So today, I was teaching on duple and triple meter. I was using rhythm syllables and having students keep beat to “discover” the meter of the music we were singing. But surprisingly, my usually very well-behaved students kept laughing and making faces at each other. I could tell that the syllables, which mean nothing in English, clearly meant something funny in Maa. I rebuked them for their poor behavior, and said it was unacceptable to laugh, these are words that help understand meter, they don't mean anything, yadayada, and moved on.
After class, I went and asked Joseph, who has basically become our cultural guide, why my students were laughing. I discovered, that “du-de” (which is rhythm syllables) sounds very much like the shortened version of the word for feminal private parts in Maa. I also learned that “Today” sounds even more like the same word. It dawned on me that in every class I have been using at least one song with the word today in it. Welcome to cross-cultural teaching with middle school students.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Cross-cultural faux-pas
So today, I was teaching on duple and triple meter. I was using rhythm syllables and having students keep beat to “discover” the meter of the music we were singing. But surprisingly, my usually very well-behaved students kept laughing and making faces at each other. I could tell that the syllables, which mean nothing in English, clearly meant something funny in Maa. I rebuked them for their poor behavior, and said it was unacceptable to laugh, these are words that help understand meter, they don't mean anything, yadayada, and moved on.
After class, I went and asked Joseph, who has basically become our cultural guide, why my students were laughing. I discovered, that “du-de” (which is rhythm syllables) sounds very much like the shortened version of the word for feminal private parts in Maa. I also learned that “Today” sounds even more like the same word. It dawned on me that in every class I have been using at least one song with the word today in it. Welcome to cross-cultural teaching with middle school students.
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