Class work for September 18th (Day 1)

Please do the following (30 minutes):

Part 1

Please watch the video individually, and try to summarize the basic meaning. Is it serious, or is it a joke? Share your interpretations with the people in your computer cluster.

There are a lot of new, interesting, challenging terms and phrases in the 2:42 of the broadcast. Please take a look at some of them.

Vocabulary:

gap, disenfranchised, gated-community, grotto, Martha's Vineyard (place), off-shore banking, tax breaks, distribution of wealth, "should the government be doing more to help?", yacht, "a drain on society", "to take issue with ____", "you'd never know it (by looking at you/it)"," "not looking for pity", "that's the way the world is", anecdotal, "that's a good point", American dream, oppressive, "the oppressive nature of _____", "heredity or environment", inertia, "condescending & ignorant", "what proof do you have?", hovercraft, "whistling a different tune" .


In The Know: Are America's Rich Falling Behind The Super-Rich?

Part 2 (10 minutes)

In America it is often said that the gap between rich and poor is growing, and that the middle class is disappearing. Do you think that this is happening in Japan?


Part 3 (30 minutes)

Introduction to podcasting. A podcast is a small file of either sound or video, that can be hosted on the internet, played on an IPOD (or similar device) or computer. It is a very modern, currently popular way of sharing media. We are going to listen to, watch, and create podcasts this semester.

Pronunciation and recording practice: To practice our speaking we are going recite and record tongue twisters, which will then be put up on the webpage. Get with a partner (or two) and choose one of the following tongue twisters. Practice several times together, then record yourselves reading in a single Sound Recorder file. Sound recorder is built in to your computers, and you get to it by going to

START - PROGRAMS - ACCESSORIES - ENTERTAINMENT - SOUND RECORDER

Record both you and your partner reciting your tongue twister 2 or 3 times. The recording limit is 1 minute. Do not stop recording in between times (because then it will create new files each time)

Send the file to me at david.p.odonnell@gmail.com. Make sure you put your names in the e-mail text.

The tongue twisters

Six sick slick slim sycamore saplings.

A box of biscuits, a batch of mixed biscuits

A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk,
but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry.

Unique New York.

Betty Botter had some butter,
"But," she said, "this butter's bitter.
If I bake this bitter butter,
it would make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter--
that would make my batter better."

So she bought a bit of butter,
better than her bitter butter,
and she baked it in her batter,
and the batter was not bitter.
So 'twas better Betty Botter
bought a bit of better butter.

Six thick thistle sticks. Six thick thistles stick.

Is this your sister's sixth zither, sir?

A big black bug bit a big black bear,
made the big black bear bleed blood.

The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick.

Part 4 (in class if time permits, for homework if we run out)


Podcasted Commentary. A commentary can be a statement of someone's beliefs or interpretation of a specific event or topic. It could also be in the form of a personal narrative or a memoir. Please listen to the description of my trip to Yaskuni, and answer the following questions:

Why did I go there?
How did I feel before going there?
How did I feel after the trip?
What did I see out front?

Now try to think about a topic for a similar commentary.