All I know's that it's a pity life can't be simple again!"-Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, "Rocky Top"
"J'en ai marre de la vie urbaine, piégé comme une
poule dans un parc!
La vie ici n’est
guère si simple, et c’est ma dernière remarque ! "-John Gilmer (translator), "Le Rocky Top" Haha...
Well I've done it; I've taught my first official classes, and I loved almost every minute of it (barring a few predictably awkward silences). I played the entirety of "Sweet Home Alabama" complete with a French translation as my introductory activity, and it was a success with every class---first years to masters students. I've decided to establish a "song of the week" policy because it seems to me that, beyond my loving music, such an activity offers several benefits: it provides structure, cultural immersion, an aural learning opportunity, ready-made translation work, and, of course, a damn good way to keep everyone's attention (particularly in my 8am/9am courses when only caffeine, my sense of duty, and, most importantly, Lynyrd Skynyrd are keeping me from sleeping at my desk).
So in keeping with that plan, I've selected "Rocky Top" as my second week song. NB: This is not an endorsement of UT football, but rather a tribute to the state I've grown to consider my second home. If anyone's interested in hearing my "cover" of it, just tell me, haha. I kept most of the rhyming and meter intact in my translation, even if "moonshine still" is entirely untranslatable in French.
Anyway, after the "Sweet Home" experience, I transitioned to my main actvity for the first day, "2 truths and a lie,"a venerable old game, ever popular in the summer camp circuits. Here were the 12 statements I composed about myself in an effort to give them some material to work with (and perfect an occasionally self-depricating standup comedy routine that scored massive laughs by my final class when it had been refined):
1. I'm an indentical twin. (T)
2. I love cats. (F, in the extreme)
3. I can speak German fluently. (F, just enough to deceive people into thinking I do)
4. I dressed like this daily at my University. (T, plus ties)
5. I was once asked to be the "Golden Snitch" in a game of "Quidditch." (T)
6. I can play the violin. (T, but poorly)
7. I wanted to be a teacher when I was young. (F, doctor, I fix broken english not broken bones, lol!1!!)
8. My hometown, Mobile, was once a French colony. (T, the Monarchy, not the Republic)
9. I have never watched the show Breaking Bad (F in the extreme again; I also use this time to point to New Mexico on my map)
10. I've won the lottery. (T, 50 dollars....better than nothing!)
11. I ran 16 kilometers last night. (T, look for the dude running at night with a headlamp, possibly lost)
12. I've broken 3 bones. (T, weren't no fun....)
Each one was paired with at least one story that taught them a bit about me. For example, 2. "I love cats" was followed by my confessed affection for the cat who lives between the library and Language Center, "Butch." Clearly a cat who lives at a University must be intelligent and refined; he even lets people pet him without demanding food. With number 8. I'd score laughs by making fun of Mobilians for saying "Petty Boy" island" instead of "Petit Bois" and the young John Gilmer for thinking "Dauphin Island" was "Dolphin Island" for longer than he'd care to admit. I think I landed enough of my jokes to say that I passed as a professor-comedian; I even kept a class of 20 girls laughing for the entire hour (drawing a cat face in the word "cat" has had the highest success rate, haha).
At any rate, I've heard so many hilarious little comments from my students already that they are almost numerous beyond recounting: the girl who hesistated to pronounce the "a-cola" suffix of "coke" when describing something she was addicted to, the girl who annonced that her boyfriend was "married" when she was trying to say a "mariner," and the girl who proudly announced that she had already dated a boy from Alabama (apparently they met when he was at the Naval Academy and she in DC...she did not recall what city he was from, leading me to believe that her definition of "date" is far more liberal than mine, haha). One guy told the class that he'd met the Queen of England and was met with laughter, only to recount an amazing story of how he, as a child, had nearly been able to shake her hand. Ha, and of course one girl joked about being afraid of butterflies only to have another announce that the "fluttering monsters" scared her to tears. Oh yeah, and one girl was traumatized by the movie ET; thanks a lot for that scene with the Fed's in space suits, Spielberg.
I also have the female Judo champion of Senegal in one of my courses, haha.
Anyway, never in my life since I was the "Trivia Lord" of Camp Alpine's "Hunter Hollow" have I found my breadth of random knowledge so useful. I can make use of everything from French history, Latin, linguistics, animal facts, anatomy, and geography to Game of Thrones, video games, Breaking Bad, English-speaking musicians, and The Simpsons. Ha, the two places I've almost always been comfortable have been the classroom and the bar trivia arena; looks like I've finally found perfect overlap. In fact, the only thing that's really changed in my life is my location in the classroom and a dramatic increase in my use of MS Excel.
Find attached a video of Jules Verne's mechanical elephant that I might prove my loyalty to Alabama football despite my love for "Rocky Top" (particularly the Flying Burrito Brothers version). Hope everyone who's reading this is doing well, whatever your coordinates, and I hope to write again soon.
Cordialement,
"Monsieur Gilmer" (I really need keep telling them to call me John...)
P.S: "Now my fur has turned to skin, and I've been quickly ushered in to a world that I confess I do not know, but I still dream of running careless through the snow..."-Blitzen Trapper, "Furr"
That line has never resonated with me as much as it does now; Sewanee memories are beginning to feel as distant as home these days, and I must confess that there are moments when I'm running along the Loire that I wish it were a dry creekbed along the Mountain Goat Trail. I don't run with my pack anymore, and while I've embraced the inevitable (ever encroaching...) reality of growing up, I sometimes long for those glorious moments blazed out in finish chutes, "young, and wild, and free, like Texas in 1880."
(Despite the trunk-hose, I was extremely disappointed to find that it is powered by wheels, not its own mechanical feet....RTR anyway)
(and there's Waldo)
No comments:
Post a Comment