Job Discussion Forums

[arioch36]

I'm an American male. I can't sing worth a darn (Can you say that on Dave's?) But I find teaching an English song a nice change of pace, good at having them lose their accent, pleasant to listen to them, and a worthwhile teaching tool.

The most common songs I have used so far:

Puff the Magic Dragon. I'm biased, I like the song, lots of tough word for them

The Beatles Yesterday Easy to sing, pretty song, gives them confidence Good grammar

The Rose I give them the Bette Midler version to listen to, but I have them sing to a simpler version. This song is great for writing class

Starts by giving the other point of view..Some say...
Starts with a metaphor. Many of them can now use a metaphor
Shows a good example of compare and contrast.


I don't do Santa stuff. It's Jesus's birthday, not money's birthday. We do do Jingle Bells, but besides that it is Christian Christmas songs. I now have them some of them in English and Chinese.

What I would like is a movie clip that shows Amazing Grace being performed during a funeral. Common in the US at least. Any ideas? I do have a nice clip of Reaana? Rhimes? singing Aucapauco

[chinasyndrome]

[quote="arioch36"]

[Ferne]

Anything but "Yesterday Once More"!!! Argh!

I did the "Spaghetti Song" with them once ("On top of Spagheeetti, all covered with cheese,..."). It's fun, a good way to test if they paid attention to your outline of the story (I don't think most ever did but those who did, it was nice to see the grins over such a stupid song...it also introduced the notion of "being silly" , explain the culinary characteristics of Italian cuisine (they eat noodles, too!), and promote critical thinking (now...a meatball tree...does that exist? Is this a true story?).

Generally, Beatles work very well.

Just anything but "Yesterday Once More"

[chinasyndrome]

[quote="Ferne"]

[Roger]

The Beatles work plenty well, that's right. Also SIMON & GARFUNKEL, especially Sound of Silence;
Leonard Cohen;
BeeGees (especially Massachusetts);
Bony M.
Special benefit: CD's with songs of most of these bands are avaiable in CHina now at a bargain price (you know why!).

[China Plate]

I agree that The Beatles always goes down well. Yesterday is good for the simplicity of the language. Hey Jude is also quite easy, but a truncated version is best.

The Rose is always good. Stand By Me seems to work well, too. I tried Sweet Caroline, with mixed results.

On an Australian vein, I like The Seekers, Morningtown Ride. And, of course, Waltzing Matilda, which requires a bit of explanation of the terms, and works better with older students thinking about studying in Australia.

I have a five octave keyboard I picked up for about 200 yuan, and find this creates quite a bit of interest. There is also a welcome break for the students (and the teacher) from the drills and repetition that seem to be part of teaching ESL.

I have previously used this on Aboriginal communities in Australia, where I worked for five years.

I have found this works equally as well in China as in Australia, in that the students tend to learn to read and speak the language, often without really realising it.

I apologise to Chinasyndrome... I can't, for the life of me, work out how to put an avatar on...

But I will persevere...

[Count_Fathom]

"One Tin Soldier" (Can't recall the artist - anyone else??)

First Lines:
Listen children to a story that was written long ago
About a kingdom on a mountain and a valley far below
On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone....

Slow, pronounced pace. Easy to draw the plot. New Vocab.
Skip the chorus (makes the song long, not necessary to the story, if left out, good opportunity to let them guess, create the moral). Great on new words.

[Count_Fathom]

(Maybe James Coven as Artist for One Tin Soldier?)

Oh Yeah! The Cat Comes Back The Very Next Day is deadly.. Anyone know where I can get the cartoon (Canadian made I think) made to suit the song? Think that would work wonders (less explanation of context and vocab, which I have difficulty with in this song) Definitely brings a happy mood to the class during the chorus. (And if you play guitar, you're God-like, trust me)

[Chairman Roberto]

So, the "Yesterday Once More" virus has hit your town too??!! Forget SARS...it's "Yesterday Once More" that's running rampant in this country! God, if I hear another student/teacher ask me if I heard/like this song, I'm gonna dig up Karen's body and pimp slap her!! Where's this song coming from??

I also used "Yesterday" (after explaining five thousand times it's NOT "Yesterday Once More") more or less successfully. Earth Wind and Fire and Steely Dan were disasters, but I haven't given up hope on introducing funk and jazz to the proleteriat. Next experiments: Tennessee Stud by Johnny Cash, Street Life by Randy Crawford. Cuz they're the easiest songs on the Jackie Brown soundtrack. Wish me luck.

I really wish I brought some James Taylor and John Denver with me...I've been able to locate the Beatles and Elvis. Maybe "Hound Dog"?
heh heh heh

You never hunt a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine,

the Chairman

[Kurochan]

"Lemon Tree" is really good, because not only do they know it, you can use it to practice pronouncing the last consonant in a word. This is a big problem for Cantonese students, who will often pronounce "sweet" as "swee," and "eat" as "ea."

"Blowin' in the Wind" is good because you can use it to practice pronouncing th. For older students, you could also use it as part of a lesson on the 60's, or you could talk about Bob Dylan, whatever. It has a lot of possibilities.

[chinasyndrome]

I love Karen Carpenter!

On another note, I did 'Take this job and shove it' by Johnny Paycheck - that was a monumental hoot!
John Denver (Denever in China) and 'Annie's Song'.
'We are one, but we are many.' (We are Australian). Simple and sentimental - they love it.
'Fire and rain' by James Taylor. They thought this was a bit too sad, but it led to an interesting discussion about how songs remind you of places and times, how they can affect your feelings, etc. Played a mix of fast and slow songs and asked them to describe how each song changed their feelings. Interesting reactions.

In a kid's class I did a song (don't know the name) but begins with 'My momma told me, if I was goody, that she would buy me a rubber dolly' - lots of rhythmic clapping - kids went nutso.

How about we put the Chinese Anthem to a wicked backbeat?

And I still love Karen Carpenter!

[arioch36]

Don't ever tell your students Karen Carpenter is dead. Most won't believe, the rest will be too sad to go toclass for a week.

I have never heard of the "Lemon Tree" song before common here. They all know John Denver, especially Country Roads

They (and wo) love, but can't sing 4-non blondes, Cranberries, and Total eclipse of the heart

My version of One tin soldier..too hard to sing

Maybe I'll try take this job and shove it

[Count_Fathom]

As an aside - I really love puff too, but get the:

S - Where's Honalee?
T - It's where Puff lives.
S - Are dragons real?
T - I don't think so.
S - They have dragons in Xishuangbanna. Is Honalee near there?
T - It's a song, Puff is in your imagination
S - What's that? I don't think I've got one. Where can I get it?
T - Let's talk about billowing sails, ceiling wax and "fancy" toys, OK?
S - (blank look)

(Just had an inert class. Can't find a sharp knife and I only live on the third floor, so picking on the students will substitute suicide for yet another day)

[Count_Fathom]

Classic repeat-after-me songs:

Bear (the other day)
Littlest Worm (echo song)

http://www.theteachersguide.com/ChildrensSongs.htm

If you don't know how it goes:
You sing a line, they repeat. After a verse (4lines), you sing that verse very fast and they repeat. My classes love these.

You'll find'em at that site under the lyrics columns by those names. Great site for songs.

[chinasyndrome]

[quote="arioch36"]