skryfblok: September 2013
My Aardklop wenslysie
Dit is weer Aardklop-tyd. En as ek in Suid-Afrika was met 'n goeie dik beursie geld sou ek die volgende gaan kyk het:
Riders from the Storm beloof om 'n warm (Suid-) Afrikaanse rock & roll jam sessie te wees. Ek bedoel met sulke Afrikaanse rock legendes soos Piet Botha, Mel Botes en Valient swart, hoe kan dit anders? En dan is daar nog Albert Frost, Nathan Smith, Ghapi en ander om die storm goed te laat donder. Soos die vertoning se etslyn sê: "die manne gaan bulder, die aarde gaan dreun"! Aai, ek wens ek was daar.
Amanda Strydom is Suid-Afrika se voorste Afrikaanse cabaret singer en as daar iemand is wat weet hoe om 'n goeie verhoogvertoning aan mekaar te sit dan is dit sy. Ek het nog nooit 'n Amanda Strydom vertoning gemis as ek dit kon help nie en is hiper jaloers op enige iemand wat hierdie vertoning oor 'n boeremeisie wat verlief raak op 'n rooinekloots tydens die Tweede Wêreldoorlog gaan te sien kry. Ja, 'n mens kan altyd die CD na die tyd koop, maar jy kannie altyd Amanda se verhoogspel te siene kry nie. Gaan kyk dit, gaan hoor dit, gaan voel dit! Viva Amanda!
As jy van klaviermusiek hou en ook van koormusiek, dan is Amazing -- Rocco de Villiers nie te mis nie. Die klavier maestro span kragte saam met die Potchefstroomse Manskoor. Ek is seker dit gaan betower. Soortgelyk is Charl du Plessis se Pimp my Piano baie belowend: 'n vlegsel van klassieke musiek met moderne pop en jazz treffers. Ek oorweeg om die CD te koop. Ek is seker dat Zaza en die KunsteNar 'n lekker vertoning gaan wees en enige iemand wat hulleself as 'n gypsie sien sal waarskynlik ingetrek en meegevoer wees met die vertoning. En vir Jazz-liefhebbers, Jazz at Aardklop bring die van beste Suid-Afrikaanse jazz musici bymekaar en gooi hulle op 'n verhoog en siedaar! Aai, hoe jaloers is ek nou!
Ek is nie juis op hoogte met wat in Suid-Afrika se teaterbedryf aan die gang is nie, maar as ek moes kies tussen die teaterproduksies sou ek graag Die Leo's; As ek reg onthou; macbeth.slapeloos; Na-aap, 'n verweking van Franz Kafka se A Report to an Academy; en Wie's bang vir Virginia Woolf? wou sien.
Wat die visuele kunsuitstallings betref sal ek graag Maureen Quinn se The Hunt weer wil sien. Ek het die uitsalling van bronsgegote 'n klomp jare gelede gesien en dit het my geweldig beïndruk. Haar beelde skep in my angst en verwondering -- sy is waarskynlik my gunsteling Suid-Afrikaanse beeldhouer. Die uitstalling is gratis. Gaan kyk dit en laat die beelde jou siel jaag. Ek sou ook graag Robert Hamblin se uitstalling Onder konstruk wou sien omtrent manwees. Wat beteken dit nog, in hierdie tyd waarin ons leef, om 'n man te wees? Vir 'n meer prettige uitstalling dink ek Collateral -- 'n uitstalling van ontwerpersspeelgoed -- gaan lekker speels wees met allerande oulike snoesige monstertjies en wollerige husse. Ten laaste op my Aardklop wenslysie plaas ek Tussen hemel en aarde, 'n woordkunsvertoning gebasseer op T. T. Cloete ('n persoonlike gunsteling) en Carina Stander se gedigte.
Laat die kunste jou siel voed. Soos Hy gesê het, 'n mens kan nie van brood alleen lewe nie.
Do You Eat Beaver's Butt?
So if you lick a beaver's butt it tastes like strawberries? That's what this video suggest. I wonder if beavers like rimming. Do their farts smell of strawberries as well?
But how can it be cheaper to hunt beavers for their anal glands than to use fresh strawberries. Those anal glands must be terribly potent!
I wonder what platypus butts taste like. Maybe like passion fruit. And undoubtedly there is a monkey out there somewhere with anal glands that produce banana odours.
Challenges of Foreign Language English Departments
Working in an English Department where English is a foreign language pose serious challenges. You cannot assume that your students can even write a simple grammatically correct sentence. Hence, part of our curriculum includes a module on sentence writing. In a regular English Department one takes for granted that students know how to at least formulate a sentence. This is not the case when you work with students whose mother tongue is so wholly different from English. Not only are the syntax completely different, but even some of the most common punctuation marks are different. Korean, for instance, does not have capital letters and Koreans tend not to realize that capitalization has a communicative function and that the indiscriminate inclusion or, as is usually the case, exclusion of capital letters at the beginning of sentences, for proper nouns and so on is wrong and can cause confusion.
This semester I'm teaching a freshmen class: Basic Sentence Writing. I haven't taught freshmen in a couple of years so I've forgotten what their level tend to be like. For instance, in our first class this morning I asked them to write me a few sentences to tell me about themselves. The sole purpose for this simple exercise was to get an idea of their level. Below is what was handed in by one of the students. It is a random sample--merely the first one in the pile.
Hello! My name is 'shim so yeon'.Nice to meet our classmate and professor.I am 20 years old. Very young age. LoL~My hometown is 'seoul', but now live in 'Gyung Gi Do'.When I was 5 years old, my family house-moving in Gyung Gi Do.My family is Daddy, Mommy, younger brother and my self.I like eating. In the world, many delicious food existence. So I love it. Also, I like to shopping.I wish familiar our class.Thank you.
Having taught Koreans for many years now I recognize many of her mistakes as typical errors caused in part by first language transference. For example, her sentence "In the world, many delicious food existence" is a near verbatim grammar transference from Korean where one would first provide the context (In the world), then supply the object (food) and finally the verb (exists).
The big challenge is that we need to get our students from this (or sometimes worse levels of English) to a level at which they can write proper essays by the middle of their third year, because at the latter part of the third year and for their senior year they are expected to write academic style papers. This is by no means an easy task. I wish I can say that we are always successful in getting our students at the desired level within the time frame given. Unfortunately, it is often not the case. Only the most diligent students achieve the level of proficiency we aim for. Students that do not exert themselves just do not get there. Sometimes I see senior students who still make common mistakes. I have sympathy, of course, seeing as I've been in Korea for years and am still at only a higher beginner or lower intermediate level. But then again, I've never been a full time student of Korean.
Our goal with writing is of course inline with the other language skills (reading, listening, and speaking) as well. We expect our students to be good listeners and speakers of English who, with a little self-study, can engage comfortably in the jargon and register of the trade they hope to find careers in. And we expect them to read with comprehension, and while they may not know the meaning of all the vocabulary in a given text, they can at least infer possible meanings from the context. Again, only the most diligent students achieve this level of competence.
The problem is mostly time and immersion. As an English Department there are quite a number of other important subjects that students should be exposed to, such as History of the English Language, Literary Theory, different literary genres (poetry, essays, short fiction, novels, plays) and so on. Time, therefore, is rather limited. A student studying for four years at a dedicated language learning institute will acquire a much better fluency and accuracy in the target language. However, a language department teaching the language as a second or foreign department has to divide its time for much more than simply language acquisition.
Since I've been at my current job I've helped to streamline the department's curriculum, but I fear there is still room for improvement. For instance, as a foreign language department we spent classes on cultural exposure, such as modules on American and English Culture. As important as these may seem, I think Korea is exposed enough to these bastions of the English language through the media, so that we can instead use these modules to teach and practice language skills.
So what will I have my freshmen students do when I see them again? O yes . . . capitalization exercises!
Challenges of Foreign Language English Departments...