It has turned colder here thought spring was here, but it was very windy yesterday and it is still windy today; reminds me of Winnie the Pooh and the blustery day. Chuck & I went out this morning to teach but Nate and I are staying close to home today. I do need to go out this weekend to get some conditioner for my hair. I thought I had gotten some but it was shampoo so I’ve got lots of shampoo and not much in the way of conditioner. Yesterday was an interesting day, since it was too windy for the sports meeting classes were put back on the calendar and classes yesterday and today went as planned. In my English class I had most of the people that wanted to get a new name and I got a surprise, one of the men who had an English name wanted to change his name. I’m trying to not change names that aren’t your average name but if someone has a name that is something derogatory or just plain odd then I do say something about that. One of my students wanted to have a group picture taken of the class and got one of the students passing our class to step in and take the picture. The class was different because what I am doing is to have the other foreign teachers come and talk to the class to help them get used to another persons speech and see if they are understanding the new speaker, Chuck was my first guest foreigner as he has a southern accent and talks using colloquialisms from the south I thought it would be a great way to start. I had already discussed with my class the term ‘carry’ and how when used in a sentence it doesn’t always mean to pick something up and physically carry it but it can mean ‘to bring you with me.’ One of my students has got this down pat and is now talking about someone carrying you to this place or that place. This is great and just what I want to happen, I want my students to understand different phrases and not be just staring into space at the use of some words. We have also touched on how there are many words both in English and Chinese that are used to express one thought. The Lady Gaga song ‘Born This Way’ was a teaching subject. She uses the word ‘boudoir’ in that song and that is a fancy way of saying bedroom but it doesn’t get used often these days. I wonder how many English speaking kids who listen to the song know what it means. Some songs get repeated and the person repeating the words has no understanding of what the words are, ‘Gangnom Style’ is just such a song I have no idea what the Korean words are saying and the English probably presents problems for non English speakers yet the song is a huge hit here in China and in America.
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