It’s no secret that the Vietnamese love their karaoke, something which I struggle to comprehend, even now. I find myself cringing at the sound of my own voice in the shower, let alone blasting it over a microphone for the whole of HCMC to hear. However, I do have to say that I thoroughly admire the Vietnamese’s ability to let go of all their inhibitions, even when it sounds just this bad …
For now, we’ll ignore the fact that this noise level was totally inappropriate for 1am on a Thursday night and instead just marvel at the gloriousness that is that woman’s voice. Vietnam’s Got Talent anyone?
I’ve largely been focusing on pronunciation and phonetics in my classes this past week, as all my students have their ‘dreaded’ oral tests next week. And after the shocking performance of last month’s tests (here) I’m determined to bring home some high scoring results this time.
The students really struggle with pronunciation; the sounds that tend to elude them the most include; Th, Ch, Sh and any word that ends in S or a hard consonant. As a result, lessons on the subject can become really quite tedious for them. So to help ease their boredom a little, I usually have a few extra activities up my sleeve. Tongue twisters are my first point of call, but they don’t make for an interesting blog entry. So we’ll move onto my next ‘golden nugget’; poetry. Now, I’m no Shakespeare, but I’ve studied enough of the genre to know that ‘Roses Are Red’ is a true classic (ehem).
So, it goes a little like this. I put the basic structure on the board:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
You are beautiful,
And I love you!
Then, after explaining that you must only change the final two lines, and that the final word must rhyme with ‘blue’, I leave them to create their own versions in pairs. Here are some of the results (some more entertaining than others):
1: Lack of Imagination
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
You are gorgeous,
And I like you!
2: Tear Jerker
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
You broke my heart,
Now I hate you!
3: Sweet Dreams
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I met Brad Pitt last night,
I want dream to come true!
4: Animal Instinct
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
You are crazy,
Like monkey in the zoo!
5: Food for thought
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I like pizza,
And hamburgers too!
6: Macabre
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
You kissed her?
I kill you!
7: Fashion, Darling
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sandals are comfortable,
But I like high heel shoe!
8: Lost the Memo
Roses are pink,
Violets are white,
I love you,
You love me!
Their homework is to create their own 4 line poem which includes at least 2 lines of rhyme. I’m sure these will be even more entertaining, so look out for a follow up.
In the meantime, here’s a little flashback for you to enjoy …
Cô Kerri 