funny stories
东方晨曦. that's my name in chinese. dong fang chen xi. can you see the characters on your screens? those are the characters i know well enough to put on here for you. i guess i could give you numbers... 一，二，三， 四， 五， 六， ...right. then i forget how to spell seven, so i have to stop:) you say it "chee." this is fun, this writing in chinese.
have i mentioned yet that i'm teaching a few people spanish every saturday morning? which is ridiculous, cause i SUCK at spanish. seriously. i took it for three years in high school and it was my worst subject. i've hardly thought of it beyond "excellente" and "agua" since i was 17. now here i am, talked into teaching it:) funny how students who are really into learning one language tend to be really excited to learn more as well. i'm a pretty crap teacher. some of my students are studying english, french, japanese, german, dutch, and spanish. only english and french formally, the rest in their free time.
in class this week, we've been doing five minute research presentations on one of the 50 states. there's been some pretty fun/funny stuff. a lot of the reports have been deadly boring. i made one of the things i graded on how interesting the report was. i told them that i wanted them to give me a report that they'd be interested in hearing if someone else gave it. no writing something out and just reciting it, i said. at least one visual aide is required. still, i have students reading straight off the webpage they went to. verbatim. not even looking up. making jokes they don't recognize. in the report about wisconsin, my student talked about how wisconsin's nickname is the cheesehead state, or whatever. then she said, "but enough about the cheesey nickname." i laughed and no one else even blinked an eye. the girl didn't pause or realize it was a joke. but my two highlights from reports so far have dealt with indiana and iowa. iowa first. the girl called des moines "a futuristic city and center of culture and art." is that what any of you think of when you think of des moines? the futuristic bit was refers to the fact that des moines has skywalks. fantastic. the other highlight so far has been from several students, while talking about indiana. so not just one person, but every student talking about indiana. they all wax poetic about state symbols etc, since that's the easiest thing to research, so i've been learning a lot about state birds and flowers and flags and rocks and vegetables and animals and songs and blah blah blah. anyway, my students keep telling me that indiana is "full of hosers. it's the hoser state. everyone in indiana is a hoser." hahaha:) ain't that the truth. they mean hoosier, of course, but the sj whatever sound in hoosier is pretty hard for them to make. hosers:) that makes me smile.
another funny thing. i was having my chinese lesson with wendy the other day. i was practicing my pronunciation by reading a story in pinyin aloud. i got to one phrase and she started giggling. what? i asked. "it's funny to hear you say that," she said. "it says you have a beer." ...what? so i gave a polite you're crazy laugh. then she started telling me about how she thinks boys look more mature when they have a beer. you really think so, i asked? i guess so... she told me about how the other morning, she saw nathaniel (foreign teacher) outside our dorm in the morning and he had a beer. really? i asked? he had a beer in the morning? yeah, and he reminded her of jeff, one of the foreign teachers last year who i think she had a crush on. i know he's shorter, she said, but for just a second, she thought it was jeff. then she made some comment or sign that finally let me figure out she wasn't saying "beer." she was saying "beard." haha:) of course. ooooooohhhh! i said. yeah. boys look more mature with beards. right. and nathaniel hasn't shaved for a while. ok. hao bang. great.
there's some other stuff i'd love to talk about on here but i don't feel like talking about it while sitting in an internet bar. once i get hooked up in my room.
the heat will supposedly be turned on in our rooms today. about fricking time. it's cold out. i've taken to wearing a scarf at all times.
i watched a pretty good movie called "russian ark" the other night. it's over an hour and a half long, filmed entirely in one shot, one take. worth watching for sure, i thought, especially if you know anything about russian history, but just in general. kinda trippy. i've been watching some weird foreign movies while here. another i watched was called "funny games," and it was german. messed. up. disturbing. perhaps the most disturbing element for me was the meta-theatrical stuff the director threw in. it made you a conspirator. i watched a takahashi miike (is that how you spell his name?) movie i'd never heard of the other day. not that i've any reason to be surprised that he has movies i haven't heard of, but still. it wasn't insane or scary or violent, either. it was called "the bird people of china." a japanese movie about japanese folks doing some stuff in china. an interesting perspective. and weird that the language that was supposed to be strange and foreign was so much more familiar to us. know what i mean? the bus driver would yell out something in chinese and it wouldn't be translated, because we're not supposed to understand it, cause the protagonist is japanese. but i was watching with wendy, would translated:) i've been watching lots and lots and lots of movies. that's one of the main ways to kill time at night here. it's that or study chinese or check papers or read. thus far, i haven't been reading much, but i decided i need to read more, so last night i started beloved by toni morrison. it's really good so far, not unexpectedly. i was going to be a good learner and start the story of the stone, which is a famous chinese novel, but i couldn't bring myself to do it. i wanted an easier read. i wouldn't read the story of the stone in chinese, of course, but still. i just find it rather intimidating.
it's weird that i should be doing christmas shopping. i'd need to send things home now for them to get there by christmas, unless i spend as much on mailing as i do on the actual contents of the packages.
i guess that's all i have time for today, friends. peace out.
have i mentioned yet that i'm teaching a few people spanish every saturday morning? which is ridiculous, cause i SUCK at spanish. seriously. i took it for three years in high school and it was my worst subject. i've hardly thought of it beyond "excellente" and "agua" since i was 17. now here i am, talked into teaching it:) funny how students who are really into learning one language tend to be really excited to learn more as well. i'm a pretty crap teacher. some of my students are studying english, french, japanese, german, dutch, and spanish. only english and french formally, the rest in their free time.
in class this week, we've been doing five minute research presentations on one of the 50 states. there's been some pretty fun/funny stuff. a lot of the reports have been deadly boring. i made one of the things i graded on how interesting the report was. i told them that i wanted them to give me a report that they'd be interested in hearing if someone else gave it. no writing something out and just reciting it, i said. at least one visual aide is required. still, i have students reading straight off the webpage they went to. verbatim. not even looking up. making jokes they don't recognize. in the report about wisconsin, my student talked about how wisconsin's nickname is the cheesehead state, or whatever. then she said, "but enough about the cheesey nickname." i laughed and no one else even blinked an eye. the girl didn't pause or realize it was a joke. but my two highlights from reports so far have dealt with indiana and iowa. iowa first. the girl called des moines "a futuristic city and center of culture and art." is that what any of you think of when you think of des moines? the futuristic bit was refers to the fact that des moines has skywalks. fantastic. the other highlight so far has been from several students, while talking about indiana. so not just one person, but every student talking about indiana. they all wax poetic about state symbols etc, since that's the easiest thing to research, so i've been learning a lot about state birds and flowers and flags and rocks and vegetables and animals and songs and blah blah blah. anyway, my students keep telling me that indiana is "full of hosers. it's the hoser state. everyone in indiana is a hoser." hahaha:) ain't that the truth. they mean hoosier, of course, but the sj whatever sound in hoosier is pretty hard for them to make. hosers:) that makes me smile.
another funny thing. i was having my chinese lesson with wendy the other day. i was practicing my pronunciation by reading a story in pinyin aloud. i got to one phrase and she started giggling. what? i asked. "it's funny to hear you say that," she said. "it says you have a beer." ...what? so i gave a polite you're crazy laugh. then she started telling me about how she thinks boys look more mature when they have a beer. you really think so, i asked? i guess so... she told me about how the other morning, she saw nathaniel (foreign teacher) outside our dorm in the morning and he had a beer. really? i asked? he had a beer in the morning? yeah, and he reminded her of jeff, one of the foreign teachers last year who i think she had a crush on. i know he's shorter, she said, but for just a second, she thought it was jeff. then she made some comment or sign that finally let me figure out she wasn't saying "beer." she was saying "beard." haha:) of course. ooooooohhhh! i said. yeah. boys look more mature with beards. right. and nathaniel hasn't shaved for a while. ok. hao bang. great.
there's some other stuff i'd love to talk about on here but i don't feel like talking about it while sitting in an internet bar. once i get hooked up in my room.
the heat will supposedly be turned on in our rooms today. about fricking time. it's cold out. i've taken to wearing a scarf at all times.
i watched a pretty good movie called "russian ark" the other night. it's over an hour and a half long, filmed entirely in one shot, one take. worth watching for sure, i thought, especially if you know anything about russian history, but just in general. kinda trippy. i've been watching some weird foreign movies while here. another i watched was called "funny games," and it was german. messed. up. disturbing. perhaps the most disturbing element for me was the meta-theatrical stuff the director threw in. it made you a conspirator. i watched a takahashi miike (is that how you spell his name?) movie i'd never heard of the other day. not that i've any reason to be surprised that he has movies i haven't heard of, but still. it wasn't insane or scary or violent, either. it was called "the bird people of china." a japanese movie about japanese folks doing some stuff in china. an interesting perspective. and weird that the language that was supposed to be strange and foreign was so much more familiar to us. know what i mean? the bus driver would yell out something in chinese and it wouldn't be translated, because we're not supposed to understand it, cause the protagonist is japanese. but i was watching with wendy, would translated:) i've been watching lots and lots and lots of movies. that's one of the main ways to kill time at night here. it's that or study chinese or check papers or read. thus far, i haven't been reading much, but i decided i need to read more, so last night i started beloved by toni morrison. it's really good so far, not unexpectedly. i was going to be a good learner and start the story of the stone, which is a famous chinese novel, but i couldn't bring myself to do it. i wanted an easier read. i wouldn't read the story of the stone in chinese, of course, but still. i just find it rather intimidating.
it's weird that i should be doing christmas shopping. i'd need to send things home now for them to get there by christmas, unless i spend as much on mailing as i do on the actual contents of the packages.
i guess that's all i have time for today, friends. peace out.