Mixer Activity:

Give out pairs of international proverbs that contain similar meaning – one proverb per learner. Each learner will interpret the meaning of their own proverb, walk around the classroom and share the meaning of their proverb with others, and find the person who has a proverb with similar meaning to their own. This activity may be used to pair learners for interactive theme-based tasks.

Some pairs of international proverbs:

In multitude there is strength. (Nigeria)
United we stand, divided we fall. (U.S.)

There is great force hidden in a sweet command. (England)
Gentle words open iron gates. (Bulgaria)

A stitch in time saves nine. (Holland)
Unless you fill up the crack, you will have to build a new wall. (Ewe, W. Africa)

Tell not all you know, nor judge all you see, if you would live in peace. (Spanish)
To live in peace, one must be blind, deaf, and mute. (Turkish)

Interactive theme-based tasks:

Choose proverbs that reflect the theme of your lesson. On the theme of global issues, the following proverbs may be used to introduce a number of topics, followed by extension activities.

Some proverbs on global issues:

Peace	Convert great quarrels into small ones, and small ones into nothing. (China)
War	He that preaches war is the devil’s chaplain. (England)
Racism	Woe to him who gives a preference to one neighbor over another. (Ireland)
Poverty	The poorest man in the world is he who has nothing but money. (Sanskrit)
Justice/Injustice	If a man steals gold, he is put in prison. If he steals land, he is made king. (Japan)

For lower level learners, put the topics and proverbs on separate cards and have learners work in pairs to match them. For higher level learners, put the beginning of each proverb and the end of each proverb on separate cards. Learners may join the ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ of the proverbs and engage in speaking activities: identify the topics, discuss their own interpretation of the meaning of the proverbs, express agreement or disagreement, paraphrase the proverbs, and share proverbs from their own culture that express similar meaning.

Extension Activities:

Discovering Intuitive Connections in Metaphors
Form small “intercultural groups.” Explore words that have metaphorical meaning for different cultures, and have learners brainstorm ideas related to the words. Examples: earth, sun, moon, star, comet, mountain, labyrinth, heart, rainbow, hourglass, rose, tree, dove, unicorn, dragon, butterfly, door, window.

Writing Haiku Poems
Introduce the structure of Haiku poems – 17 syllables in three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Show a few samples, and guide learners into creating some Haiku poems using the language generated from the metaphorical words in the previous activity.

Collaborative Story Telling
Pairs of learners are given four proverbs. They chose one and create a story that illustrates the essence of the proverb, and tell their story collaboratively. Others are shown the four proverbs and they will guess the correct proverb the story is based on. For lower level learners, offer ‘story props’ which give a setting, a number of characters, and some nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to be used in the story.