ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing ktravula – a travelogue! blog archives for October, 2009.

In Class, Last Wednesday

In preparation for the coming mid-term tests on Monday, the class last Wednesday was mainly a session of revisions and reviews. Students got a chance to ask questions, make requests, and clarify the things that bothered them. It was a surprise to all of them that this teacher from Nigeria was not familiar with (or at least not open to) giving students “review materials” ahead of their test.

IMG_0248“In Nigeria,” I said, half in jest, “students are not given to this much indulgence as you American students.” Back home, teachers take it upon themselves to surprise students in whichever possible way. Students would go into class one day just to discover a surprise test, with no way of knowing what to expect from the teacher. Do not get me wrong, this is not always a good thing. But here in America, not only did I have to give them the “areas of concentration” as we called it back home, with details of how I expect them to answer the questions, multiple choice or not, I was also made to promise that there would be at least a few more “extra credit” questions, set to help everyone get a chance to come out in good grades. To be clear, I do not have any problem with this. The students have worked so hard to overcome all linguistic and phonetic obstacles of learning Yoruba. It is only fair that the examination be made to test their knowledge, and not to punish their ignorance. Therefore, there would be multiple choice questions. There would also be fill-in-the-blanks, as well as questions requiring long and short sentences.

The students’ boldness and the willingness to ask questions at all times is one of the pleasures of teaching.

In Class, Last Wednesday was published on October 11th, 2009, with the tags , , , , under the Academic category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

Here’s a Joke!

A mother mouse and a baby mouse are walking along, when all of a sudden, a cat attacks them.

The mother mouse goes, “BARK!” and the cat runs away.

“See?” says the mother mouse to her baby. “Now do you see why it’s important to learn a foreign language?”

Here’s a Joke! was published on October 9th, 2009, with the tags , under the Fun category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

The Danger of A Single Story

We shall be seeing this in class…

For balance, you may also want to read this review, The Balance of Stories.

What do you think?

The Danger of A Single Story was published on October 9th, 2009, with the tags , , , , , , under the Academic category. There are currently 4 comments on this article so far.

What Can We Do With Language?

A recurring question in my mind every day I go to class to teach my students Yoruba is “What exactly can they do with this knowledge?” Surely, like Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “there is no knowledge that is not power,”  but when I look at these young students – the youngest of them being nineteen years – and look at the Yoruba language, I can’t help but wonder if there is anything particularly useful that they can do with their knowledge of it. The last few classes have featured questions and answers mainly about the people and cultural practices, as well as about language. So assuming that by the end of this semester, I am able to give them a basic knowledge, as well as give them sufficient motivation to learn more about the language, culture and people, then what?

Language is a medium of thought, but it’s also an abstract wealth, mostly without tangible value. An African language might be viewed with even more skepticism, especially from an American perspective. Besides the possibility of ending up like Austrian Suzanne Wenger in a Yoruba town with enormous artistic influence on a people’s belief, or as British Karin Barber in a University as a European authority on the language and grammar, what else is there to do with these little snippets of knowledge that we share every week in class? I cannot answer the question, and I would not be asking the students to do so.Yet.

We have learnt about Suzanne Wenger, Wole Soyinka, Karin Barber, Toyin Falola, and a few other literary figures. In the last class, I tried to dispel some more common genralizations about the people and perceptions. Students seem always to have new questions each time, and I love it. Had I seen that video of Chimamanda speaking at a Ted.com event, I might brought it along to class. I definitely will consider doing so in the next class, just after our test on Monday. I hope that in the long run, there is something of value being exchanged between us every time we gather in class to discuss.

What Can We Do With Language? was published on October 9th, 2009, with the tags , , , , , , under the Academic, adventures, Art category. There are currently 4 comments on this article so far.

Halloween is Coming!

Who's the Pharaoh?Where I come from, there is no Halloween. We have masquerades. My last memorable trip to my grandfather’s village in Ogun state Nigeria was when I was barely a teenager. It was a festive period, and it always came with a carnival of masques, mostly manned by youths of around and a little above my age. Many of the masquerades there always went with whips and canes sometimes to scare, and sometimes as a ritual part of the carnival experience.

There is one particular carnival outing of masquerades that involves whipping. Young men with long vine whips lashing at themselves in the spirit of the festival. It was always something fun to see, and to participate it, unless of course you’re being whipped, and that can be guaranteed by a mere possession of a whip. The masks are colourful and deep vessels of Yoruba spirituality and fun. A Nigerian musician Lagbaja must have had the cultural import of the mask in mind when he adopted the masquerade as his stage persona.

Now here in America where the word masquerade doesn’t mean much beyond fanciful images in children’s toy stories, there is Halloween – a playful celebration with almost similarly religious overtone. It takes place on the last day of October, featuring the scariest and (for women) sluttiest constumes, I’ve been told. It’s activities also includes “ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o’-lanterns, pranking people, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies.” (Wikipedia). This could as well be one of the most fun events of my journey. But who knows? Like most kids growing up, I’ve always fancied a time of unmoderated delinquency in festivals and open outdoor activities. Maybe this is it. It will be something trying to figure out the right pranks to play on all my flatmates when the time comes. That will be fun. I’ve also never totally figured out the idea behind that scary looking pumpkin with a face carved out of it, glowing in the dark, so there is plenty for me to learn here, definitely.

The second dilemma is finding out the right costumes. But before you suggest it, please note that I will not be making up as President Obama. Besides the problem of finding the right ear size, I am taller than him, and I’ve been told that many people might end up wearing the same costume, so there goes my brilliant ideas. It would definitely not be fun to be one of many people having the same face in a Halloween party, would it? On the other hand, I could dress as Nigeria’s president. The problem with that is one, that nobody would know who I’m dressed as, and two, that even if they do, they might not find it funny or innovative. I won’t be dressing as the great Pharaoh either because that mask on my face in the picture above is now far, far away from my present location. As soon as the the picture was taken, back in Providence many moons ago, I promptly handed it back to the Egyptian woman who brought it, and went my way.

So what/who is it going to be? Perhaps time will tell.

Halloween is Coming! was published on October 8th, 2009, with the tags , , , , under the adventures, Art category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.