24 January 2008

Another great turnout -- 12 students -- and a very fun class today!

I had sent an email to the group asking them to think of songs about winter or songs which fit a "winter mood," but I sent the email shortly before the class and many of the students didn't see it and therefore did not have any "winter" songs in mind.

One student did suggest "Christmas Is All Around" (video, lyrics) from the movie "Love, Actually" (movie info). I explained the word "satire" (definition). I also stated that I do not like Hugh Grant (bio): to me he is cheesy. (I wonder if that helps my students understand the word "cheesy" better?...)



Another winter song suggested was "Last Christmas" (video, lyrics) by Wham (bio). Some people groaned about another "old" song and I was eager to move away from Christmas songs anyway, so I asked if the class is familiar with Wham's lead singer, George Michael (bio). There were some nods.


I decided to play a solo George Michael song, "As" (video, lyrics). It's a duet with Mary J Blige (bio) and the song is actually originally sung by Stevie Wonder (bio). I think George and Mary did a very good job on the song and I like the video; it's a great effect how the two of them "fill" up the whole club. Nonetheless, the Stevie Wonder version of the song is the definitive version!

By the way, an interesting note about this song: "As" is included in George Michael's best of record in every country *except* the US. Apparently it was not released in the US because Mary's record label felt she was a big star and didn't want her to be associated with George Michael, who had just been involved in a sex scandal. Nonetheless the video was played a lot on MTV US, even though the song was not available in this country.


Out of the blue Marianna asked if I am familiar with the band Cheap Trick (bio). Of course I am -- that's a classic American band! I played "Surrender" (video, lyrics) and explained how this is a quintessential (definition) American band: they are really only popular in the States and Japan. Indeed, it is in Japan where they got their big break and they become superstars in 1978.



Next up was "Ohne Dich" (video, lyrics) by Rammstein (bio). I asked the class if they like the sound of the German singing. They didn't. One student said she thinks German isn't even pretty to say "I love you" in ("Ich liebe Dich").


I asked each person in the class to say "I love you" in their local language. It was very interesting to see their reactions! Many were embarrassed to even speak the three words, even if it wasn't directed at any particular person.

Someone said that German isn't the ugliest language -- she claims it is Dutch. I have to agree! To show the other students what Dutch language sounds like I typed "Dutch interview" in YouTube and showed them the first clip I could find. I don't know if the class actually heard what the Dutch language was like -- they were trying to figure out what was happening on the screen!


Back to German language: Pinar said she like German singing -- in opera! So to offset the gutteral singing from Rammstein we played Hölle Rache from Mozart's Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) (video). Perhaps less gutteral, but intense nonetheless! We need to find some soft, fun German songs...




A student wanted to hear "Dream Come True" (video, lyrics) by The Brand New Heavies (bio). I asked why he chose this song and he said he likes dance music.







I mentioned I was going to a concert by a Malian artist this evening, Toumani Diabate (bio) and played a clip. The class seemed to think I was about to waste my time and money going to that concert, but it was actually an *excellent* show!






"Love of my life" (video, lyrics), a very sweet song by Queen (bio) was chosen.










Next choice was Marilyn Manson (bio) "If I Was Your Vampire" (fan-made video, lyrics).



But before I played the song I did a grammar lesson about correct usage of the conditional. The sentence "If I was your vampire" is totally incorrect. It either has to be:


[present tense] "If I were your vampire."

or

[past tense] "If I had been your vampire."


But I also mentioned that most Americans don't use the conditional correctly and that most people would say this sentence in the incorrect way, like the title of the song is.

I asked why the student likes Marilyn Manson and she said it is because she likes the gothic subculture.

I said that I think Marilyn Manson is a good actor. Every generation has a "bogeyman" (definition). In the 70's Alice Cooper (bio) was the guy all parents feared. In the 00's one of the bands has been Slipknot (bio). Heck, parents even feared the Beatles back in the 60's. There's always someone out there who is scaring parents, which pleases kids to no end!


The next student chose "Cinema Paradiso" (video, lyrics) by Josh Groban (bio). The student who requested this song has all of his albums. She said she likes how he "sings from the heart." I explained there is also a term to "speak from the heart" which means to be totally honest.


She then said she thinks I look like him(!). After class another student said I look like Pato from AC Milan. I'd like to play like him, but do I look like him? The one I hear most is that I look like Colin Firth.


On the Cinema Paradiso theme, Pinar said she likes the version of that song played by Itzhak Perlman (bio). The only audio version we could find on YouTube was someone's video of a sunset with the song as the soundtrack. What a silly thing -- and we watched it!


A student wanted to search for his favorite song. I said "Go for it", then explained to the class that this phrase means "go ahead."



The student chose "Traveling Boy" (fan-made video, lyrics) by Art Garfunkel (bio). I asked why he chose this song and he said "I understand the lyrics" but I realized what he wanted to say is "I relate to these lyrics." That's a good phrase to learn.

We ended the class with a couple more phrases:

* "Knock it off" (which means "stop").

* One student asked if I dance or sing. I said, "I am chicken" which means "I am afraid" or "I am embarrassed." I said that I sing in my car and dance at home, but don't do either in public.

But if I *were* to sing or dance in public, I would do so to this song: "Use Me" (video, lyrics) by Bill Withers (bio). The songs has such great rhythm, a great riff and great lyrics.
-- I actually *do* have a dream of playing in public: I would like to busk on the Charles Bridge in Prague. I have the songs all picked out that I would play: now i just need to learn how to play guitar and to sing ;-) .


It was now 6.15pm and I said "Shall we call it a night?," a phrase which required more explanation (it means "Shall we say we are done for the day?").

17 January 2008

(Apologies to my students for posting this entry almost a whole week after class...)

We had a great turnout today: 18 students! I was pleased to see that a lot of the students from last week returned and there were a lot of new faces, too.

Because we had a lot of new students today, I did a very quick overview of the class again and everyone introduced themselves (name, country of origin, favorite music style) again.

Then we lept right into the music: I asked if anyone had a song they wanted to hear. Everyone was quiet and looking around at each other. Finally a student said he would like to hear Boney M (bio) "Mary's Boy Child" (video, lyrics). The class found the old 70's style amusing.

When I asked the student why he chose this song he replied it is because he is Buddhist and is interested in Christianity. From the lyrics he asked what Bethlehem is and why it's called the Holy Bible, rather than just "the Bible". I had never thought of this question before: it's so common to hear the Bible referred to as "the Holy Bible" that I had to search for an explanation. The best I could explain is that it is called holy (definition) because it is the word of God.

I now asked if anyone had a song to suggest that reminds them of Seattle. One student suggested Nirvana (bio). I asked which song. He said "You Know You're Right" (video, lyrics). I was impressed that he was suggesting something other than the usual "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (video, lyrics).

When I asked why he chose this song the student said it feels powerful to him. When he needs to energy it helps him.

Another student said he doesn't like the song because the lyrics don't make sense. I pointed out that it sounds like Kurt is very desperate. Indeed, he committed suicide just a few months after the song was recorded...

One student seemed kind of bored so I asked her what her favorite song is. She deflected the question and said she wanted to hear the favorite song of her friend, another of the students. He chose Dragonforce (bio), "Through The Fire And Flames" (video, lyrics).

The student told us that the guitarist for Dragonforce is from Hong Kong and is the second fastest guitar player in the world (I wonder who the fastest is?...). It is quite a contrast that this student, who has a quiet demeanor in class likes this really loud, fast music style of music.

I finally wanted one of the women in the class to choose a song so asked one of the Russian students to pick a song. She chose "Yak" (video) by Zhanna Aguzarova (bio).

I asked why my student chose this singer and song. "Just because," was the answer. "She's crazy; she says she's from Mars."

This made me think of "crazy singers" as a theme and I asked the class if anyone knew of another crazy singer. A student from Korea suggested Vitas (bio) singing "Opera #2" (video).

I was surprised to see the video has subtitles in Chinese and to read in his biography that he is particularly popular in Asia. The student who suggested the song said he had heard about the singer/song on a humor website and that's how he found it. But now he likes the song!

Another student in the class, who is from Vietnam, studied for some time in Russia. When he was living in Russia his roommate played this song every morning. He has a very bad memory of this song! The class laughed a lot about this story.

No one had any more crazy singers to suggest. A student said he had heard a lot about a book in Japan called "Norwegian Wood" (info on Amazon) which was inspired by the Beatles song (video, lyrics) but the book actually analyzes why so many people used to commit suicide in Japan in the 60's.

At this point it was 5.30pm and I said that I understand if some people have to leave, but I offered to stay longer if some people wanted to keep going.

Before I let people go I announced a concert happening on Friday (the next day) by a local Latin music group called Correo Aereo (Myspace, website) at a mall near to Bellevue Community College. I have only seen the band one time, but I was very impressed and bought a CD from them.

The concert is at a mall called Crossroads Mall (website). I am generally not a fan of malls, but I actually I like this mall a lot: it is in a neighborhood full of immigrants and it has lots of interesting cultural events (calendar). When I used to come home from Europe to visit Seattle I always made a special trip over to Crossroads Mall to eat and see what is going on there. Now it is just down the street from where I work, at Microsoft.

Since we were on the subject of local Latin music, I had to mention that my friends, Children Of The Revolution (MySpace, website) play flamenco every Tuesday evening at the Capitol Club (website) in Seattle. It's a great show! I offered to take my students who are over 21 years old (because it is a bar...) to the club some Tuesday.

For a taste of the flamenco show I played a video of Encarna dancing, then their video for Isla Margarita with the whole band and salsa dancing at the end. The students seemed impressed and I assured them that I have often taken students to COTR shows and my students always love the concerts. I look forward to taking some of these students to the flamenco show at the Capitol Club some time!

Some students left to go home, but some stayed so we watched a couple more videos. I returned to the Japanese student who earlier had deflected her choice of a song to her friend. This time I asked her to play a song *she* wants to hear! She choose "Kimi Wa Tomodachi" (video) by Ken Hirai (bio).

She said she chose this song because the video is cute. And that becaus Hirai has a good voice. But she said he isn't very good looking. We discussed a little about how white people are often seen as pretty in Asia while in America Asians are often considered beautiful and exotic.

The last song was "Dream On" (video, lyrics) by Depeche Mode (bio). The student who chose this song says she has every Depeche Mode single and album. I asked if she prefers the "old" Depeche Mode or the "newer" Depeche Mode. She said she likes *all* Depeche Mode (which I suppose is obvious, if she owns *all* their records).

She said she likes this song because it has a dreamy feel to it. Reading the lyrics I mentioned that I think this song is about drugs, but from the perspective of an ex-drug user. The singer's problems with drugs are well documented and now that he is clean I think this song is a reflection back to when he used to take drugs.

It was interesting to note that the video for Dream On features him driving in a car, much like the older video for "Never Let Me Down Again" (video, lyrics), which is *definitely* a song about drugs (his "best friend"). I wonder if the new video (Dream On) takes place in a car to update the idea of driving, but now not any longer on drugs.

With that class was over: see you all on the 24th!

10 January 2008 (Thursday)

This was the first session of the new quarter where my conversation group was promoted in the Bellevue Community College English classes. I knew a lot of people would show up for this class to see what it is about. Usually I get about 20 people for the first class and, truthfully, it is hard for me to keep everyone interested with so many tastes in music.

Experience tells me that after the first large group in a quarter the following sessions are smaller, consisting of students who are real music fans and enjoy talking about music. Throughout the day today before class I wondered how many people would show up and what the group would be like.

When I arrived at 4.30pm there was already a group of students waiting in the room. But no media cart! I quickly called the media center and asked to have a media cart delivered to the room.

12 students, including the three who participated last quarter, showed up. That's a good and manageable size!

While we waited for the media cart I did the introductions about the class, explaining how it works. I introduced myself and then asked each student to introduce him/herself by name, where he/she is from and what kind of music they like.

This quarter I have a lot of students from Korea! But also some from Russia and one from Turkey. Everyone seemed to be true music fans and I am very encouraged by this group!

The media cart finally arrived at 4.40pm, in the middle of the introductions. As soon as the introductions were over I jumped into asking for suggestions for music to show the new students how the class works.

Because there are so many Korean students I asked one of them for a recommendation of music. She chose a Korean crooner, Sung Si Kyung (bio). We watched the song "Kori-esuh" (On The Street). I asked why she chose this song and she said she likes his voice.

Kung-Soo was clearly disinterested in this song and stated flatly "I don't like this singer." I asked why not and as he described his view I realized he feels Sung Si Kyung is "cheesy", so I tried to describe what this slang term means. It is used often in American English and any of my students would impress their Americans friends if they use it in a conversation.

I can't find an accurate definition of "cheesy" online! The closest definitions say "of inferior quality". But in the is context of critiquing a cultural thing (ex. singer, song, tv show, movie, etc), it means something is not very creative and that it tries to appeal to the lowest common denominator; it takes the easy way instead of the creative, challenging way.

The next song chosen was another Korean artist, Seo Taiji (bio). We watched the video "FM Business". I had never heard of this guy before, but the student who picked the song told us about how he doesn't like to be in videos or go into public. That is why the video is just animation. The student said that Seo just wakes up, makes music, goes to sleep and that is all. Wikipedia says his stardom in Korea is like that of Michael Jackson in the US -- wow!


The idea of an artist not wanting to be "seen" in public made me think of the band KISS (bio): until 1983 they were *never* photographed without their makeup on; it was a closely held secret and a great mystery what they actually looked like. Hiding an artists identity is now a somewhat common device: see Slipknot or Sido (a rapper from Germany) just to name a couple.


Since we had heard a couple of songs -- and quite divergent styles! -- from Korea, I asked one of the other students, this one from Turkey, to pick a song. This student loves opera music and chose "Nessun Dorma" sung by Pavarotti (bio). I asked when she likes to listen to this song, for example, when she is happy, or sad? She said she *always* loves this song!


The class asked her if there is a Turkish opera singer she likes. She suggested Ayhan Ustuk, a Turkish tenor. We watched this performance from Le Contes d'Hoffman.




Next Marianna chose "A Beautiful Lie" (video, lyrics) by 30 Seconds To Mars (bio). I asked what the lyrics of the songs are about but we didn't find a definitive answer. In fact, we decided that they are mostly non-sensical, that they just paint ideas like an impressionist painting without actually telling a specific story.



The next song chosen was "The War Is Over" by Sarah Brightman (bio). The link we clicked on for the video was a version of the video created by a fan which incorporates scenes from a video game. And this song is apparently not even featured in the video game! It is the handiwork of a fan of both Sarah Brightman and the video game. Very creatively done, I must say. This is the official video of the song (lyrics).

The student who chose the songs said she loves it because it has a calm feel to it and because she is against war.

This song made me think of suggesting Kate Bush to the student who chose it as another artist to explore. I played the song "Wuthering Heights" (video, lyrics) by Kate Bush (bio). However, as we watched the video I realized two things:

1/ Most of these students would think that the 70's look of the video is cheesy.

2/ When I first heard Kate Bush I *hated* her voice! It was only later that I came to love her singing.

To solve problem 1/ I simply covered the YouTube window with a window with the lyrics ;-) .

About point 2/, I asked the class if they have that same experience, detesting a singer's voice at first, then later coming to live that voice. Some had a similar experience. As another example of a singer who I didn't like at first but now think is brilliant I showed a clip of a Tom Waits (bio) song, "Going Out West" (video, lyrics).

To end the class I suggested another song that was a combination of a couple things we just talked about: a beautiful female voice and socially conscious lyrics. I played Sarah McLachlan (bio) "Wold On Fire" (video, lyrics). The video shows how much money a typical music video costs and how Sarah took that money, made a very simple video and put all the money that would normally be spent on video-related costs into charitable programs which help poor people.


With that class ended. The group seems really engaged and fun -- I look forward to next week!

Thursday, 3 January 2008

Winter Quarter started yesterday. There was no time yet in the new quarter to promote The Language Of Music conversation group in the English classes, so today's class was just a reunion with the three mainstays from last quarter: Marianna, Kung Soo and Hugo.

Kung Soo came to the room with a trumpet(!). He asked me once last quarter how he can go about busking (playing music on the street with a hat for people to put money in) in Seattle. I wonder if he wants to do that with his trumpet? If he plays on the street some time, I will go watch him!

Unfortunately there wasn't a media cart set up today so we just caught up on what everyone did in December without watching any videos or listening to music.

We all talked about what we did for Christmas and New Year's Eve and I showed the slide show of pictures from my trip to Senegal and Mali.

As we parted I told the three students to expect a larger group of people next Thursday because the class will have been promoted in the English classes. Experience tells me that for the first class of a quarter a *lot* of people show up for the first session, then it quickly tapers off until there is a core of ~8 people who come on a weekly basis. I wonder how many will actually show up next week? And how many will come back the week after?