Orality and Storytelling
I was drawn to orality even as a kid, loving accents, imitations, wordplay and narrative. An encounter with innovators in the use of storytelling in the foreign language classroom early in my teaching career enabled me to travel my own road through the oral tradition. This section of the blog is, I hope, a natural mix of experience and experiment. Much of what is published here will be put in writing for the first time.
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Vehicle of Change
My all time favorite automobile has to be a grey Morris Oxford Series II with red leather seats. It was our first family car which our dad turned up with one evening after work shortly before we moved house in the summer of 1964.
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Sporting confrontations : war minus the shooting?
This next travel tale has a sporting flavour. A fight on a station platform at Greenwich between rival football supporters recalls George Orwell's connection between sport and war. What can this fight tell us about territory, identity and the sense of belonging in these war-driven times?
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The art of people-watching
People-watching requires no specific qualifications, just a little time and the curiosity to do something other than scrolling through irrelevant notifications on your phone. This means that, instead of looking down, you look up. What may turn up in our immediate environment has not been chosen by an algorithm. At least, not yet. This next piece in this scrapbook of travel tales is about a people-watching experience et Gatwick Airport.
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Slowly Bringing The Map To Life
This could be the start of a scrapbook made of moments in transit. When I return to a place I've not been for some time, a narrative gets triggered by an inner voice. Sometimes it is simply a string of words spun out of the sights, sounds, smells, textures hiding unseen around me. I write down these scraps as best I can. Some get reshaped and these can be shared.
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The Case of the Disappearing Case
I'm through Customs and Passports and on my way to my final destination. I've already walked out of the lift when I realize I’ve left my suitcase behind. I turn round to get it but the lift doors have already closed and the lift has gone. I freeze as the emptiness sets in. The lift has gone, my bag in it. I'm bagless and liftless. Where has it gone I wonder? Where have they both gone?
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Is Shakespeare better in translation?
English is my mother tongue but I have lived most of my life in France. Recently, I went to see a new production of Shakespeare's Richard III in French. For the first time in my life I realised I could actually undertsand every word. Okay, so here's the big question : Is Shakespeare simply better in translation?
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The Card Sharp
When telling a story, it is essential to create an audience who feel compelled to pay attention. In exploring the theme of The Oral Tradition recently, certain memories have popped up which show how instructive everyday situations can be in developing an understanding of how this tradition works. Here's a memory of a card-sharp (or card-shark, if you prefer) from when I was 7 or 8 years old.
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Shakespeare in French? You must be joking!
Believing you won't understand something can be an obstacle to even trying. Why didn't I feel that as I followed Richard III's opening monologue in a new production of this famous Shakespeare play in French ? Perhaps because, when you are in a theatre, you are drawn into a more-than-verbal situation. You are held in a room by a character, eye to eye, who wants you to understand what s/he is going through by any means necessary. Unless Shakespeare is simply better in translation?
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Dublin Lad Learns Morse
Ken Kenny, our Dad, was many things in his lifetime, and among them was Marine Radio Officer in the Merchant Navy. He could always be coaxed into talking about the years he spent at sea. He loved telling people about this period because it took him and his listeners on a journey to places we'd all heard of, but that he'd been to, and come away with a story, or sometimes several. Here's one of those stories. A chance to explore the world of a Merchant Marine Radio Officer.
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Smoke Signals in the classroom
Storytelling in the language classroom is a powerful tool. But what happens if nobody wants to listen? Or if, at least, that's how it feels? The problem is often not with the story. It's about the smoke signal you're sending out : people can't see the signal, all they can see is the smoke. Here are some ways to change that.
