GiST 170 and More Good News

1. Wednesday night our teacher for the pronunciation module, whom I’ll call T., told us that he had passed the time on the subway en route to class by reading from a small paperback called Phonetics. He was refreshing his memory on the phonemes of English and the symbols used to represent them in the International Phonetic Alphabet. The woman sitting next to him was very excited to see the book and proceeded to ask him where he got it, explaining that she had been looking for just such a chart for a long time.  He told her he couldn’t remember where he’d picked up that copy. He then remembered that he had another copy in his book bag and gave it to her. He added that if any of us had been wanting to meet someone of the opposite sex, just read a phonetics book on the subway.

2. My classmate R., who is from Iran, asked me at lunch why I know so much about Farsi and Persian history and culture. I explained to her about being a Persophile. She is a beautiful young woman with pixie-cut black hair, a petite build and delicate facial features, including big brown eyes framed by those long, thick eyelashes Iranians are blessed with. She said that she has written a poem about Toronto in Farsi and wonders if I would be able to read it. She’s going to bring it with her to class tomorrow to show it to me.

3. The lovely young woman sitting to my left at our round table had a can of Egyptian Mint tea with spices sitting on the table. All day the smell of cardamom wafted up to my delighted nostrils. Ah!

4. The lovely young woman sitting to my left is also on a gluten-free regimen and SHARES her snacks with our table.

5. I share my dark chocolate with the class.

6. K at the next table shared her mother’s homemade zucchini bread with all of us.

7. Today’s discussion of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and its detractors was animated and fun. We were told about the Piraha of Brazil, a tiny community of only a couple of hundred people who speak a language that has no living language relatives. You have to click the link and read about them to believe it. A language that can be hummed or whistled? No numbers? It was fascinating for me to listen while we batted around the hypotheses surrounding whether language determines how we are capable of conceptualizing versus how world view and/or culture shapes language. We heard about a fascinating study done with 5-month old babies suggesting babies do indeed have the capacity to think before they have language. And why am I including this in my list of Good News and small Graces? If you read the article, note the point re the failed attempt to teach the Piraha to read and count to ten. It was painstaking work for weeks and weeks. Finally one day a breakthrough! All of the students managed to read one word out loud in unison, which caused them to burst out laughing. The teacher asked why they had laughed. They explained (in their own language, as Piraha have remained unilingual for centuries in spite of a long-standing trading relationship with other peoples) that what they had just uttered sounded just like their word for “sky.”  Exactly! That had been the point of all the lessons! The Piraha then became agitated and wanted to discontinue the lessons. It seems they had been gathering with the teacher because they enjoyed the social contact and because he made popcorn.  You see, in the Piraha worldview or culture or way of being alive, you do not talk about anything that is not in the here and now.  There’s no value in that. You see where I’m going with this? And can you believe that SOME researchers suggest that the Piraha are simply too dumb to learn to read or count. Here is a people that is right out of Quinn’s novel Ishmael, only they are not extinct! Mind you, they are getting badly ripped off in every trade with outsiders since they cannot count, but they remain monolingual and happy in their blissful denial of our linear time-bound view of the world. I would say that are that rare gem of a non-temporal culture. Here I am faithfully reading Eckhart Tolle and meditating in my attempt to learn to be in the Now… while the Piraha are already always there!  This adds what I feel is a very important aspect to the Whorfian/anti-Whorfian debate that nobody in my class seems to get. I put my hand in the air once to try to convey it, but gave up with they all looked at me like I had three heads.  Apparently there are no Buddhists in the class.  Anyway: YOU GO, PIRAHA! Nobody yet understands the amazing intimacy these people have with a state of being most of us can only yearn for.

8. Deaf Culturists must LOVE this story. No lip reading for us, thank you very much.

9. Finding my way by two long bus rides to the hospital where Sylvain is undergoing a biannual check. Even though I barely had time to get there, kiss him and turn back around to make my appointment with one of the boarders for English help, it was worth the trip.

10. So I could stay longer, he gave me a $20 for a taxi back.

11. The taxi driver was really nice, took a lesser-known fast route, and got me home right on time. The fare was enough under $20 that the driver smiled at being tipped the rest.

12. The look on my Korean homestay friend’s face when I knocked on his attic room door, ready for the promised help with English (see yesterday’s post). It was such a delight when, after some explaining and supportive examples, the light bulb came on over his head and he smiled the biggest smile, saying to me, “Awesome! You are a GOOD teacher!”

“C tells me you are feeling stressed about your English studies,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. He explained that his reason for going to the Cambridge ESOL school here in Toronto is to prepare for the TOEFL so he can be admitted to the Occupational Therapy program at USC. He already has his undergrad degree in it and wants to get his masters and Ph.D. there. But he’s been here two months with four to go and doesn’t feel his English is getting any better. I looked at his text books and homework. Before long he was dragging out every homework or in-class worksheet with a problem on it that had been left unresolved in his mind when the teacher moved onto other things. He had all these problem items highlighted.  One by one, we tackled them.  What does “known as” mean, as in “Lisa fixes her children something known as a bento lunch.” What does “as though” mean in “It seems as though they know each other.”  D’s English is very advanced. We’re getting into collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms, reported speech and those finer points. You can’t imagine how many example sentences I came up with trying to convey the meaning of the word “subtle.”  At the end of each question’s discussion, the “Aha!” moment eventually came, followed by the big smile and the “Awesome! You are a great teacher!”  We agreed to have more sessions like this one on days when I don’t have homework.

9. I picked up my Part One assignments from the office and read the teachers’ comments. (Yes, more than one teacher.) I was especially pleased with T’s evaluation of my practicum. All our assignments up to now have had two possible marks: pass or do over. But there are three possible marks for the practicum: Unsuccessful, Pass or Pass With Distinction. I passed with distinction. :)  Because it is my GOOD NEWS for today, I am going to share a portion of my mentor’s comments with the world!

Professionalism: Kelly was very friendly and respectful. she was punctual and arrived prepared each day.

Progress during practicum: At the beginning of the week, her instructions were a bit rushed. By the third day, she had mastered giving simple and clear instructions.

Strengths: Kelly has great class management skills. She is very comfortable at the front of the class. She did an excellent job of always being present. Rather than focusing on what her plan was on paper, she was able to “go with the flow” and remain aware of what was happening in the class. She is a very flexible teacher. She has excellent elicitation skills as well as a solid understanding of PPP. Kelly was able to use level-appropriate language from day one.

Areas for improvement: No particular area stands out as needing major improvement. I think as Kelly builds up her pool of resources, her lessons will become even more student-centred, the flow will continue to improve and she will be able to get more mileage out of her handouts.

10. There were two middle-aged men at the back of the bus. They had white dust on them and paint splattered on their clothes. One man scooched over, drawing in his body so as not to touch the well-dressed woman beside him. “I don’t want to get you dirty,” he said, smiling and then leaning back toward his buddy to continue their chat, which had them both smiling amiably. She didn’t say much. He was leafing through a magazine. When he finished looking at it, he offered it to the young woman. Again, she dismissed him with few syllables. He shrugged and rolled up his magazine. Then he caught me three seats over eavesdropping on the whole thing, a big smile on my face.  ”Do you want it?” he asked, holding out the glossy women’s magazine. “Sure,” I said, taking it. “Thank you.”

11. Everyone I asked for help en route to the hospital (drivers, fellow passengers) were so very kind, helpful and eager to share information.