23 October 2008 (Thursday)

(My apologies for taking so long to post the notes from the last class -- sorry!)

12 students today, four of whom were new. But for some reason the energy in today's class never really got rolling...

In an email to the class I had suggested the theme for this week be songs that remind them of Fall/Autumn. Diego had one in mind: "Nubes Negras" (video, lyrics) by a band from his native Colombia, Los de Adentro (MySpace). Diego played this song in a band back home in Colombia.



Next up was a choice from one of the new students. She is from Switzerland and she chose "What's Love Got To Do With It" (video, lyrics) by Tina Turner (bio) (Tina Turner also lives in Switzerland now). I asked the class if they agree with the lyrics: that it's better to keep your heart from falling in love in order to keep from being hurt ("Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken"). But no one wanted to talk about this topic... I mentioned the English phrase "It is better to love and have lost than to have never loved at all."

Tina Turner was a star long before most of the students in the class were even born, so I mentioned to them that she was a big star in the 60's and was in a very bad relationship, the story of which was made into a movie called, coincidentally, "What's Love Got To Do With It" (film info). She continues to look GREAT for her age.

To show how little Tina has aged, I showed a bit of a clip of her from 1971: Come Together (video - this is a Beatles song; lyrics are in the box next to the video).


(Side note about looking great as you age, my goal is to look at good at 60 as David Bowie (bio) does.

They even did a commercial for Vittel water (video) playing on the fact that Bowie looks amazingly young for his age. [Note, all the other "people" in that commercial are the characters/persona's Bowie has been during his long music career.])


Now back to the subject of Autumn songs: Next song was "İstanbul'da Sonbahar" (en = "Fall In Istanbul") (video) by Teoman (bio). An excellent songs and it definitely evokes Fall!






At this point the conversation somehow moved to talking about Halloween. Minnie said she is going to be Dipsy (pictured left) from the Teletubbies (show info).

I am not familiar with the Teletubbies characters and wanted to see how Dipsy acts. When I searched on Dipsy the first thing I found was this video of Dipsy doing some gangster dance (video). Minnie theorizes this is a normal video of Dipsy, just sped up. We all laughed heartily.



Speaking of Hallowen and non-human characters, I mentioned that I have been invited to a party where everyone is to come as a Muppet character. I asked the class which character I should be. Here's the whole cast of the Muppet show:



One suggestion was to be one of the old guys in the balcony.

Another suggestion was Bert. We watched the clip of "You're It" (video) with Bert and Ernie to see what Bert is like.

Hmmmm, am I really like the most conservative muppet characters?!?!


We now went back to music: Halloween songs. A great one is "This is Halloween" (video, lyrics) from the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (info).

(After class Banu sent me a link to another Halloween-related video: "Jump In The Line" (video, lyrics) from the movie Beetlejuice (info) -- good choice!!)

Now we talked about who likes watching horror films. We watched the trailer to the movie "The Saw" (video). When I mentioned that I don't like to see blood someone suggested the movie "The Others" (video).

I don't remember how we got onto the subject, but somehow I asked if my students are familiar with the book "The Alchemist" (info) by Paulo Coelho (bio). Some of them know the book, some do not. It is one of my favorite books!

As I described "The Alchemist" being about pursuing dreams, one student asked if I am have read the book Don Quixote (info). I have started, but not finished, reading that book. Nonetheless, one of my favorite words in the English language comes from the story: quixotic (definition).

Speaking of philosophical authors, we touched on the name Rumi (bio). I have two books of his poetry.

As time was coming to a close, I mentioned to the class an idea that I have had but haven't yet organized: I would like to organize a series of trips restaurants (ex. we go to a Korean restaurant) where students from that country advise me and the others what is the most popular kinds of food to eat in their country and how people go out to eat: I would love to get insight to local food customs!

I also will take the students to the best Mexican restaurant in Seattle: La Carte De Oaxaca (website) in Ballard.

As people left the class I explained the origin of the phrase "trick or treat" that children say when they go from house to house on Halloween. It originally meant "Give me a treat or I'll play a trick on you." Here's thorough information about trick or treating.