-^-for posterity-^-

how to learn english better.

we had a conference, a gathering, with all of the english major students. all 300is of them piled into a room and waited for the annual meeting to begin.

i was asked a few weeks ago to talk at a gathering for the students. i was not told who would be there or what to talk about. my only guidance was that i was to talk about how to improve student's reading skills. oh, how to guide a group of 300 students, some of whom just began studying and others of whom have had a couple of english lit classes with me, on how to improve their reading ability in 20 minutes. well, at least i had powerpoint. lots of pictures.

so, the meeting began and we sat at the front with the complimentary bottle of water. the mc walked to the front and, to my astonishment, began the meeting with a clapping game. he would clap and the crowd would follow him and then, at his choosing, he would intentionally miss his hands, the students would clap and we would all laugh. i did more brow furrowing than laughing.

my speech began and went well. i talked about culture and understanding literature which was way above some students heads, a bit below some and right on for only a handful. i asked questions like, if an author talks about a character and tries to describe them by saying something that is one of our 'general cultural assumptions' the student must understand this. for example, if an author talks about a girl that gets married at the age of 19, that character would more than likely be uneducated, naive. i gave modern examples and historic examples (for example, how did charles dickens describe characters based on his own culture's generally accepted assumptions).

after my presentation the mc strolled back to the front. he sang the song, 'sealed with a kiss.' need i say more? everyone clapped and he asked a student to volunteer to sing another song. a student humbly walked to the front and sang a song about love and loss and pain and more love that heavily influenced by michael bolton.

the next presentation. more generalizations, theories, powerpoint glamour.

mc back to the front. this time he gets five students to come to the front and play a game in vietnamese where they have to answer all say that they are a 'piece of __________' and fill in the blank with another something that one can be a piece of. the students took turns and, if one made a mistake, they were forced to sit down. the game continued for far too long and there was much giggling.

more presentations and pomp. people think they know things when we are really all quite dim.

it was hard to take it all very seriously. it was like a gameshow and a discovery program all wrapped up in one. it was a mess.