Life's Been Good (ELI version)

It will soon be time to put this dormant blog to rest now that I'm not teaching in VN anymore but now it's time for one more entry.

During my long ride to Binghamton and back today I came up with an ELI/VN teacher's version of the Joe Walsh classic, "Life's Been Good."

Three caveats about the lyrics: 1) They're going to be more meaningful to those who have "been there, done that." 2) In no way are they meant to be disrespectful to my host country or school. 3) Yes, I did have a VN license.

So here they are. If you're not familiar with the original, it's on YouTube here.

I bought a ticket, forget the price

And now I live where we all eat rice

I’m in the guesthouse, mold on the walls,

Got my own bathroom, ceilings are tall

I may be crazy but I have a good time

I'm just looking for games ‘case I have to fill time 

Life's been good to me so far 

My Honda Wave does eighteen-point-five

Ain’t got no license but I still drive

We ride together, wife in the back

She hides her purse so it don’t get snatched

I’m writing lessons, my class they can’t wait

They send me emails, tell me I’m great

I ain’t got me no office, the kitchen’s down the hall

Send me a text and maybe I’ll call

Traffic is insane but I always get through 

Everybody say I'm cool (He's cool) 

I can't complain but sometimes I still do 

Life's been good to me so far 

There’s karaoke, sometimes until four

The music’s so loud, my ears are sore

It’s tough to handle this, “Hello Tay!” fame

Everybody’s so different, I think I’ve changed.

I go to Big C but it takes all my time

Everybody say Oh yeah (Oh yeah)

I keep on going and my students are why

Life's been good to me so far

Blogs & Wikis for Class?

Last week I was handed an intensive 3-week writing course that will begin in December. Forty students meeting three times a week adds up to a lot of writing to review. In search of an online alternative, I spent the afternoon searching for a way that students can post their homework to a blog or wiki, revise it as the course proceeds, and view and comment on their classmates' work.

wikispaces.com may be a solution but I'm a bit concerned that it involves too much tech and tech English for my students. I don't want to have to spend a week training them how to navigate a site just to be able to turn in their homework -- especially since we don't have computers in the classroom. Of course, emailing it is one solution and we've used it successfully in the past, but I like the idea of them being able to see their progress, work together with their classmates and show off their work to others by sending them a link.

Any suggestions? Anyone know of any sites out there that might work? And students -- do you think this would work or is it too complicated? Would you like to do assignments online?

Typing IPA symbols in Word 2007

fə'netɪks

Since switching from Word 2003 to 2007, I've been trying to find a simpler way to type IPA symbols than Alt-N-U-M and then searching through all the symbols. Uniqoder worked fine in 2003, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work in 2007. There's an online editor where you can type and then copy & paste, but I was looking for something to use offline.

After a bit of searching, I found several options in this document on the website of Professor John Wells at University College London. I've opted for the AutoCorrect method. It took a while to set up, but I think it will be the easiest to use. I set up some easy-to-remember shortcuts for common IPA symbols (\sw\ for ə, \ch\ for ʧ and \sh\ for ʃ -- not exact, I know, but easy for me to remember). For the more esoteric symbols, like ʊə, I used example words (\tour\). It may take a while to get them down, but at least I'll always have an example word ready when I need one in class.

Since the CELTA course I've become more comfortable using IPA and this should help me get them into my printed lesson plans.

I Love Fan Mail

Here's something, lightly edited, from my inbox today:

Hi Mr. David,
im one of ur student keen on every single post on Facebook as well blogspot. as u know, [it's helpful that you] spend time on blog or give useful english techniques to students, u r the respected teacher i have known

 One of my past professors, Dr. Wendell Price, said he used to keep a file of encouraging letters he received and read them after a bad day. Maybe I should start collecting them.

Christmas can be weird here too.

The newspaper article quoted below is about Ho Chi Minh City, but it's similar in Hanoi - if you take out the religious part because about the only thing you see up here are lights, trees and Santas. It's kind of depressing.

The festivities climax on Christmas Eve, when it seems that half the city's 9 million residents take to the streets for something akin to a holiday rave. Churches overflow for midnight Mass while Vietnamese outside drink beer and spray each other with fake snow. It can take two hours to travel a few miles in District One as everything comes to a virtual standstill.

"Vietnamese want to integrate the country with the international society," said Che Huyen Bao Vy, wearing reindeer antlers and angel wings at a holiday display outside another shopping center in District One. The 21-year-old college student, along with two other reindeer angels, stood next to a blue Santa.

"I don't practice the religion, but I enjoy the Western culture a lot," she said. "Christmas Day, the Christmas spirit, is happy. It's a Christmas-spirit thing."

from "Vietnam Catches the Christmas Spirit."