TESL & Battlestar Galactica

(a balloon and a chainsaw)

Mmmm...

Classes are flying right along. I'm doing my best to give students the most amount of information for the limited time (2 weeks!) we have them. I get up on desks. I dance around. I sing. I do whatever I can to help them acquire the English language as fast and painlessly as possible. Most of my efforts have been to utilize the TPR method. I will say a word with an action, have them repeat it, and then do the action while they say the word. This has been a useful method for me to learn other languages, so I'm hoping it will be helpful for my students as well. They seem to be enjoying themselves.

Today I walked into a class singing "The Star Spangled Banner." They laughed for a good while, especially when I tried the Korean National Anthem. I kept getting the notes wrong or the pronunciation. I'm not sure which. Eventually, they started clapping after my eighth try. If I knew what I did right, I wouldn't have done nearly so many wrong. That's the way it goes I suppose. (National anthems are hard in other languages; the vowel sounds can throw you out of key. At least that's how I console my singing ego.)

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I will be going to the Hwa Gya Sa Temple on Sunday to sit in on some good old meditation and a dharma talk. I am very excited about this. Not only do I have a potential friend who might be at this temple, but I will also get to meet another of Zen Master Seung Sahn's students, Hyon Gak Sunim.

The Seoul International Zen Center sent me these directions:

Suyu Subway station / Line No. 4 / Blue Line Exit No. 2 - Take Shuttle Bus No. 2 - Get off at Hanshin University Stop - 5 Minute walk to Hwa Gye Sa =or= Exit No. 4 - Take a cab (around 3,000 won) - Get off at Hwa Gye Sa

We will see where I end up. If it's at Burger King, then I am going to get a Whopper.

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I have watched all of Battlestar Galactica. I really can't get enough of it. It's that darn, Guyus Balthar! How can you not love him? I have also been lusting after the other Cylons. Call me a sucker for machines. They do it to me every time.

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"Is Guyus a Cylon? Is this entire show a comment on the War in Iraq? Could I make love to a machine? Do machines have rights? Could they believe in God? What if they did? What if they raged a war because of their spiritual beliefs?"

Whenever I talk about Battlestar, I have several friends who bust out laughing. I totally understand. How could someone as cool as me like Battlestar? Well, it's easy. It's the same thing that gets you in any television show: identification, sexual gratification, and the unknown.

(pop)