30 October 2012 (Tuesday)

10 students today, despite heavy rain in Seattle.

As the students were arriving in class I was talking to one student who had traveled to New York City and I asked him if he could hear the difference in New York accents from Seattle accents.  To show what typical NY accents sound like I played this video.

Because the next day was Halloween I asked around the group if they had been to Halloween parties this past weekend and which costumes they had worn.

Next I asked who enjoys watching scary movies and who doesn't. From the students who enjoy watching scary movies I asked which movies they would recommend as the best first horror movie to watch.  A couple of the answers were "The Sixth Sense" and "The Exorcist".

Now we moved on to some music.
 

The first song chosen was "Make Me Wanna Die" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Pretty Reckless (info). The student who chose it said he had heard it in the movie "Kick-Ass" (info).

One student said she lives that the lyrics of this song are the opposite of happy songs. She said she has the song on her mobile phone as her alarm tone, and that it wakes up her roommate.

The singer Taylor Momsen (info) who is also in the TV series "Gossip Girl" (info).

I mentioned that I have a favorite song for when I am frustrated: Ty Cobb (video with lyrics, song info) by Soundgarden (info).  Listen to the lyrics, you'll see why I listen to this song when I'm pissed off ;-) . 

Now we turned to a more traditional Halloween song: "Thriller" (video, lyrics, song info, video info) by Michael Jackson (info). 

Next I played a classic classical Halloween song: "Night On Bald Mountain" (video, song info). 

The next song chosen was "Houdini" (video, lyrics, song info) by Foster The People (info).

One student mentioned he didn't know why the song is called "Houdini". I explained that it refers to the lyrics "I just want to disappear" and that Harry Houdini (info) was a famous escape-artist in the early 20th century. Here's an old video of Houdini.

[I didn't show the following video in class; I thought of it afterwards.]

Speaking of Harry Houdini, escape artist, there's a modern-day guy named David Blaine (info) who does escapes and other magic. He is especially known for his "Street Magic" (short video, long video).

Now back to music: The next song chosen was "Red" (video, lyrics, song info) by Taylor Swift (info).  The student who chose it said he likes Taylor Swift in general and this is a new song of hers that just came out. But he said he likes her older songs better than the new one.

At this point I asked one of the new students to chose a song. He chose "Where Is The Love" (video, lyrics, song info) by Black Eyed Peas (info). He likes the song because he likes its message of unity and racial harmony.

The next song chosen was "Fireflies" (video, lyrics, song info) by Owl City (info). 

This song inspired me to ask the students whether they dream often (I explained the difference between "do you have dreams", which would mean more like "dreams of your future life" versus "do you dream often", which means "do you have dreams when you are asleep at night").  I also asked if any of the students have dreams in English. One has had dreams in English.  I know from my own experience how strange it is to wake up in the morning and realize that you have dreamt in a foreign language!

With that our time for the day was up.