14 February 2008 (Valentine's Day)

Valentine's Day -- 13 students showed up to share their favorite songs about love and/or heartbreak!

Minnie and Marianna supplied chocolate and I contributed the classic Sweethearts candy hearts.

The first song of the day was "I don't wanna be in love" (video, lyrics) by Good Charlotte (bio). I asked the student why she chose this one and she said it's mostly because she likes to dance to it, but also because it is appropriate for the day.

One student asked me what I think of the concept of "not wanting to be in love." I said my philosophy is that you cannot choose love, love chooses you. In other words, you can't decide to not be in love (though one can certainly make it hard to be in love or to be loved!).

We talked about arranged marriages for a while; about whether people in arranged marriages are happy in those relationships. We talked about how marriages fulfill different desires and needs for different people and in different cultures. For example, people may want to be in a relationship or marriage for security or for companionship. Or their family might require them to be in a marriage. There are many variations for why people get married, sometimes for love, sometimes for other reasons. But only each individual can say whether he or she is happy in that situation: no one from the outside can decide whether someone is happy in a relationship because only each person individually knows why he or she is in that relationship and what he or she is getting out of it.

Back to music!

Next song was "And I love her" (video, lyrics) by the Beatles (bio). A very idealistic song about love!

I asked the class if some of them have made compilation cds of music for a boyfriend or a girlfriend. 2 girls said they had made cds for boys. One guy said he has made a cd for a girl.

I asked the guy to tell us one of the songs he put on the compilation for the girl. He cited "Love, love, love" (video with lyrics), a rap song sung in Korean by Epik High (bio).

The next song was "November Rain" (video, lyrics) by Guns N Roses (bio). (This video has a whole big story to it!) The student who chose it thought of it as a song about love because the video shows a wedding, but as we looked at the lyrics we decided it is more a song of heartbreak. The student said she likes this song especially because of the lyrics and the melody. But she also like the video a lot. We talked about the melodic guitar playing and I had to show one of my favorite guitar solos: The end solos in "Sweet Child O Mine" (video, lyrics). And that's another good Valentine's song!

Next song was "Hitomi wo tojite" (video) by Ken Hirai (bio) (who we have heard in this class before). Actually *two* students chose this same song. So I taught the class the phrase "to kill two birds with one stone" (which means "to take care of two things at one time"). I've always felt this is quite a violent image. In German you say "kill two flies with one swatter" which is still kind of violent, but only against flies. So I asked the students how this concept is presented in their languages. Apparently birds are the most common victims around the world!

Next song chosen was "I'll Make Love To You" (video, lyrics) by Boys II Men (bio). The student said he chose this song because it's a standard Valentines Day song and because he likes how the voices all sound together.

We now got to the more "rock" fans in the class. "I remember you" (video, lyrics) by Skid Row (bio) was chosen. (The term "skid row" actually means a run-down part of town and it started in Seattle! It was the road which they slid logs down the hill to the port.)

Skid Row inspired the next student to choose "Someday" (video, lyrics) by Nickelback (bio). I was trying to figure out if this is a love song or a heartbreak song. One of the students in the class is familiar with the story of the video. To summarize it goes like this: girl reads about boy's death (boy is in the video, but doesn't realize he is dead), girl is distraught, girl dies, they meet in the afterlife. But I am still wondering if that's a love story or not...

I asked the class for another heartbreak song. I got "Crazy In Love" (video, lyrics) by Beyonce (bio). It was chosen because "love is crazy". But I actually think this is a love song, or at least about the joys of love, so I was still looking for a heartbreak song.

Minnie chose a song by Kelly Clarkson (bio), but she chose a version by Lyn (bio), a famous singer in Korea. She chose the song "Never Again" (video, lyrics). Minnie said that Lyn is the best singer in Korea. Lyn usually sings ballads and Minnie went to a concert by her and it was boring, but Minnie likes this version of the song because Lyn sings it "hard" not "soft."

Somehow we got onto the subject of YouTube in Korea. Apparently YouTube just launched in Korea last month, but Korea already has so many user created content (UGC) sites that YouTube is blasé there.

The next song chosen was "Every Way I Can" (video) by a Turkish singer called Sertab Erener (bio). This song won the Eurovision contest in 2003. I asked why this Turkish singer sings in English and the student told me that in order to win Eurovision you *must* sing in English. I wonder how many non-English songs have won the Eurovision contest in its history?

I picked the next song: "Every Breath You Take" (video, lyrics) by The Police (bio). I explained to the class that a lot of people chose this song for their wedding thinking it's so sweet to think about being together all the time, but if you look closely at the lyrics, the song is actually about surveillance and control -- it's not at all a love song!!

Pinar shared with us the songs that was her first dance with her husband at their wedding: "From This Moment On" (video, lyrics) by Shania Twain (bio).

Lastly we watched "Shoulda Coulda, Woulda" (video, lyrics) by Brian McKnight (bio). The students were all commenting on how American youth speak so strangely ("coulda" rather than "could have") that it's often hard to understand them.

With that everyone had chosen at least one song and it was time to let everyone go celebrate Valentine's Day. Or not celebrate the day, as the case may be :-( .

7 February 2008

Today was the first day of the Chinese New Year: The Year of the Rat!

There was a good turnout today: 12 students again, including one new one -- Deniz from Turkey. She is a friend of Pinar and had come with our group to see U2 3D on Tuesday evening.

Speaking of the U2 3D evening, Minnie was very kind and had made prints of some pictures she had taken and gave them to the participants in the evening. It was such great fun -- I look forward to our next class trip!

As the new student in the class, I asked Deniz to pick the first song. She chose "Under A Violet Moon" (video, lyrics) by Blackmore's Night (bio).

Deniz said she likes this song because of the vocals, though she doesn't understand the lyrics. Since she doesn't understand the lyrics the song relaxes her. Lyrics tend to move her and make her listen more closely to the song, so sometimes it's *good* to not have lyrics which are understandable in order to relax to a song.

I asked how she discovered Blackmore's Night. She said a friend played her a song, then she downloaded more songs. At this point I polled the class:

• How many purchase cds (answer = 1)
• How many download songs (answer = almost all)
• How many buy songs online (answer = almost none)

The results of this informal poll are, of course, anecdotal evidence of something the record industry already knows (and feels in their pocketbooks!).

Naturally, if you are going to talk about Ritchie Blackmore (bio), you have to mention one of the most famous riffs in rock and roll: "Smoke On The Water" (video, lyrics) by his first band, Deep Purple (bio).





The next song request was something equally tribal in feel to the Deep Purple, but a totally different kind of song: Drumline (video) from the movie Drumline.


I had never even heard of this movie. The student who chose it says he enjoys watching the YouTube video and the whole movie itself.


This instrumental, percussive music reminded me of a DVD I gave my little nephews: Animusic. To show what the DVD is like I played a little clip, Pipe Dream. This is such a cool way to engage kids with music!

I also mentioned that I have given my nephews the Fantasia film DVD (info) . I wanted to show a clip of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, but it's not on YouTube :-(( .

I'm not sure how Animusic and Fantasia inspired the next choice: Tenacious D (bio) "Tribute" (video, lyrics). Seated over at one corner of the table each week are a few guys who are metal fans. They recongized parts of the song "Chop Suey" (video) by System Of A Down (bio) in the song. I thought *I* am good at rock trivia, but in this case my students are way better than me!

The student who chose this song is clearly a big Jack Black (bio) fan -- when I asked why he chose this song the student just said "Jack Black is FUNNY!!" It's true, JB has a big fan base. My neighbor in Amsterdam also was a big fan of Jack Black and his band, Tenacious D. And one afternoon recently a colleague at work was showing the movie "School Of Rock" to some other colleagues -- see, Microsoft isn't *all* humorless! ;-)) .

At this point I remembered that these metal guys in my class had previously talked about the band Dragonforce. I remembered that I had seen that the band is coming to Seattle with a festival, the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival on July 9th. It's actually not exactly *in* Seattle -- it's at the White River amphitheater in Auburn, about 45 minutes drive from Seattle. The guys seem excited about the concert, not only for Dragonforce but for the other bands, too.

I don't recall now the conversation that led to the next choice... The song was "Rebel Moves" by Bandare, which is sung in Turkish. Pinar said that the band mixes Turkish and English and that everyone in Europe knows this song. But no one in our class was familiar with it...


The next song requested was "Something Stupid" (video, lyrics) by Robbie Williams (bio) and Nicole Kidman (bio). I mentioned that my favorite Robbie Williams song is "Feel" (video, lyrics). One of the (female) students said the first time she heard Robbie's voice she thought it sounded very sexy so she went and bought his cd even though she couldn't understand the lyrics.

To keep the gender balance I asked the guys in the class who a sexy *woman* singer is. Someone said Sade (bio). We listened to "Smooth Operator" (video, lyrics).

Another male student said he thinks Mandy Moore (bio -- her birthday is the same as mine!) is sweet when she sings "Stupid Cupid" (video w/lyrics)

The conversation ended up at Coldplay (bio) "Clocks" (video, lyrics), but that's what we watched next. If I may editorialize a bit here, my favorite Coldplay song is "God Put A Smile On Your Face" (video, lyrics).

I could see the rock guys at the table were getting restless, so I asked for a "rock" song. Evanescence (bio) was chosen. We started watching "My Immortal" (video, lyrics) but the music wasn't "rock" enough so we went to "Going Under" (video, lyrics).

Keeping on the theme of hard rocking women singers I contrasted Evanescence with another female-fronted band we heard last quarter, Nightwish (bio), "Bless The Child" (video, lyrics).





To end the class I played one of the original women-fronted hard rock bands: Heart (bio), who are actually from Seattle. I was surprised that a number of the students know about Heart! Ann Wilson is one of the best rock singers ever. I showed what she looked like in singing Crazy On You (lyrics) in 1976 and in 2000. Yes, she's gained a lot of weight, but Pinar said she thinks her voice has matured greatly and sounds better now then before. I like both eras -- Heart is one of my favorite bands! Ann Wilson is a force of nature!


With that class ended for the week. The next class is on Valentines Day: everyone is to bring songs of love and/or heartbreak! I look forward to seeing which songs the class picks!

Trip to see U2 3D movie Tuesday, 5 Feb

Update: We were a group of 12 who went to the concert film. It was great fun! Here some pictures from the evening:

All of us in in the lobby of the theater (click for larger picture)






With 3D glasses on (click for larger picture)

Afterwards we visited Kerry Park to see the famous view of downtown Seattle (click for larger picture)


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the last class we decided to go see the U2 3D concert film on Tuesday, 5 February.

We will meet at our usual classroom at 5.45pm. We will attend the 7pm showing.

The price per ticket is $10.75 -- unfortunately there are no student discounts :-(( .

This will be a fun evening!

Steve Z

31 January 08

This week I had less students than I have become accustomed to -- only 7 -- but it was a fun class and we decided at the end to go for a trip to see the U2 3D concert movie next week.

At the start of class we talked about names rather than music. I said that a lot of my Asian students choose an American name when they come to the US and in so doing they are able to "create" a new identity for themselves. It' s an interesting concept!

When I travelled to Africa in November I learned that the Americans who stay there for two years with the Peace Corps are also given a local name.

We also talked about childhood nicknames the other kids used to call us when we were young.

One student said she had done research on Josh Groban and George Michael after our last class. I taught the class the verb "to google" which means "to do a web search". It is commonly used in America these days, though we are basically banned from saying it at my employer, Microsoft ;-) .

Finally we got around to talking about music. A student had a flyer about BCC-sponsored student trips to cultural events in Seattle. She had noted the one to Riverdance and asked if it is an interesting show. I said yes, it is very famous and interesting. We watched two videos: Geneva 2001 and... I can't remember which other one, but there are a million of them on YouTube.

Pinar noted that this dancing is very similar to a kind of traditional Turkish dancing. We watched "Sultans of the Dance" from the Eurovision song contest (a very fun evening of tv watching across Europe each year). Indeed, it was surprisingly similar to the Irish dancing of Riverdance!

I asked the class if they have ever heard of Cirque Du Soleil. None of them have heard of it. I have seen amazing clips of Cirque Du Soleil on TV, but during the class couldn't find anything on YouTub as cool as what I have seen on tv. We watched a part of Varekai called "Flying" but I think the part called "Water Meteors" is more interesting.

Cirque Du Soleil is coming to Seattle (actually, to Marymoor Park in Redmond) with a show called "Corteo" from April 24 - May 18. It must be an amazing show, albeit expensive :-( .

A student noted that the music reminded her of the Arizona Dreams soundtrack, but we didn't find a video for it on YouTube.



We had a new student today and I asked him for a musical suggestion. He chose a group called Libera (bio), a boys choir from the UK. I had never heard of this group before. We watched both an introduction to the band and a promo video for the album Visions.

A student mentioned that the Star Wars movies use choirs a lot. I asked what other kinds of music are like this and the class mentioned Enya (info, YouTube search) and Gregorian Chant (info, YouTube search).

As we talked in the class we learned that one of our group is a graduate in opera singing and a music teacher of flute and piano!

There follwed a short discussion and geography lesson about Moldova and Transnistria, but I won't go into those details here.

Next song chosen was George Michael (bio) "First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" (fan-made video, lyrics). Pinar said she likes the jazz album George Michael did "Songs From The Last Century". That album is all cover songs but done in a jazzy style. To contrast how he changed the songs, I showed his version of "Roxanne" (video), followed by the original version of Roxanne (video, lyrics) by The Police (bio). I personally prefer the Police version. And the drummer for The Police, Stewart Copeland, is my favorite rock drummer.

I told the class that my first job in high-tech was to be a researcher/writer for a Sting (bio) multimedia biography. One student said she likes the song "Desert Rose" (video, lyrics) with Cheb Mami (bio).

I told the story about how Sting had planned a special concert for a few lucky fans at his house in Tuscany, Italy in 2001. The plan was to broadcast the concert on the internet. The day for the concert came and everything was ready. It was September 11, 2001 and in the afternoon in Italy-time came word about the terrorist attacks in New York and Wasshington DC. They had to decide whether to go forward with the concert in the face of this tragedy. In the end they decided to play the concert, but the first song Sting did was "Fragile" (video, lyrics) a song about the fragility of life and humanity. The whole concert that day, with a documentary, was released as a DVD called "All This Time."

I said that I think Sting is an excellent lyricist. I started to say that I think Bono is an excellent lyricist, too, then stopped and told the class that I had seen the new U2 live concert film, "U2 3D" on the weekend. We talked a bit and decided that we would make a "class trip" to see the movie the evening of next Tuesday, February 5th!

For the last song of the day we came back to another version -- a true jazz version -- of the song "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" (video), this time by Roberta Flack (bio).


With that we called it a night. See some of you on Tuesday!

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?").