Grand Slam Communication
Oh goodness.
Today I had some extra time in class.
So I asked my online English student what I foods I would eat if I visited his tiny, remote village.
I expected to hear about noodles and seafood.
He proudly recommended his mother’s mouse meat.
Um, what? Excuse me?
I asked him to write it in the chat box, just to make sure I heard him correctly.
I heard right.
Mouse meat.
Yeah, no.
I binge-watched Fleabag on Amazon Prime.
It won a bunch of Emmys so I had to check it out.
What a fabulous example of amazing script writing.
It’s gritty and off-color.
And very, very funny.
I don’t want to give away any spoilers.
I’ll just say that the fourth-wall element was incredible.
And it wrapped up beautifully with that wave at the end.
This story has a little bit of everything.
Comedy, grief, guilt, guinea pigs, love, acceptance, sin and redemption.
And some theft.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge not only starred in the series, she wrote it too.
Now I have to stalk her and check out all of her work.
Can laughter make you smarter?
This was a very interesting question posed to me today.
My answer, as an ESL teacher, is a qualified yes.
Qualified because the non-stop class clown jokes are distracting and not at all helpful.
However it is a public speaking axiom that when the audience is laughing, they are leaning in to listen.
With that in mind, I always try to get at least a chuckle out of every class session.
In teaching conversation, the human connection is far more important than grammar rules or vocabulary lists.
If I can garner so much as a hint of a smile, I know I will have a successful ESL session with that student.
On National Punctuation Day, one of my ESL students had trouble getting into the online classroom.
I had the IT guy work with him while I started up with the rest of the students.
He finally arrived.
He wrote in the chat box, “I’m in yay.”
Another student wrote, “Where is Yay?”
I didn’t laugh out loud.
I never laugh at my students.
But I did stop the lesson to discuss the importance of punctuation.
Happy National Punctuation Day!
I had three students and a slacker interpreter in my English class.
One of the students was really struggling to understand.
Usually the interpreter will jump right in to help.
This interpreter did nothing.
I asked her to please help the student.
She said, in perfect English, that she couldn’t help him.
Because she didn’t understand.
What?!?!
The students said something to each other, and they all laughed.
I don’t need an interpreter to know that they said, “slacker.”
Who proofreads this stuff?
I read the following headline:
“Homicide Suspect Arrested from the Sheriff’s Department.”
This implies that the suspect worked in the Sheriff’s Department.
Which was not the case at all.
The suspect was arrested BY the Sheriff’s Department, not FROM the Sheriff’s Department.
That’s a whole different kind of news story.
And a bit of a disappointing read.
Who proofreads this stuff?
A huge problem that I see in the scripts that I cover is that the protagonist lacks focus.
The main character is going in too many directions.
He wants love.
He wants to win.
He wants revenge.
He wants to go home.
He wants to reconcile.
He wants redemption.
I advise writers to focus their protagonist.
Give him one single desire that drives him through the entire plot.
Are there exceptions to this rule?
Of course there are.
But an aspiring writer should master the basics first.
Yes, I know, I used “he” instead of “he/she.”
But I’m thinking of a specific script in which the protagonist was male.
I gave the writer suggestions about refining the main character.
I can’t wait to read the revisions.
It will be a much huge problem when the protagonist is focused.
I swear, it was for research.
I’m a script reader.
I read book and movie manuscripts,
and I write a technical analysis.
Sometimes I have no idea what the writer is talking about.
I have to research the topic.
If I ever got hacked and someone saw my recent Google searches,
all I can say is,
“It was for RESEARCH!”
Seriously.
I received some VERY nice kudos.
I just finished a couple of huge script reading projects.
“You were always substantive in your analyses and offered constructive criticisms.”
“You were as good when you were offering praise as you were when you were panning a script, which is a surprisingly rare ability.”
“Your work unquestionably places you among the best readers we’ve had the pleasure and good fortune of working with.”
Thank you, Production Company Guys.
I appreciate the kudos.
I’m the teacher in the English conversation class.
I’m the one who is fluent.
But sometimes my students leave me utterly speechless…
Today’s conversation topic was “At the Gym.”
The class started talking about yoga.
Fair enough.
But then one man said that he refuses to practice yoga.
“If I practice yoga, I will turn into a woman.”
The rest of the class agreed.
They discussed men they knew who began doing yoga.
And then turned into a woman.
Oh goodness.
And this is NOT a discussion topic that I intend to moderate.
I redirected the conversation to swimming.
Note to self – NEVER discuss yoga in the conversation class again.