Gosh, those first-year economics majors are sure funny! Last Wednesday, I was having them do this conversation practice activity where they get with new partners and talk for 25 mins to get as much information about the other person as possible, then return them to their usual partners to tell them everything they remember learning about the new partner, and then having their usual partner tell the class something about their usual partner's new partner. ANYWAY, usually they just say something like, "Hiroshi's hometown is Fukuoka," or "Hiromi's hobby is singing songs." But this time, one of the class clowns said, "Haruka plays judo!" Haruka is the least likely looking judo person you can imagine, so we all burst out laughing, while Haruka was turning read and shaking her head no... So then the class clown said, "It's Miyzaki [his home prefecture] joke!" and we laughed some more. Then the next guy got up and said, "Marin has five babies!" and then as we were laughing in disbelief, "Saga [his home prefecture] joke!" so we laughed more...
I have to watch them a bit so they don't get too out of hand or possibly harm another student's confidence or expression. The girls in question took the joking quite well, and it felt good-natured, because both pieces of information about them were so obviously false, but later when another boy was giving a report about another student, the class clown guy imitated his voice with uncanny accuracy, so that the class was laughing at that poor lad (who does have a distinctive manner and voice...), so I had to look stern and Ssshhh Yuki so his humor target could finish his report... The other memorable thing from this week was covering Anne Bradstreet's "To My Dear and Loving Husband" (the first poem in our American poetry anthology textbook) with the first year students in the Introduction to American Culture and Literature (America Bunka Bungaku Gairon) class. After introducing Puritan literature and Anne Bradstreet's life and that of her husband, I went over thee (intimate you), thy (intimate your), and ye (plural you), explained the different ideas and emotions in the poem, covered the pun in dear (which means both beloved and expensive and works interestingly with all the words in the poem with money meanings, prize, riches, recompense, reward, repay...), explained how the poem is an unusual Puritan poem (compared to Jonathan Edwards "The Joys of Church Fellowship Rightly Attended," for example), and THEN read it out loud with them, using gestures for "If ever two were one" and pointing to my chest for "I, wife, my, etc." and away to the students for "thee, thy, you, man" etc.... And then had them repeat the poem after me, phrase by phrase, with gestures. And then had them say the poem with me with gestures. And by that last activity I was full of joy and love and pride, because 90 some people saying her poem together made it so powerful to hear, and at the same time made it more intimate than when I say it by myself alone in my office or wherever. It is a wonderful poem. I think they enjoyed it!
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
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December 2023
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