{"id":483,"date":"2020-03-09T08:28:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T08:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/?p=483"},"modified":"2020-03-09T15:29:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T15:29:37","slug":"cohort-lesson-of-the-month-february-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/2020\/03\/09\/cohort-lesson-of-the-month-february-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Cohort Lesson of the Month \u2013 February 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Looking for recent, relevant learning materials for on-the-job sustainment? The CL-150 Cohort team has already published more than 300 new lessons so far this year<strong>, <\/strong>covering current events such as Coronavirus, Russia\u2019s potential competitor to 5G, and Lebanon losing the right to vote in the United Nations.<\/p>\n<p>While those lessons are based on formal news sources,<strong> the featured lesson for February is one of our first to be based on a social media source.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>What are CL-150 Cohorts?<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019re not familiar, CL-150 Cohorts are weekly lesson streams designed specifically for USG language professionals maintaining proficiency on the job. Each lesson provides a 2-hour \u201cworkout\u201d at a specific ILR level, based on a professionally relevant, authentic source.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What is a CL-150 Cohort?\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/381700698?h=13dff37314&amp;dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Why social media as a source?<\/h2>\n<p>Cohorts target the overlap of language, regional expertise, and cultural knowledge\u2014three things that commonly converge on social media. That\u2019s why this month\u2019s featured lesson comes from an <a href=\"https:\/\/cl150.transparent.com\/cl_150\/game\/link?type=lesson&amp;id=c779038a-977f-4733-b184-8eb32b6f6a99\">ILR 2 Urdu lesson based on a Facebook post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-485\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/03\/Urdu-lesson-Facebook-post-1024x559.png\" alt=\"CL-150 Cohort lesson social media\" width=\"683\" height=\"373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/03\/Urdu-lesson-Facebook-post-1024x559.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/03\/Urdu-lesson-Facebook-post-350x191.png 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/03\/Urdu-lesson-Facebook-post-768x419.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/03\/Urdu-lesson-Facebook-post.png 1362w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Weekly Cohort lessons cover specialized domain vocabulary and grammar, but also the latest language usage, including slang, expressions, and informal speech\u2014the kinds of language you\u2019re likely to overhear in a conversation\u2026 or read on social media.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of regional knowledge and culture, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms are recognized as hotbeds of ideas and opinions that may not be found in more formal media like news coverage. Fawad, the lesson author, chose to base a lesson on this Facebook post because it exposes a double standard in Pakistani culture:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe purpose of the post is to expose the things that are usually considered bad for women or girls, but when men or boys do it the society lets it go. For example, if a woman smokes then it&#8217;s considered scandalous, but it\u2019s normal if a man is smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-487\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/03\/Urdu-YouTube-video-GIF.gif\" alt=\"CL-150 Cohort lesson culture\" width=\"600\" height=\"359\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This Facebook post also provided the perfect context to introduce a 20<sup>th<\/sup> century Pakistani icon. The quote in the post is credited to Saadat Hasan Manto, considered one of Pakistan\u2019s best writers. While Fawad is unsure whether the quote is truly from Manto, he sees the connection: Manto was known to write about the \u201cbad side\u201d of the society that others would not talk about:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the Slide Show activity, I included a link to a music video. It\u2019s the theme song of a movie about Manto&#8217;s life and how he saw the evils of society. The theme of the song encourages people to speak out \u2018bol ke lab azad hain\u2019 (speak because your lips are free).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The CL-150 Cohort team will continue to draw from a breadth of sources including news reports, op eds, TV shows, literature, and so on. But sustainers can expect to see social media added to the mix occasionally for further exposure into the language, culture, and region that simply can\u2019t be found elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Urdu sustainers, complete this month\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cl150.transparent.com\/cl_150\/game\/link?type=lesson&amp;id=c779038a-977f-4733-b184-8eb32b6f6a99&amp;activity=0\"><strong>featured lesson<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0to learn what\u2019s expected of men and women in Pakistani society (and pick up some relevant vocab while you\u2019re at it).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sustaining a different language? Explore our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/usg.transparent.com\/cl\/cohort_coaching.pl\">available Cohorts<\/a>\u00a0and stay tuned for next month\u2019s featured lesson for more behind-the-scenes action from our Cohort Team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"209\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/03\/Urdu-YouTube-video-GIF-350x209.gif\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"CL-150 Cohort lesson culture\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>Looking for recent, relevant learning materials for on-the-job sustainment? The CL-150 Cohort team has already published more than 300 new lessons so far this year, covering current events such as Coronavirus, Russia\u2019s potential competitor to 5G, and Lebanon losing the right to vote in the United Nations. While those lessons are based on formal news&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/2020\/03\/09\/cohort-lesson-of-the-month-february-2020\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[520025,520016],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cohort-lesson-of-the-month","category-for-learners"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions\/494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/cl-150-bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}