military. The restrictions are expected to last at least until May 15.

The Philippines has enforced a strict lockdown to halt the coronavirus, arresting over 30,000 in the process, according to reports.   © AP

India, meanwhile, extended the "world's largest lockdown" last Friday to May 17. Large segments of the economy remain shut down and anyone caught flouting the regulations can face imprisonment.

"India didn't wait for the problem to [escalate]," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on April 14, about three weeks into the lockdown. "Rather, we attempted to nip the problem in the bud itself, by taking quick decisions as soon as it arose. ... Had India not adopted a holistic and integrated approach, taking quick and decisive action, the situation in India today would have been completely different."

Indeed, India has logged 40,000-plus total cases and over 1,300 deaths -- serious but not staggering numbers in a country of 1.3 billion. The Philippines has detected around 9,000 infections, with about 600 deaths.

Both nations may be helped by their youth, with a median age of 24 in the Philippines and 28 in India. On the other hand, the Philippines' relatively high mortality rate among confirmed coronavirus patients suggests its medical services are severely strained: 6.7% as of April 29, versus 3.2% in India and 2.9% in Japan.

The fact that daily cases are still rising in India and just plateauing in the Philippines also raises the question of how much even the tightest lockdowns can achieve in densely populated countries.

With so many variables -- population, economic development, medical resources -- one containment approach will never fit all. Still, as governments scramble to leave this crisis behind, success stories could light the way.

South Korea has limited daily cases to low double or single digits for weeks. Taiwan has also fared well: Its highest single-day count in April was 22, and it has gone days with zero or only imported infections. Both have seen their outbreaks peter out even though the Google data shows only an 11% decline in activity for South Korea and 2% for Taiwan.

South Korea's testing campaign has been one of the more aggressive, checking 12 people per 1,000 residents, versus just 1 in Japan. Taiwan has not tested nearly as much. Its ratio is closer to Japan's -- 2.6 per 1,000 people. But two things South Korea and Taiwan have in common are effective use of technology and a widespread willingness to sacrifice privacy.

Taiwan's government worked with messaging app provider Line and smartphone maker HTC to develop an app that checks on people in quarantine and allows them to alert authorities of symptoms. Digital Minister Audrey Tang also spearheaded the use of big data and health IDs to ensure fair distribution of surgical masks.

A Taiwan hotel uses its room lights to spell out zero -- celebrating zero new confirmed cases on April 16.   © Reuters

South Korea has been using data from cellphones, credit card transactions and even security camera footage to track the movements of people found to be infected. This information is shared with the public so that others can avoid at-risk locations.

Seoul seems to have learned from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome crisis in 2015. Back then, the authorities initially refused to reveal the hospitals where MERS patients were treated, in the name of avoiding panic. Throughout the outbreak, which killed 35, the government was criticized for a lack of transparency.

After MERS, the government revised a law to allow testing by private entities, which "enabled a fast response" to the new coronavirus, according to Kim Myoung-jung, associate fellow at the NLI Research Institute.

And this time, a virtuous circle of trust appears to have developed between President Moon Jae-in's government and the public, as illustrated by the landslide win by Moon's Democrats in the recent parliamentary election. Kim noted that decades of tensions with North Korea have also made citizens more "willing to compromise their information to protect the country."

Other explanations of Koreans' behavior during this crisis highlight a cultural aversion to inconveniencing others through selfish behavior. Sixty-two percent of respondents to a Seoul National University survey said they feared social stigmatization and harm if they were found to be infected.

Nevertheless, epidemiologists warn that no place is immune to a COVID-19 comeback. By some estimates, up to half of all infected individuals are asymptomatic. They can spread the virus without knowing they have it.

So as countries look to get back to business, experts stress that a new set of long-haul measures will be needed.

Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute of Population Health at King's College London, advises maintaining three types of defenses after relaxing restrictions: border controls, PCR testing and isolation of positive cases, and some degree of social distancing. He stressed that border restrictions alone are "not effective in the long term." The key is to "test and isolate."

Hiroshi Nishiura, an expert advising Japan's government, agrees that "lives are not going to be the same right away" once the state of emergency eventually ends, perhaps not for a year.

Taiwan, for its part, still requires face masks on public transportation and bans eating and drinking on high-speed railways. Temperature checks and hand sanitizing have become part of the standard restaurant experience. Some establishments ask customers to leave contact information.

South Korea will relax its social distancing guidelines on Wednesday, but the government is implementing what it calls "everyday quarantine" -- a set of safeguards that will remain in place indefinitely. People will be advised to wear masks at indoor gatherings and try to stay 2 meters apart, among other advice.

On Monday, the prime minister said at a meeting that South Koreans must learn to live with the virus as part of public life.

But as cases decline and people yearn for normalcy, experts see a danger of complacency. Kim said "it remains to be seen how much the citizens comply."

Additional reporting by Cheng Ting-Fang, Lauly Li and Steven Borowiec.