Just Taught My Chinese Students 'Like A Rolling Stone'

Byrnzie

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0508 ... ylan-e.pdf

It wasn't easy trying to teach the ramifications and history of this song to non-English-speaking people in one hour, but they found it interesting. (I teach adults here, but none of them had even heard of Dylan. Much of Western culture is still a mystery to most Chinese. Can you imagine being in your 30's and/or 40's and never having heard of the Stones, or Dylan, let alone heard their music?)
I used this article here for some background: http://www.shmoop.com/like-a-rolling-stone/meaning.html

I thought it needed to be done. They'll be more where that came from. Maybe some Pearl Jam one day. Any suggestions?

catefrances

brilliant. :thumbup: and yes it needed to be done.

brianlux

Byrnzie wrote:

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0508/050807-dylan-e.pdf

It wasn't easy trying to teach the ramifications and history of this song to non-English-speaking people in one hour, but they found it interesting. (I teach adults here, but none of them had even heard of Dylan. Much of Western culture is still a mystery to most Chinese. Can you imagine being in your 30's and/or 40's and never having heard of the Stones, or Dylan, let alone heard their music?)
I used this article here for some background: http://www.shmoop.com/like-a-rolling-stone/meaning.html

I thought it needed to be done. They'll be more where that came from. Maybe some Pearl Jam one day. Any suggestions?

Great work, Byrnzie!

My suggestion would be that maybe you could teach us about some of the cultural heroes of the Chinese people- figures less known to us as Dylan was to them. A sort of cultural exchange, you might say.

Byrnzie

brianlux wrote:

Great work, Byrnzie!

My suggestion would be that maybe you could teach us about some of the cultural heroes of the Chinese people- figures less known to us as Dylan was to them. A sort of cultural exchange, you might say.

Ah, but I don't know that many. Just a few poets. I'm no expert on Chinese history, as I'm not Chinese and I haven't studied it. The other day I asked my students to tell me about their hero's and/or inspirational figures, and they just stared at me like a dog being shown a card trick. But I plan to dig deeper and see if I can get anything out of them.

gimmesometruth27

teach them something easy such as Black.

broken hearts cross all cultural lines.

Byrnzie

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

teach them something easy such as Black.

broken hearts cross all cultural lines.

May do.

redrock

How cool B!

kenny olav

Very cool and very interesting.

As for a Pearl Jam song, I recommend teaching them about Jeremy. That song had a big impact on American (and Western) teenagers at the time... it was an MTV sensation when it wasn't common for a smash hit to have such a dark tone... though it became fairly common afterward.

CH156378

gabers

Outstanding man. So are you reluctant to teach them "The Times Are A Changin'"? That seems like the most obvious Dylan song to teach people from China.

Byrnzie

gabers wrote:

Outstanding man. So are you reluctant to teach them "The Times Are A Changin'"? That seems like the most obvious Dylan song to teach people from China.

No, I'm not reluctant to teach them anything.

Maybe I'll do that one at some point. Could be interesting.

Tom K

Thats great man. Where in China are you teaching?

chadwick

what about those who may not appreaciate your work at trying to teach them the meaning of dylan rock n roll, the meaning of western culture music, art, poetry and what not?

i guess we are pumped full of negativites that china is a very tightly controlled country, everything is monitored. everything is monitored, yes?

does the average person have internet? is the internet sensored?

good on you, B. you always are a impressive fellow, bright & full of ideas.

chadwick

Byrnzie wrote:

brianlux wrote:

Great work, Byrnzie!

My suggestion would be that maybe you could teach us about some of the cultural heroes of the Chinese people- figures less known to us as Dylan was to them. A sort of cultural exchange, you might say.

Ah, but I don't know that many. Just a few poets. I'm no expert on Chinese history, as I'm not Chinese and I haven't studied it. The other day I asked my students to tell me about their hero's and/or inspirational figures, and they just stared at me like a dog being shown a card trick. But I plan to dig deeper and see if I can get anything out of them.

what brian said. i'd love to read about some great poets, song writers & artists of any kind from china. you're a good man, B.

Byrnzie

Tom K wrote:

Thats great man. Where in China are you teaching?

South of Shanghai.

Byrnzie

chadwick wrote:

what about those who may not appreaciate your work at trying to teach them the meaning of dylan rock n roll, the meaning of western culture music, art, poetry and what not?

Most Chinese want to learn about Western culture e.t.c. Because the country was closed off for do long they have a lot of curiosity about other places.

chadwick wrote:

i guess we are pumped full of negativites that china is a very tightly controlled country, everything is monitored. everything is monitored, yes?

does the average person have internet? is the internet sensored?

good on you, B. you always are a impressive fellow, bright & full of ideas.

It's not as bad as people think. It's not some dark, polluted place where the police are looking over everyone's shoulders, monitoring their every move. The only things that are blocked as far as I know are Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, but I use Facebook and Youtube anyway, as I use a VPN. A lot of other people here also use VPN's or other tools to bypass the Great Firewall of China.
And yeah, pretty much everyone I know here has internet and/or an i-phone.

The Times Are-a-changing indeed. Maybe I'll teach them that song at some point soon.

fear4freedom

Great JOB!

Remember to tell them that Americans are their friends and Western Culture, just like the Chinese culture can easily be mis-interpreted on every level.