Tumgik
#he's got a whole skit about learning english at school
strawberryspeachy · 2 months
Text
I cant even wake up in time to go out for a fucking hour
Whatever curse is on me keeps getting worse. I’m so fucking exhausted all the time and every time i get excited for something its taken away or ruined
Its bad enough i dont have anyone and that i cant wake up or stay up for the prime time of going out
Which is why i moved to an area where most of my salary is spent on fucking existing here
But now i cant even wake up for one damn fucking hour of going out
But i wake up fully awake in time to see the clubs are JUST about to close and waste my fucking life away
I hate being me. I want to be dead so fucking bad.
Tell me why. When i put in so much effort and thought and try so hard to make my classes good.
Apparently junior high in private school suck. They know they dont need to do anything to pass right through the system so theyre little fucking dicks about everything
I guess the annoying high school kids at my last school were the ones that were passed on through middle school
And now middle school is the only job i can get for next year. I hate private school junior high
I loved them in public school. But my god. Dealing with kids who refuse to do the bare minimum and even pushing them to try results in them throwing a tantrum bc they always get their way (sitting around doing absolutely nothing while complaining about having to do something they signed up to fucking do)
Ive read this is what american schools have turned into and yeah. Its fucking exhausting. what’s the fucking point. You cant teach anyone
Youre not allowed to just ignore those shit kids - even if you try they disrupt the class. So you cant teach the ones who WANT to learn because you have to teach to the dumbest kid in the class and no matter how low you go they go lower.
What’s the fucking point
Today in the advanced english class which the kids in the class CHOSE to be in - a girl i literally complemented so much last class because she did so well - and to other teachers commented how shes come so far from being super shy and on the verge of tears/crying at the beginning of the year - back to crying today
Crying because i asked her to speak english in the advanced english class that she chose to do saying she thinks ill be mad at her if she makes a mistake WHEN I NEVER GET ANGRY AT STUDENTS. LITERALLY NEVER. Meanwhile her homeroom teachers literally screams at them and guilt trips them all the time. But he’s a man. Even to the kids apparently theyre fine with being screamed at by men. But let me - a woman - tell them to do their work and its a fucking problem
Its so fucking stupid because it sounds like im leaving out half the story. Or that ive spun it to sound better. Or that anything. Like this isn’t the full story. But it fucking is and this kind of shit has me exhausted. I see why teachers are leaving in droves. From reading about the conditions i already understood but my god is it so fucking exhausting.
The class i see 3 times a week. Theyve been a pain in the ass since day one. My other classes teachers always try to steal - not this one. No one likes them. Its like pulling teeth to get them to do shit
Theyve been getting better. Theyve been really good recently. I felt like i finally got them somewhere. They were doing so well. But no. They didn’t improve. Its like a rollarcoaster. I go from the quietest worst at english boys volunteering to go to the front and do an improv skit in english and the whole class actively engaging and having fun
To the next class they act like they cant understand a single word i say. They wont speak and act like theyre being tortured by a simple actively
I dont have the fucking energy. I fully understand those days that my teachers would tell us “if you dont want to try then im not going to either. Just there in silence till the bell rings” as “one of the kids who are trying so im sorry to you but your classmates ruined it for you” having been that kid. I got it then but i really fucking get it now.
Like do you think i enjoy nagging you. Is it really the fun trying to explain something to a kid staring at their friend fully understanding what theyre supposed to do and being entirely capable of it but deciding its more fun to make fun of the teacher in front of their face while pretending you cant understand
And i just have to pretend you really cant understand and keep trying.
Like im not their only english teacher. They have other english classes. Theyve been taught how to read. Theyve learned grammar up to “if you could fly what would you do” “i would…” they fan make sentences and understand at the level of a preschooler. And telling them to talk about a topic that they like - i know they can have conversations in english. Theyve done it many times. Tell them to do it and use their new grammar- cause thats my class - using the fucking shit they’ve learned beyond textbook shit
No all of the third years this week refusing to say anything more than “nice” “yea” “oh really” “i like” “oh mhm”
I’ve always thought school needed reformed. There was no reason that i should have been so stressed out all the time over school. I still believe that. But i know the world deciding to make school a fucking joke where no kid fails. You cant make them do anything. You cant punish them. Its not to make the learning environment better. Its to make a bunch of fucking idiot adults who cant critically think, dont have any working knowledge of the world, have no desire to learn and dont know how to teach themselves, and think that theres no repercussions for their actions so that when someone is unfairly targeted theyll just think “man they must have done something think REALLY bad”
The ones that WANT to learn. That try hard. Theyre honestly so far and few between and theyre punished for it. Why try hard when youre the only one who actually gets graded on your work. You work hard and get a B your classmates does fucking nothing and gets a C then the lazy one does ANYTHING and ya gotta encourage them to keep doing that so they get an A. They suck at school(refuse to try) so they should get rewards for literally anything else so they dont feel bad about themselves
Ridiculous. It sucks that the worlds gonna get stupider. The current school children are gonna be stupider than boomers. And the fact that they have no rules… at least old people to in trouble all the time as kids and were forced to be respectful to others and understand repercussions.
0 notes
theexecutionerssong · 5 years
Note
wait why is Brian peak French culture, I’m missing something here?
Tumblr media
95 notes · View notes
ladyc0312 · 4 years
Text
A Jikook Guide to Run! BTS: 1-20
Tumblr media
Hi all! Welcome to part one of my overview of all jikook moments in Run! BTS and Run BEHIND. 
My biggest takeaway from these early episodes is that BH didn't quite know how to make a good variety show yet. Some of the set-ups are awkward and the guys are clearly still getting used to being on camera in this format. The jikook moments aren’t as frequent or obvious. As we go on, expect less “they look at each other in a maybe meaningful way” and more “then he sat down in his lap...” That said, this set of episodes includes both the priest skit and the cops skit, so if you’re into role-play, this was your era of Run!
Episode Guide under the cut, to avoid both spoilers and taking up half your dash...
UPDATED PER THE SUGGESTIONS OF SOME LOVELY COMMENTERS. THANK YOU ALL! New content in bold. 
FYI: When you don’t see “BEHIND” descriptions or photos, it means there were no notable jikook moments. I’ve given each ep a general rating and a special Jikook-ery rating, both out of 5. YMMV!
Ep 1  (n/a)
The one that’s just a commercial for the V app
Ep 2 “The Greatest Man” (Ep: 3 / KM: 1)
The one with the most homoerotic series of challenges I’ve ever seen to prove who’s the “best” man
6:28 - Jimin TWICE randomly announces during musical chairs that JK will win 
Not ikook-specific, but FYI, Jungkook REALLY likes being tickled. If you want a vague idea of what the beginnings of an OT7 orgy might look like, the scene at 2:09 is for you! And if you’re curious what each member looks like putting on lipstick and holding their mouths open, check out 4:24. 
Ep 3  “Theme Park” (Ep: 1 / KM: 1)
The one at Six Flags that’s not worth watching unless you enjoy shaky camera footage of people screaming on roller coasters
5:44 - When Jimin is proud of himself for having ridden a coaster, JK goes to say something to him but keeps glancing at the camera self-consciously.  
6:19 - With the camera further away, JK and JM talk with each other while waiting on line
7:06 - JK fast-walks to get to JM and then leans on JM’s shoulder to check the post-ride pictures
Ep 4  “30 Second Gate” (Ep: 1 / KM: 0.5)
The one where they do fairly boring challenges in a pool
5:26 - There’s a super brief instant of JK looking over at Jimin while shyly tugging on his shirt collar. Prob not even worth being noted as a moment, but JK looks so adorable that I’m including it anyway
Ep 5  “100 Seconds Sports Day” (Ep: 1 / KM: 1)
The one with a rather repetitive relay game
5:56 - JM playfully throws a milk carton at JK when JK fails to complete his task
7:53 - JK does some “teleporting” where he goes from being behind Suga in one shot to next to JM in the following one. He stays next to JM the whole rest of the time they’re mixing the drink. 
Ep 6 “Sketch: Confession” (Ep: 2 / KM: 4)
The priest sketch that launched a thousand AUs...
3:30 - Jungkook comes in to “confess his sins” to Jimin, who is playing a priest and calls him “darling.” JK confesses to using Jin’s razor while also claiming to be the eldest in BTS. Jimin tells him that he’s so handsome, it must be that he’s blessed by God and can be forgiven for most things. Jimin tells JK to give him a hug to get forgiveness for his sins. As they hug, both are smiling and the onscreen text tells us how happy Jimin is and puts a little heart next to his face during the hug. Jimin strokes JK’s cheek after and it seems to make JK a little shy. Jimin calls out “bye, darling” as he leaves, then calls him “cutie” for the camera.  For comparison’s sake, Jimin hits V on the forehead and makes J-Hope do 50 push-ups to earn forgiveness. He hugs J-Hope at the end of it and the difference between how that hug feels versus the one with JK is clear as day.
Ep 6pt2 “Sketch: Confession” (Ep: 2 / KM: 0 )
None (neither appear in this episode)
Ep 7 “Paintball” (Ep: 1 / KM: 1)
The one that reminds you paintball is more fun to play than to watch
I’ll be honest, guys, between the masked helmets they’re wearing and the constant cutting around, I cannot follow the paintball games in this episode at all. I’m going to go out on a limb and say nothing particularly shippy happens during them. 
9:54 - JK picks up Jimin from behind and bounces him around for a while (we don’t know how long because the camera cuts before he’s done). It will be revealed in ep. 10 that this is part of JK’s secret mission, which is to get Jimin to say “please stop.” However, despite Jimin not looking thrilled at all the bouncing around, he doesn’t tell JK to stop.
Ep 8 “Treasure Hunt” (Ep: 2 / KM: 2)
The one where they run or ride ATVs to find flags in the woods
1:15 - Jimin says out of nowhere that he thinks JK is going to be running and tells him to be careful not to bump into anyone (I think - the subs are a little weird on this one).
13:09 - JK tries to take one of JM’s meal ticket flags. JM refuses and claims JK called him “trash.” JK (kind of?) denies this and throws his one flag on the ground in frustration. J-Hope grabs it and JK sulks a bit because he’s left with nothing. 
13:33 - Jimin reverses course and gives JK one of his flags. JK is delighted. RM asks why (apparently he, Jimin, and V had a deal to share their flags?) and Jimin just responds that Jungkook is very cute (which the on-screen texts puts a heart next to).  Jimin ends up giving a flag to V, too, but he makes him beg like a dog first. 
14:16 - Jimin calls JK over and gives him a brief hug / pat on the back
Ep 9 “Bungee Jump” (Ep: 1 / KM: 0.5)
The one where it is what it says on the tin
11:25 - Some jikookers have reported hearing JK say an un-captioned “pretty” here (sounds like yebbeo or yeebeun in Korean). I’ll be totally honest that I can’t really make it out, but I will put this note here in case others with better ears than mine want to check it out!
13:59 - JM has his arm around JK at the start of the shot here
Ep 10 “Spy for Silmido Island” (Ep: 2 / KM: 2)
The one where everyone eats a meal as they learn how JK has been doing secret missions the last three episodes
6:16 - JK explains that he failed his mission to get Jimin to say, “please stop.” We see flashbacks of JK trying - in addition to the above picking JM up, JK also pulled on his hair and gave him a shoulder rub (there is no explanation for why he thought that would be something JM would tell him to stop), and spraying him with a water bottle.  The main jikook takeaway from this and the confession episode seems to be that JM will let JK get away with anything because he think he’s cute. 
7:00 - We see that JM inadvertently made JK fail his mission to feed the camera man because, when JK held out food, JM got JK to feed him instead
Ep 11 "Back to School" (Ep: 3 / KM: 1)
The one where Suga dresses as a girl and gets hit on by the rest of the band
21:28 - Despite Jimin doing nothing but smiling in the sketch, JK says he's the day's MVP and is weirdly sincere about it
24:05 - YMMV on jeon-lous, but he does indeed do the tongue thing here when JM is flirting with girl-Yoongi
Ep 12 "Cops" (Ep: 4 / KM: 4)
The police sketch that launched ten thousand AUs...
6:46 - "Detective" Jungkook pulls "criminal" Jimin away by his collar 8:41 - After Jimin acts cute and says he's bored, JK comes over and slaps his upper thigh before throwing Jimin over his shoulder and slapping his butt. When JK puts him down, Jimin just looks at him with a dazed smile for a moment before they continue on with the sketch.
9:30 - Jimin tries to flirt his way out of of JK’s interrogation, which JK says is for “setting fire to ARMY’s hearts with his smiling eyes.”
10:25 - After a brief interuption by “Captain” Suga, the interrogation starts having flirty vibes again, with JK smirking and making eye contact while Jimin acts bashful and speaks in a whispery voice. 
11:00 - JK holds a fake gun on JM as he starts his “Lie” dance, during which he directs finger hearts towards JK. The camera focuses on JM and, by the time it shows JK again, he’s lowered the gun and put his other hand over his heart. The on-screen text says “Detective Jeon’s heart is attacked.”
12:55 - JM and JK switch roles so JM is the detective. He hits JK over the head with a book. JK has basically no visible reaction, but JM has clearly flustered himself. 
Note: To explain my reasoning for these originally not being here - if you look at the other skits in this ep, they are all accusing each other of doing things to ARMY’s hearts and being weirdly flirty with each other. Like, this police station has some serious sexual harassment issues all around! That said, the vibes are unique with jikook and, upon rewatch, I came to agree with y’all that the above should’ve been included. 19:30 - Alternate version of the sketch where Jimin and JK have a dance battle that ends in both of them being put in the jail cell and told to dance.
BEHIND  0:58 - Jimin flirt-ily calls out "I'm bored; play with me, Detective" (presumably to JK since they're scene partners).  Note: Adults saying they "played" with each other is a common way to describe hanging out in Korean and doesn't necessarily have the sexual connotations it does in English. 
4:08 - Jimin stares at JK as he does squats
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Ep 13 "The Spy Who Returned Part 1" (Ep: 4 / KM: 2)
The ones where they play games at an indoor water park
1:00 - Jimin does an exaggerated running motion and JK slaps him to make him stop, which JM finds funny
1:43 - JM has his arm around JK 
6:00 - JK jokingly(?) tells JM his wet hair looks cool
11:12 - JM calls JK their team's ace and they whisper about who he should call out from the other team 
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Ep 14 "The Spy Who Returned Part 2" (Ep: 3 / KM: 2)
16:04 - JM jokingly hits JK for getting the answer super wrong and then they go down the waterslide together. (Note: I've seen some jikook-ers claim JK messed up on purpose so the game wouldn't end and he'd get to ride with Jimin, but I'm not sure there's actual evidence to support that theory.)
The moment that led to the picture below isn’t in the ep or the BEHIND, but I raised the episode’s KM score a full point for it
Tumblr media
Ep 15 "The Spy Who Returned Part 3" (Ep: 3 / KM: 2)
TW for this ep: 5:14 - during the confessions game, Jin tells Jimin that whenever Jimin asks if he put on weight, Jin wants to say he looks like a pig. Jimin claims to not be upset after, but looks like he's going to cry and seems off for a while. Then, at 10:45, Jin reiterates that Jimin "got fat." Everyone laughs except JK, who widens his eyes and then starts chewing on his finger.  
6:37 - Despite being on the same team as JK, Jimin joins J-Hope's complaints about JK coming to their room uninvited, saying that JK often brushes his teeth in their room. He accuses JK of buying the exact same toothbrush as Jimin’s and complains that they can’t tell them a part. JK says it wasn't him and then there's a weird cut to sometime later when Jimin is sitting back down again...  Just prior to this, Jimin is looking unhappy as Hobi tells a story about JK seeing him naked, but it’s hard to tell if he’s reacting to that or feeling upset about Jin’s weight comments from the previous round. 
16:02 - Jimin defends Jungkook against accusations that he's the spy
BEHIND 4:30 - Jimin sits on Jungkook's lap and, when he leans over to try to get Jin to give him food, JK puts his hand on JM's hip to steady him
Ep 16 "Snowpark Winter Olympics" (Ep: 4 / KM: 1)
The one where everyone plays winter games 
4:35 - When JM and JK are the finalists for the sledding round, JM thanks the viewers for their support. JK asks "what does that make me?" and yells/sings badly, which makes JM laugh. I don’t quite get it, tbh, but they seem to be enjoying themselves
14:50 - JK helps JM get his sled in place
BEHIND 3:02 - JK smiles as he gets pushed towards JM on the ice 
Ep 17 "Arcade Olympics Part 1" (Ep: 2 / JK: 2)
The ones where we are reminded that playing arcade games is more fun than watching people play them
All of this and next episode, whenever they all reshuffle positions, Jimin and Jungkook end up standing next to each other. This happens pretty frequently in Run BTS generally, but it was particularly noticeable in this ep since it's not like they're on the same team or anything...
4:16 - When Jimin does a dramatic DDR finish, JK calls attention to it. JM turns to him and they lock eyes for a second
15:00 - JK cheers Jimin's name when it looks like he's going to win the basketball game 
BEHIND
3:36 - JK & JM play a 4D game together Also, JK has an interesting mark on his neck on his right side that does not appear to be there in the episode itself...
Tumblr media
Ep 18 "Arcade Olympics Part 2" (Ep: 2 / JK: 1)
3:30 - JK tries (unsuccessfully) to coach Jimin on the driving game
3:45 - JK stands up for Jimin and says he's getting the hang of the game
14:36 - JM & JK laugh together at RM's failure
19:58 - It's not super clear, but it sounds like JK calls JM "Jiminie" at the end of his sentence
Tumblr media
Ep 19 "Strike" (Ep: 2 / JK: 1)
The one where BTS go bowling together and end up bowing down to JK
4:47 - JK shares that he and Jimin used to bowl together
---
If there’s anything I’ve missed or that anyone has different interpretations of, I’d love to hear it. 
More episodes coming soon! 
119 notes · View notes
absolutelyabby23 · 4 years
Text
College AU Sanders Sides Headcanons
Hey everyone! I’m getting back into writing and I also recently got accepted to college! I’m going to be a biology major :) With all of that going on, I started thinking of some Sanders Sides College AU Headcanons so here we go! Let’s start off by introducing everyone.
Roman Prince: Freshman. 18 years old. He’s a theatre major with a minor in musical composition. In his free time, Roman likes to write fanfiction correcting Disney movies. He also frequently uploads to his YouTube channel which is called RomanticRoman. He mainly does covers and skits. Occasionally, he will do livestreams where he reads his stories.
Logan Berry: Freshman. 17 years old. Logan skipped a year because he’s just that smart. He’s a psychology major with a specialization in teaching. He wants to become a professor. In his free time, Logan shadows the campus counselor, Emile Picani. 
Virgil Sanders: Freshman. 18 years old. He’s currently undecided but working towards his degree with an exploratory major. He’s a major procrastinator and spends most of his free time watching YouTube videos. He enjoys conspiracy theories and has started to dip into some ASMR. He’s in the process of starting a podcast.
Patton Rogers: Freshman. 19 years old. He’s a child psychology major with a minor in chemistry because “he likes to mix stuff.” In his free time, Patton likes to bake treats for various clubs and organizations on campus. He also helps a certain sassy sophomore named Remy Stewarts at their coffee startup. 
Dee Jones: Junior. 20 years old. He’s majoring in pre-law with a minor in sociology. Dee is the Resident Assistant (RA) for the dorm that the other five all live in. In his free time, Dee is the DM for a campus DnD club. He also likes to visit the small animal center in the veterinary school and feed the snakes.
Remus Prince: Freshman. 18 years old. He’s an english major with a specialization in creative writing. In his free time, Remus likes to prank his brother Roman and his friends. Remus also has a YouTube channel where he specializes in “childhood ruining” facts.
Okay now let’s get to the headcanons!
-Roman, Virgil, Logan, and Patton all live in the same suite-style dorm room. This means they have a common area, bathroom, and two bedroom areas. Roman and Logan are in one room and Patton and Virgil are in the other.
-Remus lives in another dorm room with Remy and two other students. Their room is across the hall from the other four which makes it a prime spot for scouting out pranking information.
-On moving day, Patton was the first to arrive. He made plushies for his three other roommates based on things they said they enjoy on their roommate profiles. He also figured that they might be a source of comfort when the others inevitably started to miss home. Roman got a red dragon wearing a little golden crown. Logan got a robot wearing a labcoat with NASA patches on it. Virgil got a blackbear wearing a purple-patched hoodie.
-When Virgil moved in and saw all of Patton’s pastel pillows and rainbow potted houseplants, he took one look at the MCR poster in his hands and wondered if this was going to work out. However, when Patton came in and saw that they both had fairy lights to hang, they became fast friends while helping each other set them up. Patton actually laughed at Virgil’s edgy humor while Virgil seemed to enjoy Patton’s puns.
-Roman brought about 5 Costco-sized packs of ramen noodles with him and his own personal coffee maker. Remus was behind him threatening to drop his video camera out the nearest window. Roman simply rolled his eyes and moved the rest of his stuff in.
-Logan was the last to show up. He brought a big stack of textbooks and an array of extra supplies that his roommates would go on to “borrow” from for the next four years. Meeting Roman was pretty anticlimactic.
Logan: Is that Shakespeare on your desk?
Roman: *Looking up from doing his makeup in a lightbulb mirror* Yes.
Logan: Cool.
-Things didn’t stay that chill for too long though. Roman and Logan frequently got into arguments about everything.
Logan: Roman for the last time, eating a cup of instant ramen does not automatically make you a more cultured person!
Roman: Okay… but have you tried an egg in it though?
-Patton quickly becomes like the dad of the group. He loves taking care of his friends and it definitely shows. However, they didn’t quite get his parental nature at first.
Patton: Okay kiddo time to get up from your nap and do your homework!
Virgil: Kiddo? Patton you’re like three months older than me.
-However, Virgil and Patton soon started to understand each other more. Virgil knew about Patton’s caring nature and Patton started to learn how badly Virgil procrastinated and got stressed. This led to them coming up with a sort of rules and rewards system. Patton would start saying things like “Okay Virge if we get our math homework done in the next twenty minutes then we can have a cookie and watch YouTube for 30 minutes.”
-Platonic cuddling also proved to be a way to help get rid of Virgil’s anxiety about his future. It was hard to ask him for things like that back home. He was able to trust Patton though so it’s enjoyable for both of them.
-Virgil has trouble sleeping at night after hours of doing homework and trying to get himself to do said homework. Dee was in the hallway one day and heard Virgil telling Logan about this problem while chugging an energy drink. The next day, Virgil had a package waiting on his desk. It was a purple weighted blanket with black spider print on it. Virgil has been sleeping better ever since.
-Logan recognized Roman from YouTube and remembered a few of the technical and research problems that he had with the channel. Logan begins helping Roman with scripting, setup, and editing. People start to notice the quality improvement.
-Roman and Logan went viral when they wrote a song about Crofters jam. Logan’s moms send them jam in care packages. After a late night of studying lines for Roman’s theatre assignment, they ate Crofters straight out of the jar with plastic spoons. Logan started humming a melody and Roman sang along until Virgil banged on the wall as a request for them to shut up. They wrote down lyrics until 4 in the morning. They recorded the video the next night and it got over 1 million views.
-After the Crofters collab, Logan started to appear more on Roman’s channel. He soon became almost a weekly regular.
-Patton invited Remus and Virgil to his new coffee startup to try some of the drinks in order to name them. Remus had some… creative suggestions (some involving horrid ways to use milk), which Remy and Patton immediately shot down. Virgil’s best idea was “Strawberry Survival” for an energy drink with a sugared berry taste and energy boost.
-Dee was able to recruit Roman, Remus, Virgil, and Logan to his DnD club. This is how the club meetings usually go. Roman wants to roll to marry every character. Remus rolls to seduce every living and nonliving element of the game. He then rolls to kill every living and nonliving element of the game. Virgil just thinks of more and more creative ways to try and eliminate his own character. Logan is just whining the whole time that nobody is playing correctly. Dee just tiredly says, “Roman you cannot kiss the villain. Remus you cannot fuck the rock. Virgil that cat cannot rip your heart out. And Logan, here’s $10. Go get me a coffee and chill out. I cannot wait until I’m 21 and can block out you little shits with straight vodka.” Though he’s exasperated, Dee really enjoys the meetings. He just won’t tell the truth.
-Virgil starts his podcast halfway through the year. People immediately love his sarcastic, yet calming, voice. He does a mixture of things on his show. Sometimes he just talks about calm things with Patton while they bake in the school kitchens. Sometimes he broadcasts the DnD sessions. By far his most popular is the segment “Dumb Debates” that he does with Logan where people send in meme questions and they each pick a side and argue about it. A chair might’ve been thrown during “Is water wet?”
-Roman and Logan solve every argument with a rap battle. They sometimes vlog it for Youtube. Four way arguments are solved through a Mario Kart tournament. Everyone always tries to get too technical with the best tricks except for Patton who almost always wins. 
Those are basically it for now! Comments and likes are appreciated. Let me know if you want more headcanons or would like to see a fic out of any of these situations. Take care everyone and I’ll be back with more soon!
127 notes · View notes
fyexo · 4 years
Text
200405 SuperM Talks All That! Performance, Acting Firsts, and Fake Fighting Over a Shirt
“We don’t have too many chances to meet or hang out with a lot of younger teens, so it was fun to get to know them on the show.”
Korean supergroup SuperM can usually be found performing in arenas all over the world, but on Saturday night (April 4) they graced a different kind of stage. The seven members—Taemin, Baekhyun, Kai, Taeyong, Ten, Lucas, and Mark—were the musical guests on Nickelodeon’s All That! reboot.
Previews for their cameo on the sketch comedy show gave fans major One Direction on iCarly vibes, and SuperM didn’t disappoint. In addition to performing their powerful debut single “Jopping,” they also flexed their acting chops in a short skit with All That! cast members Aria Brooks, Reece Caddell, Kate Godfrey, Ryan Alessi, and Chinguun Sergelen.
Teen Vogue caught up with the members (who are currently practicing social distancing in Seoul) over email to see what they had to say about being on set and fake fighting for the camera — and if they’ll try acting again in the future.
Teen Vogue: Nickelodeon shows are broadcast across the globe, including in South Korea and Canada, where Mark grew up. Are any of you fans of Nickelodeon shows or do you remember watching them when you were younger? If so, what is it like to be in and perform on a Nick show now?
Mark: Every kid growing up in the West [has], most likely watched Nickelodeon at least once, including myself. The TV channel was a part of every child's childhood and it [was] a big part of our day as teenagers. It was really cool to think about all that, and then to comprehend the fact that we were about to actually be on the All That! show. Life's weird.
Baekhyun: I’ve never watched [Nick] when I was younger, actually. But when we arrived, I remember all the staff and cast members were really sweet and told us not to be nervous. It was a really great memory for all of us!
TV: You have all been on dozens of variety shows in Korea and around the world. What was it like to be on your first variety show in the U.S.?
Taemin: The atmosphere on set was really great. And I was so curious about how younger audiences would see us. We’ve been on other talk shows or variety shows internationally, but it was the first time acting in a sketch like this, so it was really refreshing and fun.
Baekhyun: In Korea, I’ve mostly been on talk shows or variety shows that have talk segments, but I’ve never done something with a skit/sketch like this so I was actually a bit nervous! Despite my worries, we all ended up having fun throughout the shoot.
Kai: Going on variety shows are always fun and exciting. It was especially fun to be on it together with the other members, and the fact that we had to act together in the skit… It was fun! But also a little bit awkward, haha.
TV: Kai, one of the actors on the show, Ryan Alessi, said you were "thoughtful" and "kind" and took the time to speak with him about fashion when the cameras weren't rolling. What was it like for all of you to work with the actors on All That!?
Kai: Ryan came up to me after the shoot was done and we talked about fashion and other things. I was really thankful that he did that. Everyone was also really welcoming. And, also, technically we’re the rookies in the U.S., so I’m thankful for these younger veterans welcoming us.
Ten: [Ryan] definitely is right about Kai. I’m also young, but it was really cool to be on a show where the cast is all younger than I am, because I can definitely feel and receive a different kind of energy with them. Next time, I want to ask them what kind of impression they got about me!
Lucas: We don’t have too many chances to meet or hang out with a lot of younger teens, so it was fun to get to know them on the show. I was impressed by how professional they were once the cameras started rolling. If I ever get the chance to, I’d like to learn more from them one day.
TV: Baekhyun, Taemin, and Kai—you all have experience acting professionally. Did you give the other members any tips?
Baekhyun: I didn’t have any specific advice, but I just said it’d be best if we all looked as natural as possible. But because the rest of the members have a lot of experience and wit, it went pretty smoothly.
Taemin: I don’t think I’m really in a place to give acting advice, haha.
Kai: I didn’t have any specific advice… But I think acting and speaking in Korean vs. English was difficult, so I was more in a place to ask for advice there.
TV: Taeyong, Mark, Lucas, and Ten—this was your acting debut! What was it like? Did you learn anything? Do you want to act again in the future?
Taeyong: I realized how hard acting was after trying it out, even for this short skit. But I definitely would like to try again if the opportunity comes up.
Mark: I believe that acting itself is a totally different art form. It was a great opportunity for me to experience that firsthand. Music and acting are different shades of expression so in the end they're both important to me and are both worthy tools for my career in the future, too. I'm absolutely willing to learn more about acting whenever I get the chance to.
Lucas: I’d also like to try it out again! It’s not easy to act out a role that is different from my own personality, but I think it’s also fun.
Ten: It was a really brief acting experience, but I also realized that it was both hard and fun. I don’t know if I’d do a good job in the future, but if one day I had the opportunity to prepare more and try it out again, that’d be fun! I like challenging myself, and acting is a big challenge.
TV: Do you have any other anecdotes to share from your time filming?
Taemin: That day, before we started shooting, we had time to discuss the skit together and changed up some of the lines to make it more funny. That was really fun.
Baekhyun: There’s a lot of us, so when we were coming out from that small door, we were all bumping into each other on the way out. And because we were all nervous, we had some difficulty making sure we didn’t turn our backs to the camera… It felt like that time when I was still a rookie.
Kai: I was actually really nervous and found myself and the other guys turning our backs toward the cameras… That was probably the first time I’ve done that since I debuted. That was pretty hilarious to me.
Taeyong: Before we made our entrance in the skit, we had to hide behind a door. The space behind the door was pretty narrow, so we were all crammed inside there together, but we kept joking around inside that tiny space.
Mark: I also think that part was pretty memorable. I remember how we all had to huddle behind the door, making sure that all seven of our faces would fit the frame and come out on screen. The space was quite tight and so we had to position our spots before shooting. I think rehearsing that shot took the longest out of the whole shoot, haha!
Lucas: It was a challenge for me to try my hand at acting in English. So I remember I kept asking Mark and Ten for tips, and it felt like I was back in school, in English class. That was fun.
Ten: There’s a scene where Baekhyun and Taemin-hyung get into a little argument—that scene was really funny. I was really impressed by their acting on the spot. The whole shoot was really fun overall.
TV: Baekhyun and Taemin, your scripted fight over a shirt was very popular among fans on Twitter, and even inspired a few fun memes. What was shooting that scene like? Was it hard to keep a straight face?
Taemin: I’m usually really bad at holding in my laughter, and this time was no exception.
Baekhyun: I tried to copy the gestures and the tones I’ve heard watching U.S. TV and movies… And Taemin and I were supposed to be fighting, but obviously we couldn’t help but laugh. We don’t actually ever fight, so that scene was a bit funny for us.
Source: Elizabeth de Luna @ Teen Vogue
84 notes · View notes
the-sanders-sides · 5 years
Text
inidan american (desi) logan
a sequel to this post because people asked for more and i decided that they shall receive (and also i love writing these)
fair warning, logans a bitter kid, and this isnt as positive and happy as romans post. ive experienced two different ways of being desi, one where i lived in fully asian and indian community and didnt even think id ever feel alone, and another where i moved to a place where i havent met another desi in like 7 years of living here in a 3 hour driving radius. in romans post i played into my first experience and how at home i felt. in the second experience, the one im in right now, i am much more bitter about who i am and not really knowing anyone who gets it anymore. so i play into that A LOT in this. so keep that in mind. (and he will get happier in a future part. m planning on making this into a series)
ok so first off. his name is logan sanders. people (mostly other indians) dont believe him when he tells them. he tells them they dont know indian history. they say they do. he tells them that the british fucked around (quite literally) in india for four centuries so of course english names would stick with that precise wording
sometimes when he’s annoyed enough and doesnt want to explain this for the millionth he defends himself with this russel peters skit (watch it, it’s hilarious) because it describes his family. to a T. 
he grew up in a community with not very many asians, and knew no indians outside his family so he felt a sort of disconnect to his culture
while his grandparents and parents would teach him about indian culture, he felt so distant from it since he knew no one outside his family who was indian, and since he didnt have any siblings or any nearby cousins to hang around with
he had visited india once but he was too young to remember it properly or too remember his cousins
the closest mandir was an hour away so that also limited the amount of indian kids/people he knew
he barely knew hindi because everyone in his family spoke english, especially in public
he felt guilty over the disconnect he felt and would always try to bridge it but would never accomplish this because it he kept losing passion since he rarely saw other people like him in the real world and in the media and he didnt see the point of trying
this all changed in eight grade when he moved next door to the Kumar family in a north indian street of some south asian blocks in an asian community
when his family first moved, the Kumar family invited the Sanders over to welcome them
it turns out the Kumar’s had a son who was the same age as logan
“hi logan! im rohan kumar! but i like going by roman instead of rohan!” 
this introduction pissed logan off 
he was seething because why would this kid who got to have an indian first AND last name change his name to an english one! why didnt he see the value of his name!
he knew right away that such a difference meant they could never be friends 
“im logan sanders, but thats all youll get to know about me because i see no use associating myself with someone as... well, ignorant, as you”
roman decides to whip out one of the swears his cousins taught him and whisper shouts “who are you calling ignorant, bhenchod?” 
 it became clear to him that this was new turf, and people on this new turf must be speaking hindi. and that he was the ignorant one if he couldnt talk in hindi. he made a vow to learn it as fast as he could to make sure this roman kid wasnt better than him
but, logan grits his teeth and says “you, and i know it must be true because you were too dumb to understand me the first time”
this evidently struck a sore spot in roman because he didnt fight back but just stalked away. logan smiled slightly, happy to have won that argument
logan asks his grandpa to teach him hindi and his grandpa gets super excited
they start lessons immediately and despite barely hearing it growing up, it’s as if his brain was made for this because he picks the language up amazingly fast and in a months time, while not able to speak back yet, he can understand most casual conversation
his first diwali in basically little india is the most magical thing ever
diwali at his old home was very quiet because there wasnt anyone around to celebrate with
everyone is so happy in this new home however. everyone is dressed up and all the houses are lit up and there are diyas everywhere and he doesnt want to admit it but the kumar’s have the best rangoli on the street and it’s because of roman and he knows roman did it because sometimes he’d stare out of his bedroom window while doing homework and have a perfect view of roman delicately working on it for two weeks
(the kumar’s front porch had been covered with tarp waiting for diwali to make sure romans precious rangoli wasnt stepped on or ruined. when it’s finally let up, everywhere where there could be art, there is. it’s insane how good at colors roman is, logan thinks)
diwali morning: 
he fights his parents because he doesnt want to miss school for diwali because americans dont have a day off for it. his parents set the clocks in the house ahead to make him think he overslept so he would skip school. (logan didnt know that his parents had submitted an excused absence form for religious reasons and that the school was very understanding. he thought it would be like his old school where he wouldnteven bother trying since he wasnt christain and the school was lkinda discriminatory)
they spend the morning in mandir and it’s nice. for once he doesnt feel different from his peers because he goes to mandir and not church or synagogue. he feels at home.
diwali afternoon:
the afternoon is spent with frantic cleaning and cooking and digging around for the diya’s that were still in boxes, packed away from when they moved
logan offered to find them all to continue with a diya science experiment he started two years prior. his theory was that the diya’s were multiplying and there were more each year despite no one buying anymore
this held true, because even though he could only find half of their diya collection, it was somehow more than the entire diya collection of two years prior. 
diwali evening:
theres a big potluck and everyone in the neighborhood is out talking to each other, looking at the decorations at everyones houses, eating samosas, and playing with sparklers. 
logan feels content
he makes a new resolve to learn more about hinduism. if this is what ti was supposed to be, then he never wanted to be away from hinduism. 
he looked at the metaphors and symbolism in everything and finally understood what his dad meant he told logan that hinduism is just science written in poetry and that string theory is written in the ancient texts
middle school in this new town is so much better than middle school in his old home. why?
a. doesnt get bullied for being a nerd
b. doesnt get called gay slurs 
c. the classes are harder 
d. much less racism
e. all of the above
soon enough, logans asking his grandpa to teach him how to cook Indian food
Logan spends the day burning dosas and making lopsided rotis
(eventually he gets the hang of it, and a he'll be cooking food for an infuriating Indian boy ;) ;) psst it's roman)
Speaking of boys
Coming out isn't an option for logan
He knows that his parents arent really religious enough to really look into hinduism and see that no, gays are not bad
But they are traditional and conservative enough to be homophobic
not homophobic as in spewing hate with the westboro baptist church at a pride parade
But homophobic as in "the gays are fine as long as they don't do it in front of me" kinda thing
So Logan stays quiet
the closet kinda sucks but i mean what can he do
it’s safer inside, and he as illogical as wishing is, he wishes that people would use their brains and realize there’s nothing wrong with gay
anyway
in school logan makes his first desi friend, who was dubbed as anxiety years ago and cant seem to get rid of the nickname and now has a whole complex about his name so logan doesnt know his name
logan and anxiety meet in the school library: logan studying and anxiety hiding
people dont like anxiety
especially non-indian kids
surprise surprise it’s an old buddy called racism, but anxiety’s story is for another time
(but even though no one really likes anxiety, whenever racist shit goes down, it has to go through roman)
so logan and anxiety become fast friends
and they make fun of roman (a+ bonding)
logan claims that roman is a hypocrite for changing his name to an english one while being so immersed in indian culture
anxiety doesnt dispute this, but says he has a past with roman
a past that involved getting stuck with the name anxiety
again, another story for another time
one day, when logan and anxiety are eating lunch they see roman destroy some homophobes who throw around the word f*g and keep calling caitlyn jenner, bruce jenner
logans chest surges
he’s all like “what?? emotions?? pride at roman?? is he better than me for being so open and standing up for what he believes in??”
gay panic basically
but logan masked it well and pushed it away
the next day roman comes to school with a pride patch on his jean jacket
logan feels like he cant breathe
logan is supremely jealous of roman.
he can be gay in peace
he can pretend not to be indian in a way that benefits him
and he’s not affected by stereotypes in the same way?? like what does this kid not have
and by stereotypes i mean
roman is the complete opposite of all indian and desi stereotypes: loud, flamboyant, theatrical
logan’s personality is exactly how the stereotypes are. he’s nerdy and likes science and math and it seems like he cant escape the stereotypes. they follow him. and he feels guilty that he likes science and math and is nerdy. 
as illogical as it is, he wishes he was different from how he is
but logan later learns that there are more than just his perspective on being desi and that every desi kid growing up faces challenges about it that are different than his, causing them to experience being desi differently
and logan will accept that, in another story at another time
for now, he’s just bitter. and as illogical as it is, he wishes the world was better
and now, i shall tag some people who asked to be tagged and some other desi’s who loved this because i feel like you guys might appreciate this too. also i love u. desi famders squad up.
@sssixeyedrunt @ultimate-queen-of-fandoms2 @caterpiller-tea @xxxbladeangelxxx @snufflesthegrim227 @cloudchaser7 @thelowlysatsuma 
115 notes · View notes
rigelmejo · 4 years
Text
progress
i started trying to learn some chinese like idk in august. and i have never related more to a story i read once, of a 60-ish year old woman suddenly striving (and managing) to learn enough russian to read russian classics like war and peace in their native language.
because that’s how i feel... like i’m desperately trying to get to the point where i can read priest’s novels... because the translation is fine, and also sometimes impressive, but i know just enough to see all the details i’m missing, and 
i actually am gonna have a physical copy of guardian and imperfections/defected goods and i feel like The Pressure to be able to read them at least basically 
which. ahahahaha ;-; That is SUCH a lofty goal for the Near Future. Maybe long term, a very long term goal, but soon? Ahaaahaha ;-;
Anyway, i need to appreciate my progress. In about 3 months of studying, I have managed to go from knowing nothing but hello/thank you, to being able to read some subtitles, make out some long video titles/captions gist, to be able to look at a novel text and at least pinpoint moments of action taking place (which has been enough to at least look at an english translation, that says something like ‘shen wei’s right hand was kissed’ then look to the chinese version and find that line in text, so that i can word-for-word look up things with more precision). And these are things I should be very proud of myself for.
When I started studying French, the first language I took serious when trying to study - it took me 6 months to read most general texts and gleam the gist of the meaning. It took me 3 months to read the gist of titles/some captions/some summaries of nonfiction nature like instructional texts and news. And then it took me a year maybe to start being able to look at FICTIONAL things like novels or shows and start being able to follow the gist. With Japanese - it took me 1.5 YEARS to get to the point of being able to read the gist of titles/short captions/some small dialogues in manga. 
Studying chinese for 3 months, i can now: follow short comical manga-based audios on youtube about 70-80% (I followed a lan wangji/wei wuxian short video audio), read very short fanartist comics (saw some guardian short comics and managed to follow them without looking anything up), can look at the chinese titles of videos on youtube and maybe 1/2 the time reasonably get the gist of what it means, i can look at chinese subtitles on the shows i’m watching and grasp maybe 50% of what i’m looking at. Mostly, again, the action oriented dialogue like ‘i said’ ‘he’s dead/what happened’ ‘what’s that’ ‘madam, help me please’ ‘10k years ago’ ‘brother/sister/etc can i’ ‘no need/worry’ ‘smile’ ‘the meaning is/so/therefore/but/however/still’... and clearly most of the more specific words I know that are adjectives or nouns, are catered toward the shows/stories I’m consuming - since ghost/demon/puppet/bright/smile/dead/murderer/chief/god/lord are the first kinds of nouns I started recognizing. 
All of those achievements though... I should be grateful to have gotten to this place. In august, when I first looked at Guardian’s original text... the ONLY things I could understand were the numbers, and ‘hello/thank you/cat’. Now, even though I couldn’t read a chapter, I could skim through and find the names of people, and see if they’re doing something like speaking/smiling/looking/waiting, or if a ghost has appeared. Which is miles more than I could do three short months ago. And it is incredible to me, because it really is a lot of progress for me, in such a short time. 
It really points out to me how starkly different japanese was to start learning. I think part of the huge difference, is chinese really is somewhat easier structurally for me to look at and parse through (and I get now why it’s rated Slightly easier to learn for native english speakers than japanese is), and I think part of it is because I’ve spent enough time studying languages now that I’m more efficient at it. It certainly appears I’m more efficient than I was in the past. My reading in japanese is... still pretty awful. I really... can only glance at maybe manga dialogues, or real short image captions, or real short physical comedy skits, and understand the gist. Anything more, and I quickly get lost. And I studied Japanese pretty consistently for 2ish years. Whereas with chinese, I am already at the point where I can look at a wall of text like an actual fictional novel (not comic, novel), and start parsing out at least some of what’s going on. Where I can watch a show and follow at least some of the main ideas without translation. I do think part of the difference also, is which words I tried learning first in what language - in Japanese I learned comedic words first, and everyday ‘go to school/work’ words, so for daily life comedy vlogs/slice of life simple manga I can follow some of the gist - but for more literary things I am completely lost. With chinese, I was watching shows from the get-go, so immediately action words/nouns that are repeated a lot, were the first words I started understanding. And I think learning action words helps a lot with following what is physically going on - which is something I did not focus on immediately in japanese. Now, in chinese, I’m focusing on a lot of literary words like ‘its just/its only a’, ‘but even/however’ etc kind of words, and adjectives, so I imagine over time those kinds of words will pop out to me easier as well.
I have learned how it is I tend to learn the fastest, although it’s not quite in line with the perfectly-rigid approach I wish I could manage instead:
 - I need to start using the language immediately.  - Not coddled. I need to use it. Get thrown into it. Throw myself into actual materials IN the language. The textbooks and readers with english are a crutch. I learn faster the more I dive straight into the actual language materials IN that language. - As usual, find a vocabulary guide and/or flashcard set with the most common words, use that as a place to start for vocabulary. With Chinese, that was the 1000-most-common-words-in-chinese-dramas memrise deck, some other anki decks i look at on occassion, and the words-by-most-common clozemaster chinese.  - As usual, find a grammar guide, start CRAMMING through it. Inevitably, I am not going to understand the grammar until I see it working in the real language. But if I just make myself READ grammar points, then I’ll have a framework to understand the grammar I’ll see later being used. I’m currently working through https://www.chinese-grammar.org/ , which has been a very nice guide to just chug through. There are some other helpful guides - nanchinese is okay, but I HATE how slowly it progresses a user through the material. Again, I seem to do best when I’m just thrown into the deep end and FORCED to progress faster than I want to. Inevitably, I will always stop myself and keep covering the same basic material longer than I need to, if given the chance. So for myself, I really do need to just force myself to look at materials that look more difficult than I feel I am ready for. Again, future self: even if you feel you haven’t mastered the material, even if you haven’t memorized it yet, LITERALLY JUST PROGRESS as soon as you understand the gist of it. That’s it. Literally keep moving forward once you think you somewhat understand.  - As usual (for non romanized alphabets), get a book/guide that covers the characters by most common, and start CRANKING THROUGH IT. Again, do NOT pause until you’ve memorized, just KEEP PROGRESSING once you feel you understand the basic gist, move forward. You will look over the same characters again and again later, there’s time to reread a whole book/guide later - the point is to get exposed to those characters and words, so that the next times you see them it’s reinforcing the learning instead of your first time. For this, there is a great book: Reading and Writing Chinese: Third Edition, HSK All Levels (2,349 Chinese Characters and 5,000+ Compounds). I got this one, which I like because as far as I can tell, it includes all the characters and words I’d need to learn for the HSK levels (which at least somewhat prepare you to have some command of the language/some ability to comprehend the language). So, this book prepares a learner decently by at least teaching things that are more likely to be commonly found in the language, and therefore going to pay off to learn overall. I also have been looking at this guide: http://www.mementoslangues.fr/Chinois/Sinogrammes/Table3000CaracteresChinois.pdf . It has 3000 chinese characters in order of frequency. Which, again, is useful in trying to learn what will be most applicable to understanding many things. When reading through it, I’m on the 50th character and pretty much knew all of them already in 3 months - which is good, and probably why I’ve felt what words/characters I’ve learned have paid off in understanding so much. If I had more time to read it, I might find I know a whole lot more. In the RaWC book, I’ve been highlighting the characters I know, and I’m still reading through the book, but maybe 300-500 I’ve highlighted so far cause I already knew them. For learning characters, any book/word guide that at least partially prioritizes for frequency, and for broadly what is going to be useful to comprehend that language, helps a lot to focus you on studying things that will improve basic understanding. I also found a book by Lingomastery, Chinese Most Common 1000 words - which I’m looking through too, when I get the time. Again - for me it’s not about looking things over until I’m perfect - it’s about looking once, understanding just basically, then as I see it over and over multiple times learning it fully. Because for me that is faster than slowly memorizing, because I’m a perfectionist and I often choose to move on much slower than I can actually learn.  -Other things that have helped a ton: decent translators. The app PLECO is great, and can also translate some idioms. Google translate is nice because the app allows you to draw or speak the word instead of typing it so that if you don’t know the exact pinyin you can just draw the character you see. These three apps I found useful for translating chunks of sentences: https://fanyi.baidu.com/#zh/en/%E5%8F%AB%E5%89%8D%E8%BE%88 (I especially like how this one handles chunks of texts, and gives more precise footnotes of words/idioms at the bottom), https://translate.systran.net/translationTools/text?source=zh&target=en , https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary - The app Idiom is GREAT for looking at a chinese website/webnovel, and just translating word by word - it will give the character and pronounce it out loud. The translations are pretty freaking rough and sometimes not quite correct, but for super fast translating in-line on the same page while reading, it’s incredibly convenient. Likewise, the app BaiduTranslate allows you to just highlight text on your phone in any app, select ‘share’ select ‘baidutranslate’ app, and then it will translate the whole chunk of text - pinyin, audio, english, and some keywords/idioms more precisely translated in a footnote.These two apps, along with google-translate to draw in characters you can’t copy/paste, are good for super quick rough translations when working through a text/show. - Honestly, I think it has been helping as well that I’m watching so many chinese shows, and chinese youtube fan-made videos. I don’t personally think I do much with the audio to help myself learn, but I think it’s been helping me get better at looking up words (by pronouncing the tones closer to correct, and by drawing a character in the subtitles, and in youtube when there ARE english subs by looking from the english to chinese-hard-subs and matching some characters to specific words - it’s how i learned meaning/but/however/therefore). Even though I don’t notice significant improvement because of doing this, I do think it simply helps I’m interacting with chinese a lot. (And, of course, I love getting to the point in knowing a language, where you know JUST enough to be able to tell when the english subtitles CLEARLY DO NOT match what’s actually being said - that’s always fun). I do think that because I’m hearing chinese a lot, it’s easier for me to transfer my reading skills to listening skills - since I’m practicing both at once when I see the chinese subtitles, since I listen enough that they sound relatively familiar to what I think characters sound like in my head when reading (which, my internal voice still isn’t necessarily accurate, but it’s improving). This is significant, because I know in french I did NOT do this. So as a result, in french I could listen and would struggle significantly to match words to subtitles or text - I could read quite well but my listening lags behind. In chinese, I can reasonably follow along to audio with the text - they’re close enough in similarity to me that I don’t fear my listening comprehension is lagging as considerably as it does in french. Pretty much all the chinese words/phrases I am most sure I understand, are the ones I heard before reading. In french this was not the case, in part maybe because french has so many english cognates i could slide by in reading without necessarily learning the french pronunciations for a lot of words. Also - in chinese I generally plug new words into google translate or Pleco, both of those translators provide audio. I listen to the audio, because I want to make sure my tone is right. So for a majority of the words in chinese I learn, I listen to them several times at the beginning. I do think short term, so far it’s been paying off in listening comprehension a LOT with shows. And long term, I think if I continue doing this it will pay off in helping to keep my listening/reading comprehension a lot more balanced then it is in french. Which personally, I find hilarious, just because - when I started trying to learn chinese, I was literally ONLY concerned with reading comprehension. I didn’t care at all if I could pronounce or even knew what the words I was reading sounded like. But... to be fair, in chinese (thankfully!!!) many of the characters hint at their pronunciation based on how they look. So for chinese its often a matter of ‘okay this is gui/wei/shi/etc but which tone is it?’ Which I personally find... eons easier to come to terms with, then japanese characters, which often have multiple pronunciations, and those pronunciations rarely have to do with the appearance of the character. But with chinese, I see my favorite little ghostie radical, and know it might be pronounced gui or wei, and know it will probably have something to do with spirits. I see the speech radial and know it’ll probably have to do with speaking or communication or words. I see the ‘up’ radical and know it might be pronounced similar to ‘shang’. I deeply appreciate that in chinese the characters clearly have a logic - and though of course there are exceptions to those patterns, there are exceptions in many languages anyway, and for the most part those patterns are greatly useful. 
Just a little thing I’ve noticed, but also I find the characters/words are much easier for me to remember BECAUSE I have names of characters, story plotlines to relate them to. Because I’ve seen Shen Wei/Wei Wuxian, it’s easy for me to remember Shen Wei’s wei has a mountain on top and is a high tone, and wei’s doesn’t have the mountain and is a different one. Because I’ve seen the ghost character in so many plotlines, I can recognize when it’s spirit, or ghost, or puppet, or demon. Cat, wolf, dog, owl... they’re all easier for me to remember because I can think of specific sentences and situations where I’ve read/heard those words. If I was just reading them in a textbook, they would not be so vivid in my memory. In a way, it’s like the words I pinpoint in a story stick out in my head as these bright points, and then new things I learn connect outward from them like spiderwebs. I know daren from guardian is like a lord, so then when I see lord-god in Destiny and Love I know what to relate it to, when i see furen as madam i know how to relate it to what i already know. And so on and so forth. 
While I think there is definitely a place for learning in a structured way (and god I wish I was like that), I think my mind personally learns the fastest when I approach things based on most useful then work outward, and when I cover things quickly and broadly at only an understanding level of basic-gist-grasped, and then just start throwing myself into challenging material. I really think my mind prefers to dive headfirst into challenging things - it appreciates a challenge, it wants to problem solve, and it seems to work harder and focus better when it’s in the middle of being challenged. Now, working through challenging material can be very draining - and it still is, even though my brain learns faster by doing it. But seeing the progress after just 3 months, clearly its worth it. 
3 months ago, I looked at a wall of text and understood nothing but the calendar number dates. Now I can look and sometimes even follow whats going on! Now I can see chinese subtitles and follow some of the action! I looked ad Mo Dao Zu Shi the other day, and managed to read the first few paragraphs! I just looked at Zhen Hun today, and scanned through it to pinpoint a few scenes - some I managed to find and read in chinese, some I only managed to make out one line from. But ALL of that is still miles above what I could manage to do at the start. I’m personally... very excited. I have so much more that I want to be able to do in the language. But I’m extremely happy with how far I’ve managed to progress so far.
---
Literally... my goal had been... to be able to start getting through the guardian novel in chinese at least grasping the gist... in the end of November this year. HA.
That is... not a reasonable goal. If I can manage it, even just like small snippets of the novel... then I will be floored with myself. We’ll see. 
2 notes · View notes
purplesurveys · 5 years
Text
494
Do you own a pink toaster? No, I don’t. I probably won’t get one either even though I like the color pink. Do you live by yourself? No. I still live with my family at home and would probably live like this until a couple years into my first job when I can afford to move out. Do you shower everyday? If I have to be in school, yes. But on my off days I let myself skip a day. Is English your native language? No. I was raised in a Filipino-speaking home, so I learned English in school, by reading, or from cartoons. Do you like cleaning? If it doesn’t feel like a chore.
Who is your favorite character from Harry Potter? Do you hear any music now? Nope, I just hear my really loud aircon. Do you watch PewDiePie? He’s my go-to channel when I’m upset and need lots of cheering up, but right now I’m not as updated with his material. Are you married? Nope, that’s quite a long way from here my friend hahaha. Do you like Despacito? I never really liked songs I couldn’t understand. Do you drink coffee? As much as I can. It’s my bloodstream. Do you know any Swedish words? Only cuss words because PewDiePie used to swear in Swedish in his old videos lmfao. He did also use to say “sluta,” which I think he translated to “stop” or “stop it.” Maybe @badsurveyshit can help me out! Hahaha. Do you play Pokemon Go? Only when it was like crazy popular three years ago. My phone died soon after that and when I got a new one, I couldn’t be bothered to revisit it. Do you think you're fat? No, but I think I’m too thin. Did you ever color your hair pink? I haven’t and I dunno if I would. Do you press Caps Lock or hold Shift for capital letters? I do Caps Lock. I never did get used to just holding Shift. Do you own any pop figures? Nope. But I’ve given it as a gift. All of the possible spaces in my room are just kinda filled up at the moment and I’m not sure if a Funko will stand out here. Do you like Dr. Phil? I like his show, mostly because PewDiePie will sometimes do reaction videos to ridiculous bratty guests from the show. Do you prefer to be inside or outside? Depends on my mood. I can be both, really. Do you drink energy drinks? No. They smell like pure sugar and it’s super sticky and I feel like my body would implode if I drink a bottle lmao. Do you eat meat? Yep. Do you need to do the dishes? Nope. Do you have any posters in your room? I have one. But I also have several frames of Audrey Hepburn and one painting that Gabie bought me me, and another painting that she herself made. How old were you in 2010? I was 12. Are you scared of clowns? I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen one IRL...they always seem to be like a Western media thing. We don’t have circuses or anything like that, and parents don’t usually get clowns for their kids’s parties. Who is your favorite youtuber? Probably Shane Dawson because he’s so goddamn versatile and is great at being it. He’s managed to evolve from comedy skits to watching things explode in the microwave and making giant pumpkin spice milkshakes to explainers for conspiracy theories and alien sightings to casual vlogs to full fucking length documentaries about real-life people and said conspiracies. Do you have any subscribers on YouTube? No. I don’t want to have any, I just use my channel so that YouTube knows what material I’m into haha. Do you believe in ghosts? I do. Do you salt your popcorn? Yessssss. The more the better. Do you like McDonalds? I can take it or leave it. They have a really boring menu. Do you have a Steam account? I don’t. Is the sun shining right now? It’s a little cloudy at the moment but I’m sure it’ll peak out in a minute or two. What time is it? 8:59 AM while I’m typing this down. How much battery do you have on your phone? 16%, oops. What device are you using while taking this survey? I’m always on my laptop when taking surveys. Do you brush your teeth everyday? Yes, but I’ll occasionally forget. Do you bite your nails? Only if I’m starting to get increasingly anxious or overwhelmed over something. Do you like gaming? I like *watching* people play (which stems back to my childhood when ALL the boys and men in the house knew how to play video games and it would always be a bonding thing for us), but I can’t figure out video games myself to save my life. What's the first word that comes to your mind if I say: Boop! Hannah Hart. What month is it? It’s already July, what the hell? Do you like reading books? I used to...I think I mostly got disinterested because there was a time when the popular books that kept coming out were all fantasy or dystopian, e.g. Percy Jackson, I Am Number Four, The Hunger Games. By the time the more IRL-based fictional works came out, like the John Green works, reading had already become a little boring for me. Have you ever played Five Nights at Freddy's? Nope. And I don’t think I would want to lol. Watching people play it is enough. Do you like horror movies? Love them, it used to be my favorite genre until the industry just kept making a bunch of remakes of already-great horror flicks. Is your favorite animal a dog? Yes. Do you have a pet cat? My sister does, but since she’s living in a dorm for college all of us have at home have to take care of her. Do you like chicken nuggets? Meh, I can also take it or leave it. I like chicken fingers better. What color is the ceiling in the room? White. Do you own a car? I drive one, but my parents bought it. What age do you turn on your next birthday? 22. Do you like religion? Not really. Have you ever tried Akinator? Yes. I used it a whole lot when it was new. Tbh I’d still pass by it sometimes these days if I was in the mood for it to guess what I was thinking. Do you like Grand Theft Auto V? Yes, there’s always something to do on that game haha.
Are you wearing socks right now? I am not, but I probably will later when I head out to school.
Do you have a headache? Not right now. Do you cry a lot? Hahahaha yep, I really do. Can you twerk? I never tried. Do you like dabbing? Nope. Name four things in the room. An electric fan, a pack of microwavable popcorn, a plate of sisig, and a glass of water. Can money buy you happiness? It definitely could. What was the last country you visited? China. Do you like fishing? I’ve never fished before. Do you want to be famous? It’s a nice thought, but I don’t actively want it. Do you have any siblings? Yes. Have you ever been to a funeral? No. I’ve been to wakes though. Do you have a Spotify account? I have my own, but I stopped using the one meant for me because Gabie lets me use her premium account. Have you heard of Blizzard Entertainment? I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know much about them. Do you drink milk? I can’t drink milk. Are you tired? A little bit, yes. Do you like bananas? I don’t like fruits. Are you addicted to anything? Nope. Are you in love? Sure. What's the temperature outside? It looks like it’ll be humid today. Do you like snow? I’ve never seen it. Where are you from? Manila. Would you rather Play, Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward or Stop? Fast forward. Do you know your phone number? ??? Yes I do. What do you think of Fifty Shades of Grey? Never cared for it. Do you swear in front of children? Nope. Is my grammar fine? Sure.
3 notes · View notes
rebeccaseattle · 5 years
Text
Stand and Deliver
I am, practically speaking a math teacher. Technically speaking, I am a mild/moderate special ed teacher, but I teach math, to special ed kids, mostly.   
Growing up, one movie I saw over, and over, and over again in school was Stand and Deliver. It was played almost every day we had a sub or the teacher didn’t have a plan, etc, etc etc. Then, my senior year my school theater program (of which I was highly involved) decided to do the play version. I essentially memorized that film. If you don’t know the movie, is carefully based off a true story of the famous math teacher, Jaime Escalante, an immigrant from Bolivia, whose teaches/coaches/mentors a handful of underserved high school students from a gang-ridden Garfield High School in LA into taking and passing the AP Calculus exam. These students success is so impressive, that they naturally are accused of cheating and the students have to retake a harder version of the test to indeed prove they do know math that well. 
Anyway, now that I am working math students, I asked myself, should I show the movie to my students? Somehow no one in my school seemed to know about the film. I’m sure things have changed in the 15 years since my own high school experience, and I’m in a different demographic. So I researched the movie carefully and how different educators felt about it. 
I ended up reading a lot about Jaime Escalante and the true story the film was based on. It was actually pretty close, a lot closer than your usual Hollywood films, it’s inaccuracies were few and not to dramatic. 
I found one fascinating blog post all about why teachers should not show this film to their students. One major point was, while Jaime Escalante was clearly an amazing educator who lead his kids to success, he was very controversial. Not only at Garfield high school as is portrayed in the film for pushing his kids so hard and setting high expectations for him, but also for later in life as he supported “English Only” movement in education. Many had the opinion that such an outlook is oppressive to students learning English as a second language. Most of the blog readers I read who said this, were like me, white, and native English speakers. I found this fascinating. I don’t necessarily agree with the English only movement, I don’t have an opinion and don’t think it’s my place to form one at this time. However, I think it’s possible to separate one person’s endeavor from another and appreciate one without the other. For example, I do in fact like Einstein’s general theory of relativity, however Albert was a huge jerk to his first wife, Meliva (whose name appears on one of the early drafts as its often said she helped with the math involved) and left her penniless with 3 children he refused to support for over a decade. Still Albert Einstein did do an amazing job of figuring out, testing, and working on this theory and that’s still amazing and inspiring. So I don’t think that was a valid reason to not watch it. 
Another educator wrote that Stand and Deliver was in the same spirit of “Dangerous Minds” which is definitely a movie about white saviorism. That movie, whose title alone offends me, also based on a true story, is about a white lady who comes to a gang-ridden high school and teaches English to underserved populations and like reduces gang violence or something (it’s been a while). That of course is a theme I need to avoid at all costs, savorism is a horrifying myth I seen projected onto my job, more on that later. For more fun we can watch the SNL skit “Pretty White Lady.”
However, Stand and Deliver is not the same as Dangerous Minds. The teacher is not a white person, but an immigrant himself who is technically classified as Latino. Okay, yes Bolivia is a very different country than say Mexico, or the other countries my students, or his, may come from. And I’m sure they don’t speak the same type of Spanish is Bolivia then say other countries, but still he’s an immigrant literally speaking the same language as his students. 
Also, the other factor I had to point out, is the math in Stand and Deliver, is actually very real math. In college I learned an excellent short cut to integration by parts, that my professors learned from the movie. Today things are a lot better, but in that era, the math in movies, was actually quite fake, and bad. The math that is done in SD, is actually quite accurate. It’s real calculus, algebra, and trig. I figured if nothing else I could show it to my kids purely for them to try to recognize the math happening in the movie. 
So I played the movie for my students and kept an open mind. I tried not to lecture or get to preachy toward them, I just wanted to be open to how they responded and then figure out if this was an advantageous movie for them to see. I did tell them to be aware of the various math tricks that happened in the movie. 
Also it was my first time watching the movie since I learned calculus and was very excited to revisit these scenes and examine the math. 
So here is the results:
1. My kids loved the movie. If for nothing else, they liked watching a movie in their math class. They would much rather watch movies then do math. It didn’t matter that the movie was nearly half a century old, still better than doing a worksheet or something. 
2. One thing that I noticed is that a number of my kids liked that the movie was about latina/latino students. A number of my students have a lot of pride in their ethnicity. While there are a number of white people in the movie, they show up in minor supporting roles. Much like the reverse of what we see in Hollywood today. The movie really is about Latin Americans and they seemed to appreciate that they were in the foreground. The minute it started, one of my students who had never spoke to me before then, told me about one of his favorite old movies, that was casted completely by latino actors. 
Furthermore, while Escalante is central, and he is portrayed as a hero, the real heroes of the movie are actually the high school students. It was very much a movie about kids in high school that delved into their family lives, dating issues, career decisions, conflicts with friends, etc. So it’s also a movie about high school kids. 
3. In addition, despite the movie being around 40 years old, there were a couple of cultural elements my students seem to relate to. For example, the way my students greet each other and their particular hand shake (which I can’t do, but am learning, growth mindset) was done in the movie by adults. In the scene when Guadalupe was putting her brothers and sisters to bed, one of my students, who identifies as Mexican, called out, “That’s a Mexican household there. That’s my cousins” My students commented on what food was being cooked in scenes and compared it to their friends and families’ cooking. In the conflict scene where Escalante confronts the college board representatives about the accusations, they were super engaged, predicting, accurately what Escalante would say next and how they would have handled it. They pointed out to me we have the same desks as the students in the movie (facepalm here). They even explained to me, the subtext of the gang violence around Angel in the movie. This is something I didn’t see or understand when I was a kid.  Of course this wasn’t the whole movie. A lot of the scenes culturally didn’t make sense to them, they were outdated, not relatable, or relevant. 
4. They liked that the movie talked openly about racism. Going back to that scene where Escalante confronts the school board, they were super engaged. They got very excited when Escalante confronts the college board representatives, and the fact that they were sent out because of their distinct ethnic backgrounds. They liked that the racism was being called out rather than everyone turning a blind eye and closed mouth. Most of my students, regardless of ethnicity were engaged in that part. 
Some of the kids though just spaced out, or were on their phones. I still have mixed feelings about the film, and would welcome other’s opinions about showing stand and deliver as a math teacher. It could be they were just grateful for a chill day. 
For me, I noticed a few things. 
1. The math is very accurate, and there are a couple of really cool math tricks happening in it. Namely integration by parts and the trick to multiply by nines using the fingers. 
2. I liked that Escalante pointed out the Mayans understood the concept of zero long before europeans did. I personally also like pointing out white people did not invent algebra, middle easterners did. I think the history of math is important, but is often whitewashed to be just about the Greeks and Romans. Often in history, only white history is told and the accomplishments of groups is silenced. 
3. The only math flaw I saw in the movie was when Escalante read ln(x-1) as the words L N. Any Calculus teacher worth their weight would of course read it as “The Natural Log of x minus 1. 
4. There are all sorts of subtext I understand now as an adult, that I didn’t as a kid. The fact the Ana leaves the test early so others won’t be accused of cheating off of her, or that Guadalupe doesn’t have a place or time to study when she’s at home. 
5. There is a honestly, the kids are clearly treated unfair by society and the movie points out this truth. The kids rise above by having to work extra hard to retake the test. I don’t know about the message of having the kids to work extra hard, I don’t want to get to preachy in my profession. But at least it acknowledges the unfair, racist elements the kids deal with, rather than be in denial or victim blaming I often see. It does have the message that the the kids are up to the challenge. They may have to work harder, but they are certainly underestimate by those in power over them. That makes an interesting point, but I’m not sure what it is yet. 
Anyway, I showed the movie this year, and I would love other’s thoughts about it. 
1 note · View note
kihocrystal · 6 years
Text
Winter 2018 Final Impressions
I’m a month late, as usual (whoops!), but here’s my final thoughts on the animes I watched this past season! 
The “reviews” will be in alphabetical order!
3-gatsu no Lion S2 - 9.0 / 10 (A)
This second season of 3-gatsu was great! It’s just… a really great drama show about fighting depression (& a bunch of other character storylines)!
First off... THE BULLYING ARC WAS REALLY GOOD
extremely complicated, emotionally complex… this arc brings all sorts of emotions & angles into the forefront
multiple perspectives too: Hina’s, Rei’s, the bullied girl’s, the bully’s, the teachers’, and Akari too!
The art style can pull off both thick-outlined / bright colored style and watercolor-esque style incredibly well
it really is beautiful how it can visually portray both light-hearted and emotionally intense scenes
This season continues to show how good it is at character development for characters both main & supporting!
We get to see Rei moving through the ranks as a shogi player
and also moving through the ranks of conquering his depression! He’s improved more than ever before!
We get to learn about the white-haired master player (Souya); I liked how he has his own quicks and challenges he has in his daily life
Along with the other head shogi guy (Yanagihara)! (& how he shoulders his legacy for his friends)
Even the last episode offered some perspective from the foster mom about Rei & her kids
this show is just… really good at making normally-hated characters sympathetic, hot damn
Aside from bullying arc, this season also showed Hina preparing for the transition to high school
The finale episode was nice and sweet, with Hina saying goodbye to Takahashi and even getting a haircut!
This continues to be one of the best drama anime in recent years! Not to mention SHAFT’s best show since Madoka Magica :3
Cardfight!! Vanguard G: Z - 7.5 - 8.0 / 10 (C+)
And so ends the G series of Cardfight Vanguard… this final season I’ll say though is kind of a mixed bag
The plot had interesting ideas and moments at times, but the execution and pacing left a bit to be desired
though I will say it was definitely better than last season (CFV G NEXT)
This season didn’t waste any time getting to the main plot, as Chrono has to face off against a Diffrider right away
the diffrider stuff is continued from last season, but for the most part, it’s a new plot kicking off!
The rollout of all the new Diffrider Apostles (& them showing their strength) definitely made them look like powerful foes
not to mention the Zeroth Dragons, which were also shown to be powerful and very risky to use
Also knowing that anyone in the main cast could end up being The Vessel added some intrigue as well
the reveal that Kazuma would be the vessel definitely was a well executed twist imo~
However the pacing in places felt a bit too fast for me… the Relics subplot felt like it wrapped up too quickly, for example
the final fight against Gyze also kinda felt rushed… Gyze didn’t even have any dying words after his defeat :/
As a final season specifically, I feel like it kinda pales in comparison to Stride Gate, unfortunately
The cast was also kinda hit and miss in terms of how well they were utilized in the plot
some of the apostles definitely had more screen time than others (gredora only got like… two episodes)
plus gastille (the supposed apostle leader) got beaten sooner than like 3 other ones???
some villains carry over from last season too, such as Noa (Chaos Breaker) and the red-head punk kid
I liked all the new villains this season, personality-wise! (Also Yukari Tamura in there is a plus)
also no Am and Luna this season, really…
the previously established OG cast were integrated fine, for the most part
including Aichi and Kai getting the kill against Chaos Breaker Dragon
but the final episodes kinda just shoe-horn in a bunch of cameos that just didn’t feel natural :/
it just felt like “OH SHIT, this is the last season actually! Quick, throw in a bunch of cameos!”
this also applies to G characters, which makes less utilized characters (like Am & Luna, as mentioned before) look out of place :(
Sure, I’m saying a bunch of negative stuff right now, but I REALLY LOVE THIS CAST… I JUST WANT THE BEST FOR THEM
It’s the main reason I love CFV G, after all~
This season was definitely an improvement over NEXT for sure! The plot was interesting, I just wish the conclusion was better
The final episode basically just felt like an OVA, really… aside from the last scene, it didn’t really feel like an epilogue at all
I guess it just bums me out bc the original series got a good epilogue episode, so I know they could do it here, too…
In any case, I’M GONNA MISS THIS CAST, BIG TIME ;A;
In any case, this was a decent season to end the G series with! Not the strongest, but not the weakest either.
I’m gonna look back on my time with CFV G fondly for sure, if for nothing else than the great ensemble cast :’)
It���s gonna be weird going back to the OG cast for sure… I arguably liked the G cast better than the OG one :’D
Osomatsu-san S2 - 8.0  / 10 (B)
The consensus among fans seems to be that this season wasn’t as good as the first season
As for me, I… probably agree with that (though I still enjoyed this season!)
As with most comedy anime, whether the jokes land is pretty subjective. I feel like I didn’t laugh as hard this season? IDK
There were more “seasonal/holiday”-based episodes this time around (i.e. summer, new year’s, etc.)
What stays the same though is that this show is at its best when featuring the main brothers themselves
Skits involving the side characters (like Iyami, Dayon, etc.) didn’t make me laugh much…
I will say though that I enjoyed the second half of the season more than the first half~
Enough about the negatives, let’s talk about this season’s memorable skits / episodes!
The premiere was really good, as it poked fun at the huge popularity the show unexpectedly got xD
plus a bunch of references that *aren’t* gonna get them removed from streaming sites this time!
Jyushimatsu getting an “apprentice” with a little kid was also pretty funny~
The Karamatsu taxi skit, the spooky inn, & all the characters being stuck on an island were also good skits!
Ep. 18 (Iyami, Alone in the Wind) was also a crowd favorite, since it brought the feels for a change :’)
The finale 2-parter pulled a bait-and-switch yet again!
Part 1 was actually pretty serious, but the actual finale just has them trying to break out of hell xD
OH YEAH, I still really like the live-action stuff they do during the ending sequences
the first half’s ED was my favorite (the stop-motion of the brothers riding in the car)
I don’t have much to say about comedies generally, but Osomatsu-san is still my favorite in recent years ^^
Even though this season didn’t hit as hard as S1, it still provided some fun laughs~
Pop Team Epic - 7.5 / 10 (C+)
What can I really say about this show? It kind of defies description ^^;
Ok, yeah, it’s a sketch comedy, but it’s a really… crazy and random sketch comedy
The jokes are hit and miss (and in my experience was a bit more… miss than hit)
I never really laughed out loud at this show either
but then again, the humor here is more “being confused at what’s going on, but going along with it anyway”
There’s also a lot of modern anime references, so you might not get those jokes if you don’t follow most recent anime
Each episode has a long skit in it, plus a bunch of bite-size skits
I personally preferred the short skits over the long ones
There were a couple song parodies which I enjoyed (including the Earth Wind & Fire parody)
Also, this series definitely benefits from having an English simuldub! Some skits I found funnier in English!
OH YEAH, the voice actors (in both languages) change every episode, with female and male VAs in each episode
that enhanced the enjoyability of the sketches too, since I liked hearing favorite VAs do silly dialogue and performances!
I wouldn’t say this ranks among my favorite anime comedies, but it’s definitely unlike any other I’ve seen! ^^;
Your mileage will *definitely* vary with this one, so give it a try and see if it’s for you!
The Ancient Magus’ Bride (Mahoutsukai no Yome) - 8.5 - 9 / 10 (A-)
This was a very enjoyable fantasy drama show! Some people feel this show was overhyped, but I still thought it was really good!
I really liked the cast overall, especially Chise
She has really good character development throughout the show! She really becomes more strong and confident!
Seeing the fantastical world through her eyes was interesting as well!
Especially since those mystical elements were also responsible for her terrible childhood…
Elias was also an interesting guy… he and Chise have an interesting relationship together
Their relationship definitely has aspects that are unhealthy, but they do grow closer to each other by the end
If people can’t get past the whole premise of “him buying Chise to be his bride” though, I totally understand ^^;
They help each other learn too, which I liked to see
The supporting cast was also enjoyable! Not much to say about them individually though
The dragon keeper was nice and we got to learn about Elias’ origins through him
The dragons in general were great! Especially the old one that turned into a tree :’)
He gives Chise some good sage advice, even after death :’)
Angelica, Silky, and Stella (among others, like the other anti-hero duo) were good support characters too~
I liked Stella’s role of “normal girl who learns of the supernatural’s existence”
Cartaphilus was an… okay villain, I guess (though his methods were quite creepy indeed, which added some intrigue)
Some character designs are a bit questionable though… like who approved the vampire’s design? ^^;
Another large appeal of this was the world building of the fantastical elements!
I liked seeing all the different types of locales & supernatural creatures, both good and bad
As a low-fantasy show, this show does a Dang Good Job with the fantasy!
Chise learning more about herself and gaining confidence through these experiences were a highlight as well
I enjoyed each story arc as well, even though most of them were more explorative and introspective
This show can be dang beautiful sometimes, through both its art/animation and its stories (Thanks, Studio WIT!)
Some were better than others, but they all deliver either a heartwarming (or a dark) story
Some favorites of mine were the dragon-based ones, and the vampire loving the old man
The finale was good too! It’s unknown whether this conclusion is anime-original or not, but it was definitely a good S1 ending~
If you love low-fantasy shows, this is definitely one to check out!
Violet Evergarden - 8.5 - 9.0 / 10 (A-)
Best *new* anime (that I watched) of this past season, hands down~
Though to be fair, I still need to watch A Place Farther than the Universe… and Yuru Camp… and After the Rain…
Going into this season, this show was hyped and back and somehow… a lot of people were *disappointed* with this show?
I think it had to do with expecting a different show than what we got; as for me, I knew it’d be an episodic drama the whole time :P
But yes, this show has a (mostly) episodic plot with an overarching character arc. If that’s too slow for you, then you probably won’t like this show.
In any case, back to the positives! The first one being how good this show looks visually… as expected from KyoAni~
there’s so much detail in the backgrounds and the character elements (especially the lighting on objects like Violet’s metal hands)
this aspect is one thing *everyone* agrees on regardless, so… yeah, this show’s really pretty!
The main star (and focus) of this show was Violet herself… you can really see how she changes for the better from beginning to end
You get to see how “robot-like” she was at the start of the show, but she slowly learns about dealing with emotions of others… and herself
This character arc is definitely the “main” plot of the show, along with her coming to terms with Gilbert’s death and her war killings
The episodic plots were good in their own right, too!
Ranging from Violet’s start as a Memoir Doll to the different clients she works with, they all teach her something along the way
These sometimes focus on the side characters working at the Doll Agency too, so we get to learn more about them as well
The one that comes to mind first is Iris’ episode, where she (messily) reconnects with a former lover
Not all of them get a full episode in the spotlight, but they do get some focus scenes from time to time
Violet’s clientele episodes were the most memorable out of this lot IMO
ESPECIALLY EPISODE 10… that was the BIGGEST feels trip
I knew exactly how the episode was going to end, but I still teared up at that ending!
The finale was action packed, but also was a beautiful way to show how far Violet has come
I know some people’s issue with this show is that “it doesn’t know what show it wants to be” re: the action stuff, but I was fine with it personally
in any case, it was a pretty good book-end for Violet’s development, since she finally understands (a least a little) what “I love you” means :’)
I understand certain people’s gripes with this show, but this really is a great little drama show that *will* deliver the feels~
P.S. I also watched Fate/Extra: Last Encore this season. It hasn’t technically ended yet, so I can’t give final impressions on it right now. However, my current score for it is a 7.5/10 (C+).
7 notes · View notes
rhinodriver77 · 4 years
Text
The Homecoming Float Saga
As the 1965-66 school year started, the Chess Club reassembled with its original core of characters. I mentioned ADMMG in the first post. He was one of my better acquaintances from the group. His family had come to the U.S. during World War II, and we were from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Culture was a different story. I learned a lot about migrant workers and the hard life they lived in agriculture. His dad had learned some skills (welding, equipment repair, etc., and was thus able to settle down in a farming community northwest of where I lived. Since my earliest days were in small-town south Texas, where my dad was the owner of a small business running jukeboxes around Corpus Christi, Kingsville, and the area south of San Antonio, I was passingly familiar with life where there was not a lot of cash around. We weren’t real poor, but we weren’t very high on the hog either. He was Catholic with Spanish roots, thus the long string of names (and it actually went on a bit more) my roots are largely Celtic from the British Isles with a smattering of other Northern European genes. We had some interesting conversations.
Other characters included John the Poet, an English major and a folk singer. Then there was Tall Joe (TJ), and Engineering student, the son of a Policeman and probably the biggest nerd of the group. He was about 6′5″ tall, intelligent beyond belief, could recite the Pi ratio to 200 places (3.14159...) and was on the academic honor roll every semester. There was DD (the second D was for dwarf, the genetic condition). He was a History major with a wicked sense of wry humor. I also started out in Engineering was a Basketball player (freshman year only) and ran track as a Long- and Triple-Jumper. Richie got his nickname not only by shortening his name, but he was also, like the comic book character, handsome and rich -- his family was in the oil business -- but he was a really nice guy unlike in the comic. He was a Business/Econ major with an odd view of life that he expressed quite well. A week or so after the semester started, SHE arrived as noted in the first entry, and brought along Big E -- a tallish gal, very introverted at the time -- very quick witted so that she fit right in with the group. Big E had gone to a different middle school than SHE or I did, but SHE had befriended her and they became lifelong friends. In all, the group was an unlikely amalgam of nerdy, intelligent, witty young people with little in common except Chess at the hobby level, and who had been mostly loners before college.
One of the outside of school hour activities that the group met for was the school football games. The Junior College was one of the national powerhouses at that level, and usually won its games with scores like 66-0, or 72-12. By the third quarter we usually had the reserves playing, with a 50+ point lead, and the crowd would begin cheering for the opposition to at least score.... We would all meet at the stadium and sit in the student section together, and then go to the post-game dance at the Student Union. By this time, I had almost exclusive use of a small window VW Beetle, so I was driving to the games. After the dance, we would often go to one of the Drive-In diners in town, have a soda and snack and hang out for a while, then make sure that everyone had a ride. I would often have one passenger (John the Poet, or someone else) from the south side of town, Big E, and HER in the Beetle as we headed out as they both lived out of town in the same direction I did, but I was about 10 miles beyond them. Needless to say, I dropped HER off last so we could talk for a bit by ourselves....
School was progressing merrily along and the football team was undefeated when the school paper began talking about Homecoming. That afternoon, DD mused about how the Chess Club could participate in the festivities. By the time the football game and dance, etc., were done, we had settled on maybe building a float for the parade. That next Monday, we talked t over again, and DD said he would find out what we needed to do to enter. On Thursday or so, he came into the Union with a stack of papers and announced, “We are in!” He had dealt with the school administration, devised a set of by-laws, filled out all of the appropriate forms, convinced one of his teachers to be the advisor, and chartered the B.C. Chess Club as an official, school-sponsored organization, and entered it into the Parade.By the time the weekend was over, we had the basics of a design, and were in the scrounge mode for materials to build with. Richie had an Uncle that was a farmer, so he got us a 50 foot long flat-bed trailer to use, and a roll of chicken wire, and we were on our way. we finalized the design during the next week -- a living chess board display. The next Saturday. we moved the trailer into position into the building at the county fairgrounds where all the entries were being built and stapled the chicken wire around the edges of the trailer to form the structure of the skirt to hide the undercarriage. By this time, the other entries had been under construction for at least a couple of weeks, and were looking pretty good. There was one month to Homecoming. We had a bare trailer and chicken wire....
During the week, we procured enough black and white poster boards to cover the bed of the trailer. On Saturday, about half a dozen of us showed up to staple the poster boards down to make the checkerboard. There were now three weeks to go, and we had a trailer with a black and white checkerboard, surrounded by chicken wire....
Two weeks later, a few of us showed up early in the afternoon to organize for the big push to finish. As we arrived, we interrupted a crew that was preparing to move our “float” out of the way as it had been sitting inactive for two weeks. Since several commercial entries had come in, space was at a premium, and they assumed we had lost interest or otherwise dropped out. After we got that taken care of, we prepositioned the tissue paper to fill in the skirt (there is a lot of that for a 50 foot trailer!), then we took a break to get something to eat. We had arranged for the rest of the group to meet at 5:00 pm along with boy/girl friends, cousins, or whoever else they could convince to help, to do the pomping of the skirt. By 5:30, there were about 35 or 40 people stuffing tissue into chicken wire. Of course there was off site work going on during the meantime. We had built thrones for the King and Queen, a variety of props -- shields, spears, swords, etc., and we were all assembling our costumes. The on float crew (DD as King, a very tall girl as Queen (memory fails on the details), ADMMG and TJ as bishops, John the Poet as the White Knight, and Richie as the Black Knight) had written a short skit that ended with the Black Knight victorious over the White Knight, and the Queen turning the Black Knight into a statue. Anyone else that wanted to be in the parade would be a pawn walking alongside the float.
During that time, SHE and I were together almost every day working on costumes. I made spears (foil covered dowels) and shields (painted cardboard) while SHE sewed simple muslin tunics for Pawns. We made up about a dozen sets. This is where I found out that SHE was quite a seamstress and otherwise quite crafty as well. And our romance was beginning to bloom! Somewhere in that period we shared our first kiss, and the rest of the story will follow in later posts.....
At about 2:00 in the morning, we were done with the float. the next stage was marshalling and judging on the day of the parade. The float was nice: white skirt with red script on the side relating Chess to the parade theme and education somehow -- one of those quick constructions that have some meaning, but are also quickly forgotten. We were ready.
Parade day was bright and sunny and even  little warm.We showed up in costume at the appointed time, the stage characters ran through their routine  couple of times and we were ready for the judges.At 1:00 pm, the parade moved out and we marched through, performing the skit every block or two during stoppages of the flow. Once the rute was finished, we descended on our favorite drive-in for hamburgers, etc., in costume, and having a great time.
The winners of the float competition were announced during the Homecoming Coronation. To the absolute astonishment of every one, especially the other competitors, we won the Best Student Float, and Grand Prize awards. We had gone into this whole scene on a lark, with absolutely no expectations and ended up winning the whole shebang!
As part of the celebration that night, I screwed up my courage beyond belief and asked HER to go steady with me. I actually felt a physical relief when she not only said yes, but also threw HER arms around me and gave me a KISS like I had never received before! SHE had me completely awed, starstruck, quivering and panting like a puppy, wanting more than ever to do things to please HER. 
More of the story as we go along.
June 20, 2020
0 notes
smcrtxgirl · 7 years
Photo
Tumblr media
task one: who lives, who dies, who tells your story
It was ironic, really.  The idea was supposed to be that everyone was telling about their lives in an attempt to bring them closer together.  Yet, as Natalie sat there, listening to each person rattle off information about themselves, something about it felt so impersonal.  It was almost felt like all those alcoholic anonymous meetings she’d seen displayed in the media, but for theatre kids.  She even had to fight the urge once to offer up a monotone ‘hi insert-current-student’s-name-here’ after someone had introduced themselves.  All too soon though, it seemed her turn.  Natalie took a look around the room and sighed before pushing herself up and stuffing her hands into the pockets of her shorts.
“Hi, I’m Natalie Taylor.  I’m twenty and I was born on May 18, 1997, which makes me a Taurus.  Not that I give much credence to that whole astrological stuff, but... anyway.  I speak sarcasm as a second language, I almost always have a book with me, and I’m terrified of roller coasters that go upside down.  I was born in Seattle, Washington, and I lived there until I was four years old.  But, since I don’t really remember much about my time there, I call Anchorage, Alaska home because that’s really where I was raised.”  She paused then, trying to figure out exactly where to go from there.  It wasn’t like she was ashamed of how she grew up.  It was just that she never felt like there was anything super interesting about it.  And, now that she’d heard stories from so many others, it only seemed to solidify that impression.
“My dad tells me that I’ve always had a desire to perform for people.  There are videos and pictures of me and my older sister, Lauren, singing and performing little skits for my dad at our house in Washington and then in Alaska.  He said he knew then that we were going to be big someday, but that just seemed like something all dads said.”  She shrugged it off, trying to gauge the expression on some of the others’ faces.  A few smiled, a few seemed bored--because she was just another story--but most seemed to be listening.  So, she pushed on.
“Now, I know you’re probably thinking, ‘hey, Natalie, you’ve mentioned your sister and your dad, but what about your mom?  After all, everyone has one.’  And you’re right.  My mom was actually the reason we were in Seattle to begin with.  Both my parents are originally from Alaska, but after college, she got a job working at a hospital down there.  She and my dad had just gotten married, so he went with her.  Lauren was born, and then so was I.  But then my mom got sick.  I was really young when it happened, so I don’t have a lot of memories of it--or her--but she finally just... died.”  She paused for a moment then, furrowing her eyebrows for a moment.  Natalie rarely talked about her mother.  After all, when there were only vague memories in place when she tried to think of her, it was hard to do.  It didn’t make her sad, per se, more... curious.  About who she was, other than the few, short descriptions and repetitive stories her father gave her.  But the pause lasted only a moment before Natalie continued with her story.
“We stayed in Seattle for about six more months until the house sold, and then we moved up to Alaska.  Lauren was... seven, I guess when we moved, so she was in school.  And I remember her coming home and being so excited about being cast in some school production as a tree.  Personally, I didn’t get the big deal about being a tree, but she just loved being able to be up on stage, with everyone looking at her.  So, she was the first one that got immediately got nvolved in anything and everything so she could be seen.  We’re talking dance, singing lessons, cheerleading... whatever.
“Now, I’m not supposed to be talking about Lauren, right?  This is supposed to be my story.  Well, I have to set it up, and the easiest way was to talk about her.  See, it was pretty typical for me to tag along with Lauren to all of her auditions, and when I was nine, I decided that I wanted to try out, too.  So, I did.  And I got a part.  It was this super short, non speaking role, and I was only in about three scenes, but it was enough for me to catch the acting bug.  From there, I was auditioning for every show that I could, I had my dad enroll me in singing lessons, and it was just going to be great.  I was going to be an actress, just like my big sister.  Outside of the theatre, life just kind of... happened?  I lost teeth, carried an awesome Kim Possible lunchbox, went to sleep away camp, and all the other fun stuff that comes with growing up.  My dad got remarried when I was in middle school, and she doesn’t fit the evil step mother mold at all.  Which both really excited and sort of upset me, because I was all ready to fight her on that front.  They had a kid; my little sister, Aubrey, who is five now and absolutely adorable.  I went to high school, had my first serious relationships, got my license and my first speeding ticket, started working as a waitress at this seafood restaurant down the block from this cool theatre-turned-movie-theatre, and no matter what else was going on in my personal life, I just kept acting.  That’s what I was known for.  I was this sarcastic, theatre kid.  Drama class was my absolute favorite period of the day, because I finally felt like I could be myself, while I was actually pretending to be someone else.  It was all sorts of ironic, but that’s what I found so interesting about it.  While performing was where I thought it was at, I was also always looking for other ways to get involved.  I worked front of house, I did tech stuff for some shows, and I even was the world’s worst stage manager for one community production.  Theatre was my life, and that’s what I wanted to go to college for.
“Now, there’s a little college that so many of my friends went to after we graduated in order to keep this sort of close bond they shared, but I decided that wasn’t for me.  So, I went, and am still attending, University of Alaska Anchorage.  My first year, I was a theatre major, but I took a creative writing class as an elective and just absolutely fell in love with it.  I had always been writing--short stories, poems, things like that--but it never seemed to be something that I really wanted to do.  I had always wanted to act, and writing was just something I did on the side.  But... something clicked.  And I decided to combine my love of writing and my love for the theatre into one career.  So, I switched my major to English, with a double minor in creative writing and theatre.  My school does these little festivals, I guess you could call them, and we put on these little one act plays at the end of every semester.  Well one of mine was selected to be performed last semester, which was the most incredible experience of my life.  And so... yeah.  I’m here to learn how to keep experiencing that and how to just become a better writer.
“So yeah.  That’s me, and...” Natalie shrugged, turned, about to sit back down, before she snapped her fingers, remembering what it was she was trying to say at the last second.  “And I’m really glad to be here,” she added.  Returning to her spot on the floor, she glanced at the person next to her, eyebrow raised.  “I think that’s your cue.”
Tumblr media
3 notes · View notes
rjhamster · 4 years
Text
The Bright Side of Thinking Before Speaking by Melanie Shankle, On the Bright Side The secret of being boring is to say everything. ~ Voltaire A few weeks ago, I had a typical Monday. You know, a lot of making lists and trying to get my week off to a productive start. Although I have to tell you that the only thing that gets me out of bed on Monday mornings is telling myself I’ll go right back to bed after I get Caroline off to school. I never actually do this, but it’s amazing how it soothes my psyche at 7:00 a.m. on a Monday. As it happened, Perry took Caroline to school that day. Unbeknownst to me, he’d toasted himself an English muffin, covered it in peanut butter, and left it sitting on the counter- top. Meanwhile, I grabbed some dirty clothes out of our laundry baskets and put them in the washer, then loaded the dishwasher with all the breakfast dishes. When Perry walked back in the house about ten minutes later, he said, “You threw away my English muffin!” I would never throw away someone’s breakfast, so I replied, “I didn’t even see your English muffin!” And that’s when we both noticed Piper and Mabel lurking in the corner of the kitchen, looking guiltier than usual and profusely licking their lips. We can’t prove it was them, but generally speaking, English muffins don’t just disappear unless the rapture happened and said muffin believed in Jesus. Anyway, instead of going back to bed, I drank a cup of coffee and worked on a few writing projects before I made a grocery list and a general to-do list. Then I went to work out at Smart Barre because I am currently trying to be the best version of myself. Afterward, I needed to run to the mail store to mail a few things, and since the mail store is right across the street from Target, I was overjoyed when I realized everything on my grocery list could be purchased at Target. But once I found myself in Target, I ended up going down forty-seven rabbit trails, as one does when one finds oneself in Target. I looked at a few shirts, decided to go ahead and get snacks for Caroline’s soccer game that weekend, and looked through the book section to see if anything looked interesting. Then Perry called and reminded me of a few more things we needed, and I spied the dollar aisle and went all, Squirrel! Squirrel! All this to say, by the time I finally made my way to the checkout line, it was after 2:30 p.m., and I hadn’t eaten lunch. I was starving. I decided I’d drive through Whataburger as soon as I left Target for a cheeseburger and a Diet Coke. I’d officially crossed into Chris Farley territory in the SNL skit where he says, “Lay off me, I’m starving!” as he eats french fries by the handful. I found what appeared to be the shortest checkout line, except the guy in front of me couldn’t get his microchip credit card to work in the reader. (I get that microchip cards are safe and secure and the wave of the future but—serenity now—because they never seem to work the same way twice.) Meanwhile, my stomach was basically eating itself. Then I realized that the cashier in the line I chose is one I have on a regular basis. And this is where I need to tell you that she is very sweet and very good at her job. But here’s the thing. Whenever I go to Target, I always buy these Dingo chew sticks for Piper and Mabel. And every time I have this cashier, she rings up those Dingo chew sticks and then says, “Aw! Do you have a dog at home? What kind?” I always smile and reply, “Yes, we have two dogs. They are Blue Lacys.” This leads to a litany of questions. “What are Blue Lacys?” “What do they look like?” “What color are they?” “Are they friendly?” “Are they from the same litter?” “Do they get along?” “Who did they vote for?” And so on, until she forgets that she’s supposed to be ringing up my purchases while we visit. So when I realized it was this cashier, I prepared myself for the questions as she scanned the chew sticks and determined that, in my current starved condition, I was not emotionally prepared for all the inevitable questions about Blue Lacys. Sure enough, she looked up at me and said, “Aw! Do you have dogs? What kind are they?” Listen. I didn’t even have to think twice about my plan of action. Which was to lie. I looked right at her, thought about the most common breed of dog I know and replied, quickly and irrationally, “Labs.” I lied about my dogs to the cashier at Target. Jesus is going to come back for a toasted English muffin covered in peanut butter and leave me behind. And I don’t need you to judge me. You were at my wedding, Denise. In my defense, I was so hungry and just wanted to get to Whataburger and had truly crossed the line into hangry territory. I didn’t want to talk about my dogs. I just wanted to pay for my groceries and pack of ten plastic coat hangers and seasonal candy and be on my way. However, my nefarious ways did not pay off because she proceeded to ask, “What kind of labs?” “How old are your labs?” “How do you tell the difference between a lab and a golden retriever?” “Are they from the same litter?” “Have you seen that movie about a lab who plays basketball? Or was that a golden retriever?” “What are their names?” So what I’m telling you is, lying never pays off. And I think Mabel sensed that I’d basically denied her at Target because when I got back home, she gave me the cold shoulder, and later I saw that she’d written a haiku: Lying is so wrong Worse than eating a muffin You make Jesus sad That’s right, Mabel. I’ll never lie about having a lab again. Also, my Whataburger was delicious, and I ate the whole thing in three bites. Here’s the thing about me — and I tell you this because you are my friend and I am comfortable with this personal character assassination of myself. I say a lot of dumb stuff. I’d like to pretend that my impulse to lie to a cashier at Target about what kind of dogs I own is a one-off kind of thing, but that’s not really the truth. And it’s not that I go around lying all the time as much as my mouth just gets ahead of my brain, and sometimes this leads to saying things I don’t mean. I tend to talk at a speed that would be defined by Schitt’s Creek’s Moira Rose as “rapid velocity.” I’m often in need of a filter because my go-to is almost always to be funny, and sometimes funny and kind don’t line up. Not to mention that I have a tendency to use a sarcastic remark to cut the emotional tension in a room, and that can come off as less than empathetic. It’s not that I don’t feel what someone else is feeling as much as I just want to figure out how to bring the mood up a notch. A few years ago, Gulley and I went to the rodeo with a bunch of friends. We took several pictures while we were there, and the next day she asked, “Hey, will you text me that picture of the two of us?” And I replied, “I deleted that picture. It wasn’t good of me and, I’ll be honest, it wasn’t any good of you, either.” We now have a term we use when we’re afraid one of us is about to be perfectly and honestly blunt: “Whisper it first.” This comes from a friend of Gulley’s whose mother used to beg her daughter to “Whisper it first” before she said something out loud because she was so prone to blurt out the verbal equivalent of a bull in a china shop. When God told Moses to go to Pharaoh, Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” To which the Lord responded, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute?... Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Exodus 4:10-12). God Himself promises to teach us what to say. We just have to listen and learn when to speak and when to keep our mouths shut. Because the thing is, the stuff we say comes from somewhere in our hearts, and the heart is the place of convictions, aspirations, dreams, values, hopes, cynicism, doubts, and all the emotions we bring to the table in any given situation. Even as I write, I’m constantly thinking of the stories I can tell and the stories that aren’t mine to tell. What’s too personal? What could hurt someone I love? Author Anne Lamott once said, “If people wanted you to write warmly about them then they should have behaved better.” While I love that quote in theory, it would play out in a not-so-healthy way in reality. So I edit myself constantly. I have also made the decision that there are a whole lot of stories I will eventually tell decades from now in a book called, Now That Everybody’s Dead. If only I were as careful in everyday conversation as I am with the written word. But I guess the thing about the written word is that it’s concrete proof of what I say. That’s slightly terrifying because we now live in a world that will find something someone said ten years ago and obliterate them for it without even taking the time to consider if that’s how they still feel or even what they originally meant. We’ve all read horror stories about someone who Tweets something, probably impulsively, gets on a plane, and then lands hours later to discover they’ve been fired from their job and their whole life has blown up. There have never been more ways to put our words out there on display for people to see and judge what we meant to say or what they think we meant to say without giving us any benefit of the doubt. Our lives are built on words and, most importantly, our relationships are built on words and the grace we extend to each other. We seem to have forgotten that we can disagree and still love. Me calling you an idiot for your political beliefs isn’t going to do one thing to change your mind; it will just change our relationship. We have to let the Spirit dwell in us so that we can have peace, patience, joy, love, kindness, and self-control. Imagine how different Twitter and the world would be if we all kept that in mind and acted even remotely reasonable and open to hearing someone else’s point of view. We can’t take back our words. When someone says something mean, unkind, or untrue, it takes time to rebuild trust. Once it’s out there, it’s out there. From now on, the cashier at Target will always think I have labs. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean she will quit asking me a million questions about them every time I check out. But thinking about all of this helps me to remember to pray: May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. — Psalm 19:14 The bright side is knowing that our words are powerful and carry a heavy weight, which is why we need to do our best to use them wisely. Because, as the saying goes, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.” Watch the Video Excerpted with permission from On the Bright Side by Melanie Shankle, copyright Melanie Shankle. * * * Your Turn Have you ever practically had to cover your mouth with your hand just to not say the thing that wants to come flying out of your mouth? *raises hand* But, friends, our words matter! They have impact negatively or positively. They can honor God and show grace, or the opposite. Let's use our words wisely! Come share your thoughts with us on our blog. We want to hear from you! ~ Laurie McClure, Faith.Full
0 notes
tygenco · 4 years
Text
When Your Life Dice Do Amazing Things
Also known as ‘that time my Glamour knack worked ridiculously well in Spanish class’.
During my first foray in to college, I took two semesters of Spanish because it seemed like a reasonable idea at the time and everyone needs a non-English-Language credit under their belt for their various degrees. 
So toward the end of the second semester, the class was given a group assignment, and I actually got to work with people who didn’t just expect that one of us was going to take care of the whole thing. We had to do a skit in front of the rest of the class, entirely in Spanish. No big deal, right? Right.
We worked out a basic theme--going through airport security--and each of us played two characters to pad out the time and also show a broad range of words and phrases to ensure that the teacher knew we were paying attention in class. One of my characters was ‘un hippie’, complete with tie-dye shirt and long hair. The other was far less entertaining.
On the day of the skit, we had time to prepare ourselves with makeup and costumes. After helping Pepito--epic classmate who I had loosely known in high school and who had decided that one of their skit characters was Karl Rove; hilarity ensued, I assure you--with getting prepped, I set about quickly doing some makeup for my own part.
Now, I am not the most lithe thing on the planet, but I am most certainly feminine, and so I just went with what seemed to be the right way to make it look like I had a scruffy beard. Eyeliner, some eyeshadow, and some pointers from Pepito later, I had what passed for a ridiculously cheap fake bit of scruff.
The skit went off without a hitch. People laughed at the stupid jokes, we landed an A on the project, and then the teacher asked, in front of the class, how it was I’d managed to look and sound like a guy.
“Um, sheer luck?” was my timid response.
“Seriously? You were fantastic!” the teacher said cheerfully.
“Yeah, how’d you learn to do that?” one of my classmates asked.
I just blinked and then rather nervously said that it was all just luck and paying attention in theatre classes.
But for the rest of the class that day, people kept looking at me. Some of my peers inquired as to how they could do the same with such good results, and I was baffled. I told them it was just some eyeliner and eyeshadow, nothing special. One of the guys flat out told me that even he had thought I was a guy. I then was embarrassed and spent the remaining time trying to not interact with anyone at all.
Class ended, I bolted.
By the time I got to my next class--a writing course--I had washed my face and pulled on a different shirt. I looked more like my general self. Some of the girls that were in the writing class with me asked about how the skit had gone. They had a few friends in my Spanish class and they had been regaled with how the class had gone that day. I rather guarded replied that it had been fine.
“They said you looked and sounded like a guy. Perfectly,” one of them said.
“So what’d you do? Cast a glamour on your class?” the other asked.
I said nothing and just tried to hope that the floor would open and swallow me up. By the time the writing class was over with, I was just wanting to hide away and not interact with anyone at all. When I got home that evening, I took the chance to look up what everyone was talking about as far as glamour went. And then I felt really weird about things for a few more days. But I refused to talk about it with anyone who asked at the time because I just didn’t have any energy to deal with people.
Now, though? I’m just amused.
0 notes
slci-lions-roar · 5 years
Text
Goodbye Leacock: an Ode from the Worst Student Ever
By: Dan Cheng (Gr. 12)
Tumblr media
I was 14 years old when I first stepped into these halls in 2014 for Grade 9. I was already 2 years into being a heavy cigarette smoker. Feels like a lifetime ago, being that young and stupid, you know? This is my last semester. I was just behind on credits, so I couldn’t graduate with people my age, but it’s a form of comfort to have stayed behind one more semester. Kind of odd, you know. I’m just a relic of an old era. I’m a worn out soldier, seeing all the maggots learning to get dirty in the trenches of high school before rushing into the war known as adult life. So… you want to know my story?
Grade 9:
This is most likely the most ridiculous year of my life. I spent 20 bucks on packs of cigarettes that were worth 12 bucks. I left all my friends in Whitby. It’s also the last year I had frequent problems handling my extreme anger. Shame the last year wasn’t the year before this. I quickly became the most hated person in the school. Thinking back on it now... I don’t know if it was because of my brutal honesty, my irrational anger, lack of fear for irritating people or lack of empathy. Either way, people didn’t like people who weren’t normal back then and now.
Grade 10:
This is the year that I got into rap. I think people remember that phase I had, styling myself as “Dreaker”. During this year, I began to be more open with my talents. SInce I was a little kid, I always had a gift for creative writing, so I started putting more focus during the creative writing parts of English and History classes. At the same time, I was finally going back to acting again, having not acted since grade 5. Guess I had a gift for that, too, seeing as how the same people always wanted to stay in a group with me for each skit in drama class.  This year was also the worst for me, as I had been fighting depression since I was 7 and it got horribly worse because my little brother died in the summer.
Grade 11:
By this year, I had finally established that my skills laid best in the entertainment industry. Abandoning the idea of being a rapper, I took TV class and became the voice you hear on the aboriginal acknowledgement every morning. No joke, that’s my voice telling you our school is situated on aboriginal territories. It’s also the year that I joined the Lion’s Roar thanks to the recommendation of a former Vice Principal who was still in office at the time because he acknowledged my writing ability. My very first article was about my journey back home to where my people live, while also revealing that I am half indigenous.  This year also taught me an important lesson in life. It taught me what falling in love is like, taught me that changing who you are does nothing because someone who knows you personally will always betray you because of some stories or rumors about your past and that I’d rather smoke cigarettes ‘til I die of lung cancer than spend another minute being tricked by false hope of a cure for depression.
Grade 12:
I had relapsed into the darkness of my woes, my life crumbling back into square one, and I was basically messed up. I didn’t have the credits to graduate, the means to go to college, or the motivation to get out of bed. I didn’t spend my summer making ropes or standing on edges of roofs, trust me. I just didn’t have the will to do what I liked anymore. I was alive, but I wasn’t living. And I sure wasn’t gonna pull no Hannah Baker. This was the quietest year. I had nothing on my mind then, except for basic needs like food and drink and sleep. I took Co-Op and was placed in a film program where I got one of my films published for the first time. Dozens of parents and their children went to a film festival in this theatre downtown where my movie was one of the lucky ones chosen as worthy. Toward the end of this year, I took up a hobby of reviewing cigarettes on my Instagram. I went to prom, even wrote an article about it. That was a couple hundred bucks wasted. A week after school ended, I got my first tattoo.
Tumblr media
PRESENT DAY:
So here we are, Grade 13 and first semester is my last one. I got a G2 now and can drive my car (2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart) whenever I want, with six tattoos on my body… basically everything materialistic I ever wanted as a kid. Memories I’d rather forget. Nieces and nephews are now old enough to remember if I’m a bad uncle or not. Basically I spent the summer reinventing myself. But all that doesn’t change the fact I’m basically an old man in high school years. I look around these halls and all of these new ninth graders look like elementary school kids about to have their first spelling bee. Kind of annoying to hear them talk about wanting to be grown up and pretending they’re the best. Then there’s the older ones you’ve known since they were ninth and you can hardly recognize them. Times are changing, I know. Still… for the first time in my life, I want time to move slow. No more rushing to grow up because rushing into post secondary debt is a bad idea, the type I’m an expert at choosing. I guess it's time to finally have a good one… after my city-wide infamy dies down. As I write this article, the whole city and Brampton want to beat the holy hell outta me because of how I ended up being the most hated man in Toronto.
Tumblr media
Goodbye Leacock.
0 notes
Text
The Peace Corps Roller Coaster
As a PCV, your hear 'Peace Corps is like a roller coaster, you'll experience the highest highs and lowest lows' so much that it becomes a cliché. For me, the month of August exemplified that cliché.
It starts with the lowest lows. I had been teaching the same group of kids for seven months at this point. I could no longer validate their dismal performance in the classroom with excuses like 'They just don't understand my Portuguese' or 'They haven't adjusted to my western style of teaching.' All I had left to say was 'They just have no motivation to learn.' Half of the class had such a weak grasp on Portuguese that they stumbled spelling words as simple as 'this' and 'that.' Another forty-five percent were capable, yet did the bare minimum on the homework and tried to cheat their way through the tests. Only the last five percent showed any shred of initiative.
The students' lack of interest and skill are just a product of the real problem here: corruption. Corruption is deeply embedded and ubiquitous throughout the Mozambican school system. This is how students make it to my eighth grade class who can't read or write, who don't understand the language used by the school, and who expect to pass even as they continually fail exams.
You would expect that corruption only effects the sketchy unjust teachers, but in reality there are many aspects of corruption that accumulate and put a heavy weight on the teacher's shoulders. Just and unjust alike, they all buckle under the heavy weight. First and most benign is the student and his or her family. Generations of students have been paying off their teachers as a valid alternative to getting an education. It works, so can you blame them? The second source is the coworkers. Since communities here are so tight-knit, many times your student is a colleague's third cousin in law, twice removed, or something equivalent. Coworkers will shamelessly and publicly ask teachers to augment the grades of their relatives. It is perceived as very rude to deny this request (trust me, I've tried). The third source, and the most weighty, is the pressure from the bosses. In Mozambique, bad schools don't receive funding. Therefore, whatever the reality of the situation may be, the school needs to look good by the end of the year. My pass rate is about forty percent. Other teachers are generally in the range of thirty to sixty percent. When all is said and done, this number needs to increase to around eighty percent. This dramatic modification is accomplished at the dreaded Conselho de Notas (grade advice).
At this meeting, the teachers all sit together and discuss the grade given to each student, one by one. In Mozambique, a student does not pass or fail depending on an average GPA. Rather, he/she must receive at least fifty percent in each of his/her ten subjects, with a leeway of two subjects as long as they are at or above forty percent. Confusing, right? But the two important take aways are that the bar starts off pretty low, and that a grade of below forty percent by even one teacher means instant failure. When a student does not meet the requirements, the boss will ask specific teachers if they would increase the grade, often significantly. A teacher has the right to refuse, but he'd better be ready to defend his reasoning (usually done by providing proof that the student doesn't show up to class or proving that the student is badly behaved). If he can't defend it, his refusal is often ignored. Most of my colleagues grew up in the environment and change grades with little provocation. Anybody (including myself) who fights grade changing gets hit with a lot pressure and guilt from all angles. I try to hold my ground on the grades I assign, but many times it doesn't last in an argument against the dozen other teachers, each with his own reason why the kid deserves some help. Conselho de Notas has a way of making me feel deflated, and to rub salt in the wound, I found out that even the grades I held my ground on at Conselho were changed secretly without my permission.
The realization of my job here was becoming clearer and clearer: I was powerless to communicate with my students because many of them were strangers to Portuguese; I was powerless to educate them because they lacked the background needed to understand the material; I was powerless to motivate them due to lack of real world relevance; and now I was powerless to even evaluate them on my own terms.
Life was tough for a while after that realization. I dreaded going to school, I brought no energy or creativity to the classroom, and I got frustrated very easily with them. I couldn't find the point, and when your work requires you to live in rural Africa, there really has to be a point.
Luckily, an extra-curricular activity started up and took my attention off the classroom. English Theatre Club, a group of ambitious high-schoolers, turned my low low into a high high.
In a previous post I wrote about my English club. Since many PCVs have English clubs, Peace Corps puts on a province-wide English Theatre Competition! Each team prepares and performs a skit in English about a topic that aims to raise local awareness. This year the topic was 'Empower Women, Empower the World.' The student coordinator and I held tryouts and selected a team of eight intermediate/advanced English speakers.
Right from the very start I was blown away with their level of dedication. Everything I had learned about Mozambican work-ethic was defied by these kids. In one week they wrote the whole script without any help. They wrote a fun story about a girl who wanted to be a mechanic despite her prescribed gender role. She convinced her family that women are capable workers, and exceeded expectations even against her male coworkers. The kids really put a lot of thought into the story and created a cast of fun, memorable characters. Most other groups practiced once a week, but my group insisted on practicing every day except Sunday. I had to teach many times when they scheduled practice, but even without a coach they motivated each other to practice and provided feedback to one another.
After two months of hard practice, we set off to Ilha de Moçambique. Ilha is a big European tourist destination for its stunning beaches and colonial Portuguese architecture. Needless to say, most students in Moma aren't fortunate enough to travel for pleasure. They were very appreciative to be able to see the island. They took some pictures on the beach and mingled with new students from all around the province, but they remained focused on the competition at hand. They put on a really entertaining show and got to experience the adrenaline of competition. Coaching them was a familiar role for me, and a role that I truly love. I'm so grateful to have been able to help them grow as English speakers and to see their motivation manifest itself into a work of art.
Unfortunately, the competition was tough and we ended up in fifth place. Talking people through bitter losses is another role I'm familiar with, only this time it's certainly not one I love. They eventually cheered up though, and they immediately started putting a strategy together for doing better next year.
August for me embodied the classic Peace Corps cliché. I'm starting to figure out that the high highs and the low lows are really just manifestations of being passionate about my job, which I guess is a pretty happy realization (even if it means putting up with a lot).
0 notes