Quick survey:
How many of you remember this activity from elementary school:
The teacher gives you a piece of paper, on which you trace your hand. You draw a line across the bottom of the hand. Then a couple of eyes on the thumb. Then you color in the remaining finges and--voila--a turkey fit for the Pilgrims themselves.
I had the pleasure of explaining this little piece of Americana to Eve and Ruby today. Next week, our school opens for good, but I am thinking a couple weeks beyond that already, to Thanksgiving. I was seeking their advice about how to find some way to incorporate Thanksgiving into whatever lessons I give that week.
In the process, I had to describe Thanksgiving itself. Halloween has made it over to Taiwan, big time; our school was mobbed last night by trick-or-treaters--literally mobbed, as they all showed up at one time, en masse. Christmas, at least of the Santa and Rudolph variety, is big. But Thanksgiving is just too quintessentially American to be exported to Taiwan.
It was amazing to me how little I remembered about the story I was told as a child, about the Pilgrims and the Indians. Had there been a war? Had the Pilgrims been starving? I couldn't remember any of the exact details, just that the Pilgrims were suffering somehow, the Indians helped them out, and then--boom--Fressfest 1620 got underway.
It's hard to know how much of my job will be teaching American culture as much as American language. But if today's conversation with Eve and Ruby was any indication, I think the proportion of culture to language will be high. In the course of an hour, I got to explain:
1) Big-box retailers, a la Wal-Mart and K-Mart
2) Cacti
3) Where "the Midwest" is, and what constitutes a "Midwestern Flat" accent (though I did not get the opportunity to explain why the Midwest farmer's daughters make me feel all right)
4) Whether "elementary school" is an Americanism, contrasting with the British "primary school". The short answer: I don't know.
And so my career as a cultural ambassador begins.
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3 comments:
As an ex-language major (BA in French--just don't ask which year :) ), I can commiserate. Wait 'til you have to explain the difference between unh-unh (accented on the first syllable, and meaning "no") and unh-hunh (accented on the second syllable, meaning "yes"), which I can't even figure out how to spell. :)
Shabbat shalom.
I think the usual spelling of the latter is uh-huh. But there are other words like this in English. I remember as a child that the word "Yay" was spelled "Yeah". I think that's when I really became aware of English's idiosyncratic spelling.
My mother (who can't seem to get into Blogger to comment) chimes in:
"yeah" and "yay" are two totally different words. "Yeah" means "yes" or "all right." You say it to let the person talking to you know that you heard but you're not quite sure you're going to do what has been requested. "Yay" is a cheer. "Yay! We won!' "Yay! Hooray for our side!!" and such like.
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