Classes

Today is a Thursday, which means I have my favorite students. Inspired by an article about Japanese rent-a-friend agencies, I asked an intermediate class what they would rent if they could rent anything in the world for any amount of time. Here's some of their answers:

a midgit, to be launched into the air as a human missile;
a midgit, to finally feel taller than someone else;
BB King, to lend some guitar skills;
Obama, to remove him from his presidency, take over the U.S., and thus the world, as a totalitarian dictator;
a body, to step out of one's natural sex or appearance altogether and into someone else's.

I liked these, because none of them were things that came into my own head. Also I realized that being funny really is an essential stage in the process of becoming fluent.

In a very advanced class, I had them explicate some poems in pairs, looking for diction, rhyme schemes, repetition, symbols, and meaning. I used a section of Dylan Thomas's "Fern Hill," Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art," part of Robert Lowell's "Skunk Hour," and T.S. Eliot's "La Figlia Che Pianga." Obviously, Contemporary American Poetry with Wyatt Prunty left a mark of nostalgia in my heart. Somehow, even though I thought I picked these poems at random, all of them seemed to be linked together by that very theme. In one of these classes I had the treat of two Italian Erasmus students, who could actually say the title of Eliot's poem. And, even better, they interpreted the title as being both the "Girl who weeps" and the "Daughter who weeps," which made for different versions of what was actually happening in the poem. Lizzy, what is your interpretation??

The other level of students I had today were first years, so I chose to talk about something I thought they would understand, Facebook. But, as I was informed after class, I spoke too soon, and too fast. After reading an article aloud that no one understood, I made them create a Facebook profile in English on any well-known character they could think of. Spongebob and Superman were picked alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Cartoon characters and Hollywood hunks, now linked by Buddhist beliefs and an interest in happy endings. Superman is an anarchist. This is what happens when French people are asked to used their imagination.

Looking back, it was a pretty good day considering I showed up to work without any lesson plans in a department with a broken printer and photocopier, with just a few scribbled notes and four poems. Improvisation- that's life.