Yesterday (Saturday, August 5) was our university's Open Campus, the annual event where thousands of high school students visit our school to attend sample classes and ask questions about the departments and faculties they're interested in trying to join.
It was hot, the hottest day of the summer so far, 37 degrees and very humid. I did my American Money and Culture lecture, the one I've done twice before for past Open Campuses, and the one I do in a longer form each year for my American Culture class. So it shouldn't have been too difficult, right? But I didn't have much time to prepare, because in the past week I had to proctor exams, meet twice with our entrance examination committee, mark 75 Culture class exams and 95 Introduction to American Culture and Literature exams, make out all my class grades, and read a graduate student's thesis. And I really wanted to make my Open Campus sample lecture easier to understand and more enjoyable. The goal, after all, is to encourage as many high school students as possible to try to enter our English Department! So in the nights leading up to Open Campus, I tried finding better pictures of money and better ways to arrange them and better ways to present the points I wanted to make about them. The main points are as follows: 1) Studying money is a good way to learn culture because the money of a country usually shows what its people believe is great about their country. 2) American money shows patriotism (war hero presidents and democracy buildings etc.), freedom (the word "LIBERTY" on all coins), Christianity (the words "IN GOD WE TRUST" on all money), and unity (the Latin phrase "E Pluribus Unum," from many, one). 3) American money does not show bright colors, women, people of color, animals, nature, teachers, doctors, writers, artists, and so on. No, it also does not show Snoopy or Beyonce! 4) American money is not easy to use for tourists (coins have no Arabic number values) and blind people (paper money has nothing to touch to feel the different values). 5) American people love money and respect their war heroes and founding fathers but also treat money roughly and without respect. I guess it went OK... But it's hard to tell, because my sample class was held in this vast hall that can probably accommodate 500 people, when about only 250 (only!) attended. And the ones who attended were scattered loosely throughout the hall, so that I had little sense of engagement with the ones in the back third of the room, and because the room lights had to be either completely turned off or on, with no in between setting, I had to choose between doing the class with the images difficult to see (lights on) or with me difficult to see (lights off). I chose the latter course and regretted it but felt unable to stop that way once I'd started. I also started feeling I was running out of energy about half way through (and it was only 40 minutes!). I used too much Japanese and botched it when I used it. I lost confidence that the audience (high school students and some of their parents) could understand what I was trying to communicate, which drained me of morale and energy. I struggled to find easy words to express complicated situations a few times... I felt embarrassed when I remembered that several of my colleagues (other English department teachers) were in the audience... But! There were some positives. My student helper, Atsuko (Atsu) Sakata, one of the very best students we have and a really nice bright funny cute girl, was great. She gave me a nice introduction in English to start, and then she changed the pictures and enlarged the right parts and fanned out the American, Vietnamese, and Japanese paper money and made piles of them to show how American paper money is all the same size, unlike the paper money of most other countries. Her assistance freed me from having to run back and forth between the OHC command center and the screens, so I could walk back and forth between the two big screens in front of the room to point things out on them to the audience, etc. etc. And she was generally a calming presence. Also, the audience did, I think, enjoy seeing pictures of American bills on which Americans had scribbled messages or mustaches or elaborate designs and characters (KISS, Vincent Van Gogh, Yoda, Spiderman, etc. etc.). It is fun to see on a big screen one graffiti after another, each more outrageous than the last! (Above are two mild examples.) Then it was over and the post-performance deflation hit. Afterwards, I went to Building A to pick up my bento and touch base with our student helpers and teachers in the English Department room as they were explaining things to students and parents, then went to the Graduate School Open Campus to talk with an interesting potential student (she's about 50 and will probably try to work with Oshima Sensei on Native American literature), then went to my colleague Dodo Emiko Sensei's neat sample lecture (comparing the Breakfast at Tiffany's original novel with the 1961 movie and explaining American culture points from the 50s and 60s). And then I ate my lunch and unwound! Whew... Now my summer vacation can almost begin (I have to deal with the graduate student's thesis, being a member of her committee, but that's the last business till fall semester begins).
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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