Day: December 6, 2011

Caveat: Gravestones cheer the living

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc)

Sometimes I cook things completely off program.

Sometimes it even works out.

Yesterday I went to the foreign grocery store across the street, mostly to resupply myself with the Brazilian brand of instant coffee that I like (“Iguaçu”), and I saw a giant bottle of dill spice. It seemed too big, but it was the only size they had, and I’ve never seen dill spice before in Korea. I decided to buy it – it was only 8 bucks.

So I got home thinking, gee, I have a lifetime’s supply of dill spice, what should I make? The main thing I have used dill spice for, in the past, is borsht – but I still haven’t found any beets (admittedly I haven’t looked that hard).

I had some nice tomatoes, and I had my pea soup. What could I make? I made fried tomatoes, with a breading that included corn flour, dill spice, nutmeg, black pepper. I literally invented the recipe from my crazy imagination – I had no plan or idea beforehand. Then I ate them with my pea soup and some toast. They were delicious.

What I’m listening to right now.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, “Buy for me the rain.”

The video is very interesting – it’s a cheesy anti-war-themed music video from the 1960’s! I didn’t even know such a thing existed until I found it when finding a youtube of the song [UPDATE: old video link rotted, new video link is just the soundtrack – so the video is lost].

I grew up with this music – it’s very nostalgic, for me. Here are the lyrics.

Buy for me the rain, my darling, buy for me the rain;
Buy for me the crystal pools that fall upon the plain.
And I’ll buy for you a rainbow and a million pots of gold.
Buy it for me now, babe, before I am too old.

Buy for me the sun, my darling, buy for me the sun;
Buy for me the light that falls when day has just begun.
And I’ll buy for you a shadow to protect you from the day.
Buy it for me now, babe, before I go away.

Buy for me the robin, darling, buy for me the wing;
Buy for me a sparrow, almost any flying thing.
And I’ll buy for you a tree, my love, where a robin’s nest may grow.
Buy it for me now, babe, the years all hurry so.

I cannot buy you happiness, I cannot buy you years;
I cannot buy you happiness, in place of all the tears.
But I can buy for you a gravestone, to lay behind your head.
Gravestones cheer the living, dear, they’re no use to the dead.

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Caveat: Immigration Debate

My Videos / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

I'm finally getting around to posting a video of my last major debate test with the middle schoolers, which was at the end of October (no debate test for November because of the special test prep schedule, which doesn't have a debate class).

The video is kind of long – I strung together the Monday and Tuesday cohorts into one long video because the topic and proposition were exactly the same. One student's speech and part of another's were lost because of a camera problem, but other than that, it's all the students who participated.

As usual, I haven't put a lot of energy into the minutiae of editing – I cut out the various short exchanges between me and the students in which I provide quick feedback or directions – so it's only their voices.

Sometimes, they are very hard to hear – the sound pick-up on the camera didn't seem to work that well, and there's a lot of ambient noise (especially during the Monday group's debate) that makes hearing them harder, too.

Most of them are clearly not comfortable with public speaking yet, but a few show some progress if you compare them to earlier speeches. A few are more natural with public speaking – they will be the ones who are easier to understand, but keep in mind that they aren't, in fact, the ones with the highest competency in English, necessarily – they're just more at ease with the format.

The topic was challenging, and I think they did pretty well. I gave some guidance but I tried very hard not to let them merely bounce back ideas that I suggested (for both sides) but to forge their own.

The proposition was: "Immigration to South Korea should be encouraged." It's a topical, meaningful, "real" debate proposition, as it's something I bet has been debated in South Korea's legislature in recent years quite a bit. I've written and reflected on South Korea's relationship to the potential of redefining itself as an immigrant-welcoming society in other places on this blog – I won't go into it here, and I was careful not to be too transparent on my own biases and opinions with the kids.

Please don't judge the kids or their quality of presentation or English too harshly – remember they are 7th and 8th grade students who for the most part have never travelled to an English-speaking country. Nor have they had any experience with public speaking – even in their native Korean language. Considering that, they do pretty well..

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