Copyright©2019 P-ISSN: 1978-8118 E-ISSN: 2460-710X 265 Lingua Cultura, 13(4), November 2019, 265-273 DOI: 10.21512/lc.v13i4.5889 INCORPORATING YOUTUBE CLIPS IN THE CLASSROOM TO DEVELOP STUDENTS’ CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING OF AMERICAN CULTURE Maryani1; Lewinna Aguskin2 1, 2 Faculty of Language and Culture, Maranatha Christian University Jl. Prof. drg. Surya Sumantri, M.P.H. No. 65, Bandung 40164, Indonesia 1marumaryani@gmail.com; 2winna_ch@yahoo.com Received: 27th August 2019/Revised: 17th September 2019/Accepted: 01st October 2019 How to Cite: Maryani., & Aguskin. L. (2019). Incorporating YouTube clips in the classroom to develop students’ cultural understanding of American culture. Lingua Cultura, 13(4), 265-273. https://doi.org/10.21512/lc.v13i4.5889 ABSTRACT This research investigated the use of YouTube video clips to develop the understanding of culture for students in American Culture class in a private university in Bandung. It sought to answer two research problems; first, students’ perceptions towards the use of YouTube video clips to develop their understanding of American culture; second, to what extent watching YouTube video clips supported the students’ understanding of American culture. The participants of this research were 61 undergraduate students of the English Department aged between 18-21 years. There were two types of data collection used in the research. First, data were taken from the weekly learning logs of the students containing three to five questions and one or two YouTube video clips, which were related to the topics of the textbook in the classroom. Second, the data from the open-ended questionnaire which were distributed to the students at the end of the semester. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings show that the students’ understanding of American culture has improved due to watching YouTube video clips that contain authentic cultural information from American life events and news shown in the clips. This research also provides useful information for teachers in teaching culture for a better learning process, which focuses on the use of YouTube video clips in the classroom. Keywords: teaching culture, YouTube video clips, student understanding, cultural understanding INTRODUCTION Teaching a target language usually means teaching its culture at the same time. Solgi and Tafazoli (2018) believe that teaching culture proves to be significant for developing language skills, promoting cultural awareness, and shifting attitudes towards native and target societies. In teaching culture, students need to have a cultural experience in order to fully understand the various elements of the culture itself so that they will have broad perspectives regarding culture. Teaching culture can be challenging for language teachers. Morain in Dema and Moeller (2012) has explained that the challenge for the teachers in teaching culture is introducing the intangible values, beliefs, and attitudes of the target culture to L2 learners. The learners might have difficulty to identify and understand the cultural perspectives in the textbook. Similarly, learning American culture from textbooks for Indonesian university students might not be easy as they could not experience the culture themselves. Furthermore, knowing that experiencing the target language culture is not always in close distance with the students’ location, they might have difficulties in meeting real Americans to discover more their culture. Noticing the challenges in teaching culture, teachers are required to develop the various methods and teaching in culture class. Several researchers have conducted research on different kinds of teaching methods and materials to improve cultural learning in the classroom, such as Rodríguez (2014), Truong and Tran (2014), Maryani (2016), and Maryani and Aguskin (2018). Dai (2011) has argued that teaching culture knowledge is not easy; therefore, teachers need to employ some interesting techniques so that the teaching and learning process will be a meaningful experience for both teachers and students. In order to embrace various aspects of culture, it is crucial to employ various information sources, various activity types, and create positive classroom interactions. For example, students are encouraged to find online information such as videos, newspapers, films, and use interviews to get ‘a comprehensive picture of the target culture form many 266 LINGUA CULTURA, Vol. 13 No. 4, November 2019, 265-273 angles’. For classroom activities, students are encouraged to take activity logs as the tool for reflection of cultural learning and to use authentic materials such as watching videos to increase the enjoyment, curiosity, and motivation of the students. Besides, teachers can also include games, role play, field trips, reading activities, discussion activities, writing activities, and so on. As a result, it is expected that using various techniques in teaching culture will increase the student’s understanding and cultural awareness of the rich culture. The use of technology in teaching culture is crucial, especially for students in the present era who are highly exposed to technology. In the research related to teaching culture in the 21st century, Dema and Moeller (2012) have stated that incorporating authentic videos in the classroom will be helpful for the students to enhance their understanding of the products, practices, and perspectives of the target language and culture. Moreover, the students will be motivated and engaged as they will not just depend on printed sources for learning, but they can explore the authentic cultural material from the digital media in a meaningful learning environment. They will be able to develop their analytical skills by making connections and comparisons by investigating and discovering their own culture and the target language culture. Furthermore, Terantino (2011) has claimed that YouTube videos provide linguistic and cultural content and information and related to the target language. He has also added that YouTube videos are used to provide insights to the target culture and give the opportunities for learners to experience portions of other cultures, including artifacts, history, and politics, without physically traveling to the target country (Terantino, 2011). Referring to the research of Dema and Moeller (2011); and Terantino (2011), the researchers believe that YouTube videos are necessary to be utilized in the teaching and learning process to widen the students’ knowledge of the culture and to develop their American cultural understanding. There are four pieces of research related to the use of YouTube video clips for developing various English skills. First, in their action research for one semester, June, Yaacob, and Kheng (2014) have explored the use of YouTube videos and interactive activities to develop critical thinking skills. The participants are 50 local and foreign university students in Malaysia. For the data analysis, the researchers use a video recording of the lesson, the reflections of students and teachers, and role play. The result indicates that the use of YouTube can stimulate the critical thinking skills of the students as well as developing their interest, participation, and engagement. Second, in his research, Almurashi (2016) has stated the importance of using YouTube videos as additional material for teaching English to 53 university students. These students are asked to watch two YouTube videos with subtitles related to buying things at a supermarket. Afterward, these students are asked to answer several questions in the online survey regarding the use of the videos. Almurashi (2016) has found that students with the opportunities to comprehend the English lesson successfully are improved due to watching YouTube videos. Besides, he has added that YouTube videos provide a lively atmosphere. Third, Yükseli & Kömür (2017) have found that YouTube, VOA, TED, and BBC online videos have improved EFL students’ speaking ability, especially for female students. Their research focuses on 20 low-level university students who are divided into two groups; a control and treatment group. Based on the findings, they declare that videos promote students’ speaking skill due to videos help students express their ideas more easily. Fourth, in their recent research, Kabooha and Elyas (2018) have investigated the use of YouTube videos in reading classes to enhance the comprehension and retention of English vocabulary among Saudi university students in Saudi Arabia. Besides, this research also evaluates the perceptions of students and teachers on the use of the videos. The participants are 100 female students aged 18- 20 years old, who are assigned to one experimental or one control group. The first one watches the videos during reading activities, and the second one does not. The data is based on pre-tests and post-tests as well as a questionnaire. The finding of this research indicates that there is a major improvement on the vocabulary acquisition of the students as the impact of using YouTube videos. In Indonesia, there are at least four pieces of research related to the use of video for teaching. First, Silviyanti (2014) has explored the university students’ perceptions of using videos on YouTube for developing their listening competence. The data is collected from the open and closed questionnaire. The result shows that the students feel motivated and interested in using YouTube because the materials are relevant and helpful as giving authentic inputs of native spoken language. The drawback is related to the unavailability of internet connection at home, lack of motivation for individual learning, and lack of homework assignment. Second, Styati (2016) has conducted research among English university students in Madiun to discover the effects of YouTube videos and pictures in students’ writing performance. One group of students is learning paragraph writing by watching YouTube videos, and another group is using pictures to learn writing a paragraph. It turns out that the students who learn by using pictures have better writing performance than the ones who learn by watching YouTube videos. Her study shows that using pictures is more effective than using videos. Third, Nova (2017) has investigated the perceptions of 30 EFL teachers on the usages and obstacles in using videos for the Indonesian EFL classroom. The findings indicate that using video is helpful in the teaching and learning process to deliver materials to provide authentic context and visual/audio input and to enhance the interest and motivation of students. Some obstacles are related to the lack of school facilities and technical support, the difficulty of finding a suitable video, and lack of skill in video editing. Fourth, research related to the mastery of English and technology is conducted by Utami, Tyas, and Mustika (2019). It discusses that among the university students majoring in marketing management to investigate the use of commercial video advertisements for multimodal analysis. The results indicate that commercial video advertisements can be used for teaching English for Specific Purposes in Indonesia. It is obvious that there are several studies related to the use of YouTube videos for developing English skills such as vocabulary, reading, writing, speaking, listening, as well as critical thinking skills. Nevertheless, to the best of the knowledge, there is little research on the use of YouTube videos to teach American culture for Indonesian university students. With this in mind, this research is conducted to fill the gap of using YouTube video clips in American culture class for university students in a private university in Bandung, West Java. 267Incorporating Youtube Clips.... (Maryani; Lewinna Aguskin) In this American culture class, the students are learning six basic traditional values of American culture, namely; individual freedom, equality of opportunity, materials wealth, self-reliance, competition, and hard work. These values are rooted in religious heritage, frontier heritage, and the heritage of abundance. The values are evident in the aspects of business, education, ethnic diversity, leisure time, and family. These values are the major attractions for many people to reach ‘the American Dream’. The cultural content of this class is truly related to cultural perspectives. Moran (2001) has explained that perspective is a combination of perceptions, values, beliefs, and attitudes, as explicit and tacit, emic, and etic. Moran (2001) further has stated that the perspective of the ‘American Dream’ contains the belief which is based on several values that originated from a cultural perception and can be observed in the attitudes of being competitive, determined, ambitious, and self- centered. Thus, the use of YouTube video clips is expected to be helpful for the students to discover the underlying values and beliefs of American culture. There are two objectives of this research. First, it aims at investigating the university students’ perceptions towards the use of YouTube clips as authentic video materials. Second, the purpose is to discover the influence of YouTube videos to develop their understanding of American culture. The research will be related to the notions of teaching culture in the 21st century from Dema and Moeller (2012), the use of YouTube for foreign language classrooms from Terantino (2011), and the theories of cultural perspectives from Moran (2001). Through this research, it is expected that the students’ American cultural understanding will be developed as they have watched various YouTube clips. Therefore, this research will provide insightful information for teachers in teaching culture, which focuses on the use of YouTube video clips in the classroom. The teachers will be able to know the types of YouTube clips used and the effect of watching those clips for the participants of this research. METHODS This research belongs to qualitative a research in order to answer the research questions, which are more open-ended approaches in which the inquirer asks general questions of participants, and the participants shape the response possibilities (Creswell, 2012). The research employs the open-ended questionnaire to collect various students’ perceptions regarding the use of YouTube short clips to develop their cultural understanding. Moreover, this research also uses data collected from the students’ answers in the weekly Learning Log. The participants of this research are 61 undergraduate students of a private university in Indonesia. These students, male and female, come from two classes of American Culture. Class A consists of 32 students, whereas class B consists of 29 students. Their age are between 18 and 21 years old. The research takes place over five months, starting from August until December 2017. There are two types of data collection employed. First is the students’ learning logs that are administered weekly after the class meeting. The learning logs are made by using Google Form. There are three to five questions for each learning log that are accompanied by one or two short clips taken from YouTube, for example, US President’s daughter Sasha Obama has a summer job, Obama at Indonesian Diaspora Congress 2017, and others (the titles of the clips can be seen in Table 2). Each short clip lasts for five to eight minutes. The topics for these clips suit to the topics in the textbook used in the class. Each student watches the short clips first before answering the questions provided in the learning logs in their available time outside of the class. They are given a maximum three days after the class meeting to finish each learning log. There are nine learning logs in total. Second is the open-ended questionnaire that consists of 10 questions. It is distributed to the students online by using Google Form early December 2017 after the class meetings are over. The students are asked their perceptions on the use of short clips in their learning logs towards their cultural understanding. The data taken from the questionnaire are analyzed using descriptive statistics, whereas the data taken from learning logs are coded and analyzed by using a thematic analysis. In which as Creswell (2012) has stated that themes are similar codes aggregated together to form a significant idea in the database; they form a core element in qualitative data analysis. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS This part shows the findings from the research and the discussion of the findings to answer the two research questions. Regarding the use of YouTube video clips in the classroom, the students are asked to watch 1-2 videos in each Learning Log. The clips that they have watched come from various topics related to American cultures, such as pluralism, education, family, politics, etc. For the first research question, the students are asked whether watching the videos from the learning log helps them to learn and understand American Culture. They state their opinions along with the reasons. Table 1 provides the findings and followed by the discussion of each finding. The university students’ perceptions towards the use of YouTube video clips can be seen in Table 2. The 53 students agree that watching YouTube video clips has helped them to understand American culture. However, four of them do not fully agree, and four students mention that watching videos sometimes can be useful and not. Those who agreed, admit that watching the video clips are more interesting than reading from the textbook. They could listen and watch what exactly happens in the United States due to the time limitation of meeting the real Americans. Besides, the information presented in the video clips are well structured, so it makes them easier to understand the culture. Most of them believe that by watching videos, they can learn new things and understand the materials related to American culture more clearly. Moreover, they also feel motivated and interested to learn American culture by using audiovisuals. However, some students who disagreed, admit that watching the video clips do not help them to understand the culture due to the difficulty in grasping the information in the clips and the limited focus of the clips that usually present on the information of a certain group of American people. Some of them do not state the reasons. Regarding how far the students have learned from YouTube video clips, they are asked to do weekly Learning Logs with several questions that they have to answer to check their understanding of the American culture shown in the video clips. The videos that they watched are related to the class discussion and book chapters. The students are able to explain what information they could learn from the videos related to American basic 268 LINGUA CULTURA, Vol. 13 No. 4, November 2019, 265-273 values, business, family, education, leisure time, ethnic and racial diversity, religious heritage, and business. The examples of learning log results are presented in Table 2 (see Appendix). Table 1 Students’ Perceptions of the Use of YouTube Video Clips to Develop Their Understanding of American Culture A B EXAMPLES OF THE REASONS YES 53 • Yes, watching the videos from the learn- ing log helps me to learn and understand American culture because those videos are sometimes interesting and catch my attention. • Yes, I was looking forward to watch- ing the videos, every time they were uploaded because those short video was structured well for us to understand easier. I felt like I learned a lot in short time. • Yes, it also helps me because instead of reading the articles and textbook, I can just directly listen and watch the videos about the American culture. I can see the situation directly which is showing us the real image there. • Yes. It’s an interesting way to learn. We can know the real life of Americans by watching the video, so that we can learn more and understand more about the culture. • Yes, because the video was taken from the reliable sources and from VOA, they actually go to the United States to get more information. • Yes. It gives more motivation to do some helps and learn something new. So we can learn directly through the video instead of a book’s information of the American culture. • Because we have no time to meet the Americans often, from the video I can learn any things that we never know be- fore, some videos shows the similarities and some differences (of American cul- ture). I understand why America has its own uniqueness NO 4 • Not really, because I think the videos are focused on the certain people. • Not really • I don’t think so • Not really, because it’s something I already do as a habit. YES AND NO 4 • Sometimes. If the video is about an event or a group, then it really helps to understand the cultures. However, it doesn’t apply if the videos are only about a person, for example. • There is a problem with audio quality • Some yes some no, sometimes we forget to fill it, and sometimes it is boring as well. • Yes but not a lot because it’s quite hard to understand the video. Sometimes native speakers talk too fast and I can’t hear it well. A: Students’ Answer B: Number of students The students’ perceived knowledge related to American Culture by watching YouTube videos is depicted in Table 2. From the videos, they could see the real examples or application of the theories in the textbook in real-life among Americans in the United States. They could share the main ideas of the clips correctly and in detail regarding various topics, such as basic values of American culture, religious heritage, business, ethnic and racial diversity, leisure time, education, and family relations. For example, from the textbook, the students learn that there are basic values of American culture. By watching videos of Sasha Obama’s Summer Job and Silicon Valley School, the students could learn the values of hard work and self-reliance. As stated by the students: S1: “This video teaches me more about immigration in the USA and how it has affected their culture and their people.” S2: “There are two things that I learn from the video: to be independent and willingness to work hard.” From the video of Volunteers Plucking Harvey Victims From Floodwaters, the students learn the examples of volunteerism and humanism as parts of religious heritage as they have said: S3: “Lesson I learn in this video is the importance of basic values in American people life.” S4: “First of all, it is amazing for me to know that what is written in the book regarding volunteerism and humanism isn’t nonsense, but they really happen in America just like in the video.” Moreover, from the video of Silicon Valley, Sonia Sotomayor, and Friday prayer, they could also learn about business heroes, equality of opportunity to achieve American Dreams, ethnic diversity, and pluralism. They mention that: S5: “What I learn from this video mostly is tolerance in diversity. Even though America has many different people with different religions, they live with others in peace.” S6: “The videos remind me of the entrepreneur as business hero. At the Silicon Valley School, the founder of the school, who is an entrepreneur, taught students in an unusual ways.” S7: “From the videos, I learn that Americans still hold on to the equality of opportunity, self-reliance, and hard work.” S8: “I learn from this video that it is possible for anyone, even the minority such as Sonia Sotomayor, to be successful in America. I learn that America truly is the land of opportunity which promotes freedom and equality, that the American Dream is real.” Regarding the American family values stated in the textbook, one of the values is being independent and individualistic. However, from the YouTube video clips of Sandwich Generation and Thanksgiving, the students could know that not all American families practice those values. There are several families who still value togetherness and care for the older generations as sandwich generations. S9: “I learn from the videos that American families value togetherness.” S10: “What I learn from this video is that the sandwich generation parents is not something bad but it’s increase the family values to the better ones.” 269Incorporating Youtube Clips.... (Maryani; Lewinna Aguskin) As seen in Table 1 and 2, the findings regarding the students’ perception of the use of YouTube video clips have shown positive results in developing their American cultural understanding. The students’ motivation is increased compared to reading the textbook only. The use of video clips helps depict the real fact of American culture in various aspects of life. The findings are in line with Terantino’s (2011) theory related to the use of YouTube clips for students’ cultural learning experiences to give insight linguistically and culturally of the target culture. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the notions of teaching culture in the 21st century from Dema and Moller (2012) that the use of digital resources will make culture learning more dynamic and active. On top of that, the students will be able to explore and develop their cultural understanding. As stated by Moran (2001), most cultural perspectives are implicit, and they can be made explicit. The findings of this research prove that the use of authentic YouTube videos in the class is helpful for the students to discover implicit cultural perspectives by watching the real examples of American basic values in the lives of American people nowadays. The videos have depicted the concept of the American Dream, the values of equality, hard work, diversity, competition, material wealth, and tolerance. Besides, the findings of the previous researches by June, Yaacob, and Kheng (2014), Silviyanti (2014), Almurashi (2016), and Nova (2017) have shown the similar result with the present findings, which shows YouTube clips have significantly enhanced students’ motivation to learn the target culture. Despite increasing the students’ motivation, YouTube video clips have contributed to improving their knowledge of American culture. The findings presented in Table 2 regarding the students’ perceived knowledge have resulted in detailed information about each culture presented in the clips. They could explain and reflect on the video clips that they have watched. The present result is connected with June, Yaacob, and Kheng (2014)’s findings in which their participants’ critical thinking skills are stimulated due to watching YouTube clips. Kabooha and Elyas (2018) have stated that videos should be chosen based on the students’ proficiency to achieve the best result in learning. The findings also show that several students have found the YouTube clips are difficult to understand due to the native speakers’ way of speaking, which is beyond their proficiency level. Although Silviyanti’s (2014) result has shown the usefulness of YouTube clips in giving authentic inputs of native spoken language, in this research, it hinders several students from comprehending the main ideas of the clips fully. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the finding indicates that the use of YouTube videos enhances the students’ cultural understanding due to the authenticity of the videos that show the reality of American lives. Most students admit that they have learned the American basic values more deeply, both from the textbook and the videos. The present findings at least have two pedagogical implications. First, YouTube clips are important teaching materials that can be used to enhance students’ interest and motivation in learning a target culture. They are authentic and suit the students’ learning styles, which makes them easier to grasp the culture being introduced. Second, notice that not all students have the same proficiency level; teachers need to choose the suitable clips that are in the same or slightly below the students’ proficiency level. In this case, the students hopefully have no difficulty in comprehending the main ideas of the clips. As the students in this research admit the positive effect of YouTube clips in promoting their cultural understanding, it is suggested that teachers include YouTube clips in teaching culture to their students related to the topics discussed in class. As culture has to be practiced to comprehend it fully; therefore, YouTube clips have been one helpful material to demonstrate the authentic context of the target culture. Despite its important findings, there are two limitations to this research. First, regarding the data, it will be better if the students are given more than three days to watch the YouTube clips and do the learning logs. The more days allowed will help less proficient students to watch and re-watch the clips for a more in-depth understanding of the culture presented. Second, the focus of the research will demonstrate richer findings if the scope of the research is related not only with the students’ American cultural understanding but also the comprehension of their own culture. For further research, it is worth analyzing the effect of YouTube clips on the students’ own cultural understanding. REFERENCES Almurashi, W. (2016). The effective use of YouTube videos for teaching English language in classrooms as supplementary material at Taibah University in Alula. International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research, 4(3), 32–47. Creswell, J. W. (2012). 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(Maryani; Lewinna Aguskin) APPENDIX Table 2 Students’ Perceived Knowledge based on the YouTube Video Clips in the Learning Logs CHAPTER 1 Understanding American Culture Titles of the Videos: (1) Kemerdekaan AS ke-241 (2) VOA Dunia Kita: Merayakan 17 Agustus 2016 di Washington DC • This video teaches me more about immigration in the USA and how it has affected their culture and their people. For example, this video shows about Houston, which used to be a conservative city but now it’s becoming more diverse and the people always welcome immigrants and refugees. But the effect of immigration isn’t always good, especially because there are still some small towns that are discriminative against other ethnic groups. Another way to see how the American culture has changed through the food because nowadays there are more food that is combined from the Asian culinary. In Hawaii, food is also one of the ways for them to stay close to their traditions and their ancestors’ identity. • As we can see, in American culture, they are more into the ‘festive-atmosphere’ for the celebration; it can be clearly seen on how they use the firework show as the main event. The video also elaborated more regarding the issue of immigrants. America is one of the most opened countries where many different cultures from around the world can be found. One of the cities that was brought up in the video is Houston that becomes more opened in the recent years; there are some who favour the fact while there are still some who do not support this. The immigrants also make a change for America, of course. One of the most noticeable difference is in the culinary field. As more Asian immigrants enter America, the more they gain popularity over their cultures that include food. It is also explained that in the last 20 years, the Asian culinary is more exposed to the American than ever. CHAPTER 2 Traditional American Values and Beliefs Titles of the Videos: (1) US President’s daughter Sasha Obama has a summer job! (2) Obama at Indonesian Diaspora Congress 2017 • I learn that America truly respects diversity and pluralism. I know it from some of his words that means like it’s ok to be different as your religion is strong you don’t care about the others. I learn also that president of US care about our unity, it makes me more think as Indonesian people why ‘third-person’ is really care about our unity? • There are two things that I learn from the video: to be independent and willingness to work hard. Being a daugh- ter of the president, Sasha Obama gave a good example by trying to do a summer job at a seafood restaurant. She didn’t afraid to show up at a public place, and did her job like an ordinary people. Although accompanied by six secret service agents, she managed to work hard during her summer break. • Lesson I learn in this video is the importance of basic values in American people life. Sasha Obama is an example of how people there really put hard work into their life. And even though Sasha is the youngest daughter of once the first man of America, she’d experience to have a part-time in her summer; it also sign of having self-reliance as well. • President Obama of United States is supporting the history of United States and Indonesia. He wants to keep the values of US and Indonesia that is pluralism, tolerance, openness, and rule of law. He respected the human rights of all people, the differences that we have in Indonesia which is hundreds of languages, scores of region, ethnic groups, and dialects. He cherish the respect of people differences. He believe that we have to fight against those the bad treatments of people who don’t look like us or practice the same faith as us, fight against the discrimina- tion against people based on race or ethnicity or religion. • From this video I understand how Indonesia and the US have a lot in common in terms of ethnical, racial, and religious diversity and we have to welcome the differences in our country. There’s an increase of resentment and discrimination toward minority groups just because they don’t look like us and they don’t believe in the same faith as we do, but we have to continue fight these discriminations and instead be tolerant and open towards the variety of races, ethnicities, and beliefs. We have to realize that the diversity in our country, Indonesia, is some- thing that has to be cherished. CHAPTER 3 The American Religious Heritage Titles of the Videos: (1)Volunteers Plucking Harvey Victims From Floodwaters (2) Sholat Jumat di Gereja Epiphany, Wujud Kerja Sama Antar Umat Beragama • First of all, it is amazing for me to know that what is written in the book regarding volunteerism and humanism isn’t nonsense, but they really happen in America just like in the video. The volunteers do the work wholeheart- edly, and what intrigues me the most is they work for free! It is unbelievable that in nowadays world, there are still people who are willing to work for free. Maybe, not all the volunteers in the video are rich that they did their actions because they have achieved the material wealth. I just saw pure empathy in them, not more, and not less. They do care about others, and try to help them the best they can. When humanism and care have almost drowned in this egotistical world, they dare to show the world what to be a human means. • What I learn from this video mostly is tolerance in diversity. Even though America has many different people with different religion. They live with others in peace. In this video, epiphany church shows what is the toler- ance between other religion because America has less of mosque so Muslims difficult to find a place for praying. Epiphany church give them place for worshiping every Friday, those Muslims feel like they are worship in their own mosque because the church people treat them well, sometimes non-Muslim people attend the Friday preach- ing, it means that they want to learn more about the other. • Lessons learned from this video is that The United States is a religious nation. And Americans highly respect different religions, as in the video, the church of the epiphany opens its doors for the Muslim faithful who needs a place to worship with their blessings. 272 LINGUA CULTURA, Vol. 13 No. 4, November 2019, 265-273 CHAPTER 6 The World of American Business Titles of the Videos: (1): Silicon Valley School Uses Unconventional Methods to Train Entrepreneurs (2): TECHNOLOGY Tech Company Aims to Make Virtual Reality Accessible to All • After I watched the videos, I believe that there are many ways to train people to achieve success. In video 1, it is shown that there is unique way to train the entrepreneurs and this technique is very beneficial because the entrepreneurs can understand more and do the actual activity and training rather than only studying the theory. In the second video, it is shown that every person has big can-do spirit, because the video shows how the teenagers insist to make VR accessible to all and this is very brilliant. So not only rich people can enjoy the advance tech- nology, but they also give a chance for all people to take and have their own experience of using VR. • The videos remind me of the entrepreneur as business hero. At the Silicon Valley School, the founder of the school, who is an entrepreneur, taught students in an unusual ways. They are taught to step out from their com- fort zone to let them know how to be tough in business world. Moreover, the tech company in Silicon Valley try to make VR accessible for everyone, by using their smartphone. For me, it’s amazing because people there still apply the values of freedom, self-reliance, and hard work in doing business that comes as benefit for everyone. CHAPTER 7 Government and Politics Titles of the Videos: (1) Dear President Obama- 'We Will Give Him a Family' (2) 11-Year-Old Gets to Mow Lawn at the White House • I think those two video is related to equality of opportunity in United States traditional basic values. The president respects idea of tiny kids, even kids who don’t have right to vote can tell their idea to government and be accepted that. It means anyone can join American politics. There is no restriction such as age, gender, and region. • From the videos, I learn that Americans still hold on to the equality of opportunity, self-reliance, and hard work. In his letter to President Obama, Alex says that he wants to take care of a boy from Syria, who was picked up by an ambulance. He knows that the war is bad in Syria, so he wants to give the boy an opportunity to have a better life. As for Frank, he wants to show President Trump that young people could also work hard, and he also rely on himself to mow White House’s lawn. His spirit amazed President Trump, because a good leader have to work hard to get what he wants and to be successful in life. • The first video teaches us about how to be a person who are reliable like Alex. He is not only reliable for himself but also for others. He cares other people that proves he is self-reliant - learn to rely on himself and risk losing freedom by his willing to help others. From the first video also we can learn the qualities of the leaders. We can see from Obama that he cares and respect not only adults but also a child-like Alex. He doesn’t underestimate Alex. The second video teaches also about self-reliance and hard work. It is proved by the boy which works hard and be self-reliant at his young age by mowing lawn at the White House. As we can see, Trump as the president has let us know the qualities of the leaders. The same as Obama, he also cares and respect child. CHAPTER 8 Ethnic and Racial Diversity Titles of the Videos: (1) Sonia Sotomayor: Mini Biography (2) Tri Narmini Muslimah Indonesia Supir Uber • Sonia Sotomayor is a great figure. Her background and her status as someone who is from the minority group do not affect Sotomayor’s hard work and belief that she can achieve her dreams. Her family’s financial problem has never broken her enthusiasm, and she always sets her dream high. I can also see that in this case, the US gives an equal opportunity for minorities such as Sotomayor to develop their talents. This shows that the US gives a great opportunity for the immigrants or the non-apartheid. Lastly, we see that Sotomayor, given such chance, managed to prove that she is able to do it despite her limitations. As long as there is a will, there is a way. • I learn from this video that it is possible for anyone, even the minority such as Sonia Sotomayor, to be successful in America. I learn that America truly is the land of opportunity which promotes freedom and equality, that the American Dream is real. Not only Sotomayor is a Hispanic which is a minority in the US, she is also a female who used to struggle for equality. It is truly inspiring that there is a proof of America being the nation of equality because Sotomayor, a Hispanic female, can rise up to the top. • I think the state that Americans believe in the ideal of equality of opportunity and to search for ways to give ev- eryone an equal chance at success is really applied in America’s daily life. As we can see in the video, Tri Narmini represented immigrants with different background and skills. We can relate from the video, it is true that America is the land of opportunity because in America there are same equality both for immigrants and American people. • Tri Narmini is an Indonesian diaspora who becomes a successful Uber driver in Annapolis. Being a minority, she has her own tactic to get more passengers than other drivers. Tri Narmini’s life is similar with American’s view on giving equal opportunity for immigrants to be successful. They don’t see immigrants as competitors, but they let the immigrants find their own ways to be successful. This American Dream is inspiring because it set asides discrimination to let everyone gets a better life. Table 2 Students’ Perceived Knowledge based on the YouTube Video Clips in the Learning Logs (Continued) 273Incorporating Youtube Clips.... (Maryani; Lewinna Aguskin) CHAPTER 9 Education in the US Titles of the Video: Man Vs. School System • I agree because we cannot assume that everyone learns the same way and is smart in one certain field. People are unique and have unique talents, interests, and preferences. By putting kids in a school system that forces them to be ace all the subjects that the school gives without paying attention to what the students really enjoy or why the students perform badly in some subjects will have a very negative impact on the kids and their views on school. From such a young age they have been told that if they’re not good in math or science then they’re just not as smart. It will definitely affect badly for their self-confidence. In Indonesia, the education system still forces stu- dents to memorize instead of understanding. The system applies one learning style in a classroom full of different people and personalities. • America is trying to provide a flexible education to minimize the gap due to the racial and ethnical diversity. • In the US they still has some problems like: lack of parents’ respect for teachers, too much repetitive homework, and the lack of effective teaching methods. CHAPTER 10 How Americans Spend their Leisure Time Titles of the Video: Circus Program Teaches Teens Lessons in Balance Life • I learn that there are many ways to spend leisure time that don’t need to include video games or the Internet, be- cause computer or phone’s screen can damage our eyes if we look at it for too long. The two videos below are the good examples of the things that people could do: participate in circus program (in the US) or playing traditional games (in Indonesia). Besides getting new friends, the program enables people to know different type of people, and learn much from each other. • What I learned from this video is about a useful activity for each of us because circus programs in the United States greatly educate children or young people to exercise their balance through acrobatics and help them build friendly relationships with one another. America spend their time more in internet and games. • In US they wanted the children to have a good/strong relationship with their friend and become one family maybe relates again into the basic six values that American people is self-reliance and maybe people in US want to em- phasize that we need good relationship with other people. CHAPTER 11 The American family Titles of the Videos: (1)The Sandwich Generation (2) Make a Traditional Thanksgiving Meal • I learn from the videos that American families value togetherness. Like what Celeste Fischer said, being together with her family decreases her stress because then she does not have to worry about so much. In the second video, it also talks about gathering together with one’s family (or friends and close ones) and thank them. I conclude that even though Americans value individual freedom, it does not necessarily mean that it supports being selfish or individualistic. • Sandwich generation parents are very inspiring because it’s not easy to take care of their aging parents and chil- dren at the same time. They have to have strong-willed to supply the financial support and needs of everyday life of their parents and children. It’s also a good thing to let their grandparents live together with them, because the connection between the three generation can be built, as nowadays it’s not an easy thing to do. Furthermore, it’s important to be able to gather together with family, especially on special occasion like Thanks- giving. On Thanksgiving, each family members gather together to give thanks and be grateful for each other. Thus, family have to support each other in difficult situation. By doing so, each family members could feel loved and cared. In a nutshell, family is valuable, and nothing in the world could replace them. Table 2 Students’ Perceived Knowledge based on the YouTube Video Clips in the Learning Logs (Continued)