Josh and I did a short drama workshop/dialogue session with some graduating English majors at Providence University (靜宜大學) today. It was so much fun! I haven't taught university students for a few years now (I've been too busy being one!), so it was really nice to be a teacher again, if only for 30 minutes.
We talked about what it's like to be a foreigner and how frustrating culture shock can be sometimes. 我也分享我最近發生了一件"外國人在台灣"小事情，就是兩個禮拜前我跟一個不會中文的美國白人同事和兩個台灣人同事一起去某一家台北小餐廳吃午餐。我們開始吃飯的時候，我突然很口渴想喝熱茶，所以我站起來走過去廚房附近看看有沒有飲料。我正在找茶的時候餐廳的一個大概四十、五十幾歲阿姨注意到我在找東西用很大很慢很誇張（其實感覺她很害怕）的方式問我：「您需要什麼嗎？」，我（用中文）回答：「我在找熱茶，你們這裡有熱茶嗎？」（我可以保證我的發音滿標準）。她呆呆的看著我一下然後就轉頭對她的同事說：「我聽不懂她的英文ㄟ！」。她的同事擺出一個感覺很疑惑的表情回答她：「聽不懂什麼？她講中文！熱茶，她要的是熱茶！」。呆呆阿姨轉頭回來，對著我說：「我們沒有熱茶。」
我相信，我們每個人都犯過這種錯誤，看到一個人的外表就馬上假設他是怎麼樣的人。英文可以說是：Judge a book by its cover。But really, the complete phrase is, "You can't judge a book by its cover." I think sometimes you can, actually. But not all of the time. Not even most of the time. 總之，我個人是覺得我們大家應該盡量多開放一點，嘗試不同的事物多一點，否則到最後，我們可能會什麼都（聽）不懂。
The students today asked some good questions about theatre, and how to talk to the audience. I've always thought it was interesting that in Taiwan senior English majors have to do a graduation theatre performance. It's a great idea, because doing theatre helps you learn how to use your whole body to communicate with people, and communicating with people is what language learning is all about. I hope I get to see their show next month!
See what wonderful things can happen
when you use your whole body to communicate?
(from Katie's graduate performance of 天生冤家 last year)
Finally, I promised the students that I'd post the lyrics to the drama game/ESL game we did today. Here they are:
Standing Up Straight
Standing up straight! Knees bent!
Feet together! Butt out!
Arms out! Head back!
Wrists together! Eyes shut!
Thumbs up! Tongue out!
Elbows bent!
**The words for the dancing part are gibberish (they have no English meaning). But here's what they sound like (you say this part twice each time):
A-roo-sta-sha
A-roo-sta-sha
A-roo-sta-sha-sha
Huh!
Best. Drama.Warm-up. Game. Ever.
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