Some people can express themselves best through speaking, others through writing, and maybe others through different forms–music, etc
It’s funny how language works.
The other day in class I showed my students the Sigur Ros video “Glosoli”. For those of you who haven’t seen it, watch it. There are little kids frolicking around and in the end, they run and jump off a cliff and flyyy.
Sigur Ros is a band from Iceland so they sing in Icelandic (and sometimes in a completely made up language they call Hopelandic) but regardless, my students had no idea what they were singing about.
They were learning how to write “Process Paragraphs” or “How to” paragraphs so after they watched the video I told them to write me a paragraph titled “How to Fly”. I didn’t really explain further. Just said I didn’t want a literal “he ran, jumped, flew” description. I had no idea what kind of paragraphs I was going to get, but I was a bit bored and thought it would be entertaining either way.
Buuuut then, one of my Chinese students who can hardly speak a lick of English exceeded all expectations and I have to share:
We all speak different languages, but once we can pass beyond that barrier and find a way to express ourselves, I think we would see our underlying humanity that extends beyond any cultural boundary.
