Read the following excerpt and
answer the following questions.
(Adopted from Trevor Noah, Born a Crime
pp. 54-56)
1.
What does the author mean by “I
became a chameleon” in the first line in the last paragraph? How did he become
a chameleon?
2.
Name factors other than a language
ability that could change other’s perception of your appearance. Use bullet points
to describe.
3.
Out of necessity, the author
became a “chameleon” in a positive way, but it might be sometimes unacceptable
to not be yourself or stick to your belief. Write your idea about it.
Answer Keys
1.
What does the author mean by “I
became a chameleon” in the first line in the last paragraph? How did he become
a chameleon?
By “I became a chameleon,” the author means that he
came to be able to change his racial and tribal, identity projected to the mind
of the person he is talking to in response to the person’s race and tribe. He
is a person of mixed race who grew up under apartheid, which made him often the
target of discrimination and violence. To survive in the circumstance, he
learned the languages of the races and tribes around him. Speaking the same
language as the others are speaking saved him from being regarded as a
stranger.
2.
Name factors other than a
language ability that could change others’ perception of your appearance. Use
bullet points to describe.
◍ Sense
of Humor If we can laugh together about
the same joke, we are of the same kind.
◍ Clothing How you dress yourself shows where you are
from.
◍ Item
of a Certain Social Group People carry
items of their social group to show their identity.
◍ Religious
Icon This shows others whether you serve
their god or something else.
◍ Your
Company If you are a friend of my friend,
you are my friend.
◍ The
Way People around You Treat You Blending
in a scene in harmony, you can pass as one of them.
◍ SNS
Postings about You SNS postings often
fix the way others look at you.
3.
Out of necessity, the author
became a “chameleon” in a positive way, but it might be sometimes unacceptable
to not be yourself or stick to your policy. Write your idea about it.
When you are responsible to someone for something
related to the person’s belief, you should not be a chameleon, changing your
character or identity from one to another. A parent should stay the same as
they were yesterday in front of their children; otherwise, their children would
be confused and lose their trust in their parent’s integrity. Teachers,
coaches, and other people in the same kind of social position must be careful
not to change their basic style or policy they present to people they are in
charge of for the same reason. Also, when the circumstance you are in is wrong
in light of universal values, you cannot conform to it, losing yourself and
becoming part of the phenomenon. Since nothing, neither times nor people, stays
the same, you have to stubbornly abide by the unchangeable such as ethics,
rules of civil society, and your roots. Society makes people behave differently
from one moment to another, wearing totally different personas in response to
the change of the atmosphere of the circumstance. It might be necessary to some
extent, but it is in essence dangerous. It could drive us to our demise because
we do not know what we are doing when we let not our wisdom but the atmosphere
control us.
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