Checking-In

Tai qi in the campus woods

As much as I hoped my hiatus would inspire creative thought, I have found the break from blogging (and all writing) to be mostly unproductive. I enjoyed challenging myself to reorient my approach to reflection, expression, and observation; but I require the cathartic comfort of organizing my thoughts in writing.

I think part of my frustrations with my writing lay in my undeniably narcissistic tones--I aspire for diminished ego, though. And the remainder of my frustrations lay in the cliche duality of desiring praise and recognition while fending off the pressure of expectations--according to Blogger, I have followers all over the western hemisphere and in Kazakhstan.

Regardless, I have returned with a report (or review) of first quarter academia highlights.

Minimal Pairs: (e.g. 'seek' and 'sick')
With chalk readied in hand, I turned to the class of freshmen and asked for more examples of minimal pairs. After several other examples were offered, one student somewhere in the mass of 100 shouted:

"'Tit' and 'teet'!"

I giggled and began to write, but before I could touch chalk to board another male student clearly announced:

"Hopefully, they are not a minimal pair."

Popular Slides: (e.g. "gotta" or "coulda")
This was a new term for me, but my English department asked me to teach my phonetics students about slurs using the term "slides."

I wrote "Popular Slides" on the chalkboard. Underneath, I gave the following equation:
"got + to = gotta"
and asked for some more "popular slides." I immediately heard the expected ones and plugged them into respective equations: "gonna," "wanna," "shoulda," etc.

After a beat, while I was letting the visuals of the "slides" soak-in, another student shouted:

"Electric!"

Verb Forms: (Warning: Explicit)
While preparing for their midterm oral exam (not nearly as sexual or dental as otherwise inferred), my sophomore students began trash-talking in broken English. I allowed the playful yet highly explicit speech as long as it remained in English.

Surena: You is unclean livestock.
James: Fuck is you!

I assume Surena was struggling to find the word "swine." Resuming my position at the classroom's podium, I decided to interrupt the debate preparations for a teaching moment:

"Who knows what is wrong with how Surena and James use their verbs?"

On a side note, hearing a native Chinese student say "Fuck you" in English is a lot like hearing them say this in Chinese: 发客鱼 (click on the little megaphone to listen to the pronunciation).

Painful Self-Awareness:

Miyazaki  + Newsie = Crazy English Elie?

When I started wearing bow ties everyday, I was hoping to strike a middle ground between Mr. Rogers and Andre 3000. Based on reports from my Western friends (who obviously take my facial hair into heavy consideration), I have come closer to a cross between a conquistador and Will Scheuster if Will Scheuster was a boxcar hobo.

Only recently did I discover how our Eastern counterparts have perceived me. One of my students animated me for a campus telephone company's ad campaign and to attract other students to my guest appearance at a student club's meeting. I think the result reveals that, in their eyes, I have approximated a Miyazaki version of Disney's Newsies.

A few editorial notes on this gem:
-I never wear hats to class.
-I never wink at students.
-I could never pull off that dueling-bow-tie-neck-tie style (zoom-in on the photo for details).

Higher Bar:
Unlike in primary-level classes, I cannot rely on short video clips that ask students to reiterate vocabulary (e.g. "The Circle of Life" intro from The Lion King to elicit words like "lion" or "elephant.") Instead, I have to entertain and challenge in more complex ways. Thanks in large part to the help of students who constantly snap photos of me with their cell-phones, here is a recent stop-motion lesson. I think Cameo's "Word Up" could have provided an equally entertaining soundtrack to the amateur project.

Music and English:

Epic Confucian Bell

I have a friend on campus who called to me from a balcony in a strictly platonic reverse Romeo and Juliet scenario: "Can you teach me English of Eminem?"


And so I began meeting with him (Alex) over dinners once a week to discuss Eminem lyrics and hip-hop in general. After a few weeks, Alex invited me to perform at his party. These sorts of invitations are rarely invitations as much as the expression of a social obligation. So I was suddenly obligated to play another guitar gig for near 1,000 audience members--I chose to play a solo version of Wilco's "Jesus, Etc." I am fairly certain that this performance was the first time this song was accompanied by indoor pyrotechnics.

My ego over sudden music and television fame is tempered by the fact that I have not been invited back by either of the first two gigs I have played.


***


I am starting to coordinate the dates of my two-month-long paid Chinese New Year vacation. If any of you are thinking of coming to China, Thailand, Laos, or Cambodia, please let me know: I would love to meet-up.

On a closing note, my writing hiatus was not entirely void of inspiration. I developed two ideas for blogs that I decided to make into features of "Traveling Onion" for simplicity's sake. Both will require me developing my low-profile journalistic qualities. More on these soon (hopefully).

Recommended China Reads: Seeing these reminded me of some of my experiences at my school last year--though this is obviously much more extreme. Each one references specific policies or events in recent Chinese history. On a completely different note, I may have to indulge in this place. And on another note, I think this guy has a good grip on reality.

Books, Music, Movies, T.V.: The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, Blink! by Malcom Gladwell, and A Concise History of U.S. Foreign Policy by Joyce P. Kaufman; "Towers" by Bon Iver, "Maps" by Christopher Norman, "One Whole Year" by Bombadil, "Voyager" by Daft Punk, and Claude Debussy; The Shining, A Night at the Opera, Max and Mary, The Help, and Super 8; Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.