SchulLV Logo
Lerninhalte
Inhaltsverzeichnis

Aufgabe I

Aufgabenstellung

1.

Describe the situation in the car.

(30 %)

2.

Compare the characters in the text at hand with Jende and Neni in Behold the Dreamers as people who have come to live in the U.S.

(30 %)

3.

Choose one of the following tasks:

3.1

You are taking part in an international workshop titled “Education and Migration.” For the workshop website, you are asked to write an article discussing the quote that “a degree is just a single piece of paper” (l. 32).

Write the article.

or

3.2

Comment on the following statement by the author Nitin Namdeo: “Focusing on yourself does not mean that you are selfish, but it means that you care about your life and goals.” Also refer to the text at hand and the novel Behold the Dreamers.

(40 %)

Material

Text: Excerpt from Meron Hadero, “Medallion” (2022)

1
Of course he assumed his cousin would pick him up from the airport, but because
2
Nunu was caught up at the office, Yohannes was to take a taxi instead. Along with the
3
keys, Nunu had left sixty-five dollars in an envelope under her welcome mat, which
4
sounded like a small fortune to Yohannes. That is, until Yohannes asked a cabbie in
5
line to quote the cost of his trip. The driver didn’t say, exactly, but something like
6
forty dollars, so Yohannes offered ten dollars less than this, which made the driver
7
laugh. “First day in these United States?” he asked Yohannes, who nodded. The driver
8
pointed to the meter on the dash, already at a dollar, and said, slowly and loudly,
9
“We count going up here, not down.”
10
On the drive, they wove through traffic on elevated stretches of highway that made
11
it impossible for Yohannes to get a sense of whether L.A. was as chic as he’d imagined
12
from the movies, whether America was as sparkling and welcoming as he’d been sure
13
it must be. Yohannes anxiously watched the meter tick higher and higher, nickels,
14
dimes, quarters, dollars, ten, fifteen, up and up as the cab seemed to move in place,
15
the same view out the window of lanes of cars and a vague haze hanging in the air.
16
After a long silence, the driver introduced himself, Bobby B. from Barbados.¹
17
Yohannes introduced himself, Yohannes Bekele from Ethiopia.
18
“Nelson Mandela² was here, what, four, five, six years back when he was released
19
from prison around 1990, right,” Bobby said, easing into conversation, holding the
20
wheel with his left hand, resting his right hand on the emergency brake, like he was
21
more comfortable driving stick.
22
Yohannes began, “Mandela is from South Africa, which is pretty far –”
23
But Bobby kept on, “Was it Mandela who said that for him as a kid, Hollywood was
24
the stuff of dreams, and that his dreams are going to come true? His sure have, right?
25
Are you here to chase a dream?” Bobby asked.
26
“I am here for school,” Yohannes said.
27
“Then, little brother, you are definitely a man with dreams.”
28
“Maybe,” Yohannes said as they passed more palm trees peeking up from the
29
highway overpass.
30
“What do you want from America?” Bobby asked.
31
“My degree,” Yohannes responded. “That’s what I want from America.”
32
“A degree is just a single piece of paper,” Bobby said. “You gotta want more than just
33
a single piece of paper.” Bobby looked at Yohannes in the rearview mirror with his
34
eyebrows raised, expectantly. He continued, “A degree doesn’t shift things much.
35
What’s one degree colder or one degree warmer? What’s one degree south or one
36
degree north? What’s one degree more or one degree less? Eh, it’s not much.”
37
“Well, in terms of climate and navigational direction, it actually depends –”
38
“Not much at all,” Bobby persisted. “I guess the only real question is, do you want
39
wealth or fame?”
40
[…] “What’s your line of work?” Bobby asked.
41
“Engineering,” Yohannes said. He’d done his first year of his bachelor’s in physics back
42
home and would finish up here.
43
“That’s a good line of work, because it might, might, get you rich, and as a Black man
44
in this country, that could just be the difference between ending up like Rodney³ and
45
ending up like OJ⁴ as far as I can tell, you know, if there’s any hope at all?”
46
Yohannes did not know, but he very much wanted to know, so he asked, “Could you
47
kindly elaborate on your significant thoughts?”
48
“Yes. Yes, I can. See, you take it from me, you should get yourself rich and you should
49
work for yourself,” Bobby said, turning down the volume on the radio now that it was
50
his turn to answer some questions. “Like me, I got no boss, I got no wife, I got no one
51
to answer to but me. I may not be rich, but I’m no-hassle. Rich also makes you no-
52
hassle. Working for yourself makes you no-hassle. As a Black man, I don’t recommend
53
working for anyone in America but your own self,” Bobby said, and Yohannes was
54
about to ask if everyone in this country was always fending for himself, taking taxis,
55
making it from point A to point B all alone, but Bobby had more to say. “I mean
56
absolutely the worst is the fact that you can find yourself running in place here very
57
easily. Working and working and getting nowhere. You think you’re making your way
58
up, but you are not. Do you know what I’m saying?”
59
“Yes, yes I do,” Yohannes confirmed, watching the scene outside also repeat again:
60
palms, billboards, dusty medians, gas stations, rest stops, and he already could feel
61
that sensation of speeding ahead and getting nowhere at all.

¹ Barbados – an island country in the Caribbean

² Nelson Mandela – an activist who fought against racial segregation and later became the first Black president of South Africa

³ Rodney – Rodney King, a famous African-American victim of police brutality

⁴ OJ – OJ Simpson, an African-American professional football player and actor convicted of several crimes

(798 words)

Quelle: Meron Hadero. “Medallion.” A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times. New York: Restless, 2022. 91-94.

Weiter lernen mit SchulLV Plus!

monatlich kündbarSchulLV Plus-Vorteile im ÜberblickDu hast bereits einen Account?
  • Link zur App im AppStoreLink zur App im PlayStore

SchulLV