Wednesday, April 11 (first class of the new session)

After a 5-week break, today was the first class of the new quarter. In the hour before the class I went around to a few English classes in session to promote my conversation group in person, but when 4pm rolled around my classroom was empty. Was it that I hadn't sold the idea well? Was it the sunny weather outside that enticed potential students to sit on the grass rather than in a room?

Suddenly my first student showed up: Titus, from Hong Kong. Shortly after him Yumi, from Japan, came in.

As the three of us were introducing ourselves I saw someone out in the hall looking over at us curiously. I beckoned her to join us. Enter Vanny from Vietnam!

We kept the introductions short and went straight for music. Vanny picked the first song, "My Love" (video, lyrics) by Justin Timberlake (bio). She likes the rhythm of this song. And the dancing. When she listens to the song she thinks of the video: the song and visual are linked.





Next Yumi picked a song by Utada Hikaru (bio). There were a number of songs out there, so she picked "Passion" (video , lyrics and song information).








This inspired Vanny to start taking about a song called "Bonjour Vietnam" (video, lyrics) which is sung by a French-Vietnamese woman name Pham Quynh Anh (her website, in French). Vanny said that this song is extremely popular in Vietnam. Even though the singer has never been to Vietnam -- she was born to immigrants in France -- the Vietnamese like her sentiment of staying close to her family roots. Here is a story about the song.




At this point Vanny's sister, Kerry, showed up and the conversation became even more animated!


I wanted everyone in the class to have a chance to pick a song and talk about it so asked Titus to pick one. He choose Westlife (bio) "My Love" (video, lyrics). When I asked him why he likes this song his answer was one I have often heard: I can easily understand the lyrics.





We talked about the visual element of bands, how listening to music a person also imagines what the band or video looks like. And how a good-looking band can have a bad song, but a person sometimes still likes the song because the band is so good looking! I asked if any of my students *used to* think an artists was hot looking, but doesn't like him/her anymore. Kerry's example was 50 Cent (bio) "Just A Little Bit" (video, lyrics).


I was thinking of the inverse, of an artist who isn't very good looking but has a great song. My example was James Blunt (bio) "You're Beautiful" (video, lyrics). I can't remember from all the "I love this song!" cooing that was going on between my students if they think he's good looking or not...

With that our hour was up. It was a good group and I hope to have a few more participants next week. Will Izumi return from last quarter?