by Chimamanda Adichie, a real gem!
You can listen to the novelist’s witty and intelligent speech about this topic on TED Talks.
http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
This young writer from Nigeria who argues for the importance of literature really touches me with her thoughts and her life experiences,which teach us a lot, and made her come to the conviction that different stories are needed to avoid stereotypes, which are not untrue but incomplete.
This means that our lives and cultures are composed of many overlapping stories and if we hear only one story by one person about another person or country we risk of misunderstanding it, of seeing it just from one point of view. Stories are also defined by power.
I recommend you to watch this video and speech which will not only make you think but certainly also laugh!
As you may know, on TED you can choose to listed to the speeches in many languages and also choose the subtitles. There is also the possibility to read the transcripts of the stories.
I’ve also prepared you a drag & drop exercise with the writer’s sentences and which you can correct online.
http://www.langedi49.ch/DANGER.htm
And here you can see some vocabulary translated into German and Italian
| ginger beer | Ingwer Bier | birra di zenzero |
| a mental shift | die mentale Wende | il cambiamento mentale |
| perception | die Wahrnehmung | la percezione |
| pontytail | der Rossschwanz | la coda |
| stir imagnination | Fantasie wachrufen | svegliare la fantasia |
| unintended | unbeabsichtigt | senza intenzione |
| roommate | die Mitbewohnerin | la collega che abita assieme |
| what struck me | was mir auffiel | quello che mi toccò |
| a default position | eine vorgegebene Position | una posizione data |
| to be ashamed | sich schämen | vergognarsi |
| it is irritable | es reizt | irrita |
| abject immigrant | jämmerlicher Einwanderer | un immigrante deplorevole |
| to fleece the system | das System hintergehen | derubare il sistema |
| sneeking across the borders | über die Grenze schleichen | passare il confine in modo illegittimo |
| wisdom | die Weisheit | la saggezza |
| patterned basket | gemusterter Korb | il cestino modellato |
This is the link to Adichie’s website and her book “Half of a Yellow Sun” on the crippling war in Biafra that
broke out in 1967: http://chimamanda.com/books/half-of-a-yellow-sun/
More of my articles about or in connection with Africa:
https://rivella49.wordpress.com/category/afrikaafrica/
http://www.langedi49.ch/langedi49/Blog2_Books/Blog2_Books.html
I’ve just started reading her latest book “AMERICANAH”. From the first page where Chimamanda Adichie writes about perfumes I have been gripped by this story which unfolds across three different continents and we get into contact with Nigerians in America, with white Americans and black Americans.
Rivella49's Blog 
In a way, part of the conversation we are talking in Globalization, and it’s consequences, on my new post. 🙂
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I have just reread my post you mention here “THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY” and seen the the following sentence:Our lives and cultures are composed of many overlapping stories and if we hear only one story by one person about another person or country we risk of misunderstanding it, of seeing it just from one point of view. ” I think these various points of view are also important as far as globalisation is concerned!! So, exactly as you say!!:) Thank you very much and I appreciate this exchange of view.
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Yes Martina, it’s as you say it. 🙂
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👍
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