Monday, April 21, 2008

Adding to the Curriculum

My E4-C class was quite amusing today. Apparently Geena, one of my students, saw me at the Rice Cake Festival on Saturday, but I did not hear her calling to me. When she announced that in class, it sparked a class discussion about the festival, which was fine with me. I decided to go ahead and just converse with the kids for a few minutes - they learn better conversational English that way than they do with their cheesy, pathetic Disney curriculum (Englishland). In case you haven't figured it out, I hate the book we're using in that class! It's so lousy that I actually apologized once to the kids for making them sing one of the songs in it.

Anyway, the discussion on the festival somehow evolved into the kids peppering me with questions about my social life and relationship status. Then they wanted to know all about past relationships (actually, technically that's singular in my case), so I gave in and told them what they wanted to know. It's not like there's anything rated PG or above in my past. The kids got more into that discussion than any we've had in the past two months! At the end of our class discussion, the class as a whole decided that I should get a Korean boyfriend. I just laughed.

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"Passage—immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins! Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Cut the hawsers—haul out—shake out every sail!
Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
Have we not grovell’d here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
Have we not darken’d and dazed ourselves with books long enough?

Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave soul!
O farther, farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!"

~Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"