Unit 1 — Identity in a Global World

Learning objectives Link to heading

• I can read a short essay on transnational identity and identify the writer’s main claim and one supporting move.
• I can use mixed conditionals to discuss how past choices shape present identity.
• I can write a 200-word identity reflection that goes past flag-and-passport thinking.

curriculum framework (“Bildungsplan”) alignment Link to heading

• 3.3.1 Soziokulturelles Orientierungswissen / Themen
• 3.3.2 Interkulturelle kommunikative Kompetenz
• 3.3.3.2 Leseverstehen
• 3.3.3.5 Schreiben
• 3.3.4 Text- und Medienkompetenz

(Source: https://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/ALLG/SEK1/E1)

Lead-in story Link to heading

Maja’s older cousin lives in Brisbane, works for a company headquartered in Singapore, holds a German passport, and dreams in English. When asked at customs where she is from, she sometimes says Stuttgart, sometimes Brisbane, sometimes the airport waiting lounge. None of these is a joke. All of them are true.

1. Activate Link to heading

Three-card identity scan. On three sticky notes write: a place that shaped you, a language that lives in your kitchen, a thing you do that says something about you. Compare with another pair.

2. Input Link to heading

Reading — Where Are You From, Really? Link to heading

The question ‘where are you from?’ is rarely as simple as the asker thinks. For many people, the honest answer involves three places, two languages and one airport. Identity, in a more globalised world, has stopped being a single sticker on a passport. It is now closer to a set of overlapping memberships, some of which contradict each other without being false. The interesting question is no longer ‘which one are you?’ but ‘how do these get on together?’

Grammar — mixed conditionals Link to heading

Mixed conditionals link a past unreal condition to a present unreal result, or vice versa.

• If I had moved to Brisbane in 2015 (past unreal), I would be living there now (present result).
• If I were less curious (present unreal), I would not have applied for the exchange (past result).

Form: if + past perfect, would + base verb OR if + past simple, would have + past participle.

3. Practise Link to heading

Niveau E — controlled Link to heading

1. Choose mixed conditional: (past unreal → present result) If she __________ (move) earlier, she __________ (live) there now.
2. Match: globalisation → cross-border movement; transnational → across nations; cosmopolitan → city-of-the-world.

Niveau E — productive Link to heading

3. Build 4 mixed conditional sentences about a real or imagined identity / decision.

4. Produce Link to heading

Identity reflection, 200 words. Write past flag-and-passport identity. Use 2 mixed conditionals + 1 third conditional + 1 both … and …

Sample Link to heading

If I had grown up in only one country, I would probably trust the question ‘where are you from?’ more than I do. As it is, the honest answer involves two cities, one language at the kitchen table and another in the school corridor, and a grandmother who switches between three sentences for the same instruction. If my parents had not moved when they did, I would not be sitting here writing this in English. I am both German and not-only-German, and the not-only is not a missing piece — it is part of the actual answer. The question I prefer to ask is different: how do my different memberships get on together day by day? Some Sundays they argue. Most weekdays they cooperate. None of them is fake. None of them, on its own, would explain my breakfast.

5. Reflect Link to heading

• I can identify a writer’s main claim and one supporting move in a short essay.
• I can use mixed conditionals.
• I can write a 200-word identity reflection.

One thing in your notebook: Write one sentence using something you learned in this Unit.

Exam example Link to heading

Task 1 — Listening (10 BE) Link to heading

Listen twice.

“Identity is no longer a single sticker on a passport. It is closer to a set of overlapping memberships, some of which contradict each other without being false. If my parents had not moved when they did, I would not be living between two cities now.”

1. Identity now: ___ . 2. Memberships: ___ . 3. Counterfactual: ___ . 4. Result: ___ .

Task 2 — Reading (12 BE) Link to heading

Read the Where Are You From, Really? extract above.

1. Common assumption about the question: ___ . 2. Honest answer: ___ . 3. Identity has stopped being: ___ . 4. Better question: ___ .

Task 3 — Use of English (10 BE) Link to heading

Mixed conditional or third conditional?

1. (mixed) If I __________ (grow up) elsewhere, my answer __________ (be) different now.
2. (third) If she __________ (apply) earlier, she __________ (get) the place.
3. (mixed) If he __________ (be) less curious, he __________ (not / take) that risk last year.
4. (third) They __________ (find) out earlier if they __________ (look) carefully.

Task 4 — Writing (13 BE) Link to heading

Write 200 words: an identity reflection past flag-and-passport thinking. Use 2 mixed conditionals.

Downloads Link to heading

Common pitfalls Link to heading

• If I would have moved earlier, I would live there → ✗ — if clause uses past perfect, not would have.
• Mixed ≠ random tense salad — both clauses must actually be unreal.
• Stereotype check: don’t reduce identity to a single label.

Further reading / listening Link to heading

• TED Ideas — short essays on identity.
• The Atlantic — Identity essays.

Downloads

Presentation

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Worksheet

Download .pdf