4.1 Introduction
4.2 Guidelines
literature
4.3 Tasks
for literature
4.4 Three
poems
4.5 The
Little Prince
4.6 Malamud's
Black
4.7 Guidelines
for films
4.8 Tasks
for films
4.9 Guidelines
songs
4.10 Stranger
than you
4.11 Bibliography
4.10 Two examples for using songs to develop intercultural competence
Ildikó Lázár, Christiane Peck
I. Joe Jackson: Stranger than you (Night and Day II, 2000)
Pre-listening activity
The students are given the title of the song. Everyone writes a sentence including the title and reads it in front of the class. Afterwards there might be a discussion about what the word "strange" or "stranger" means.
Listening comprehension
The students listen to the song and note down key words and phrases. In small groups they compare their results trying to find out the theme of the song.
Then they are given the lyrics and listen to the song again. Afterwards, the teacher asks them about their personal impressions concerning the music, the style and/or the lyrics.
Analysis
Tasks for the students:
- What is the name of the town the song is about? What do we know about it?
- Find information about the people in the song. (Describe the two characters mentioned and make sure that the students see that they have a multicultural background (Chinese Elvis) and (Indian Jew), and that they are described in a very special way (speaks like Mickey Mouse => ironical way to show us a judgmental point).
- Describe the relationship between the artist ("me") and the "you". What does the "you" mean to the singer/artist?
- Explain the comparisons and images the author uses in the last stanza.
- Sum up the intention the author expresses in his song.
- What is your personal opinion about the song?
Post-listening activities
- Do some Internet research about different ethnic communities in New York City or in a big city in your country.
- Write a poem or your own song about the topic of this song.
- Write a critical review of the song for young people in your culture who might not know too much about different ethnic groups in New York City.
Stranger than You
Artist: Joe Jackson
Album: Night And Day 2
At a bar on 43rd at quarter to two
Met my friend the chinese elvis and hoisted a few
He talks like mickey mouse
And sees with x-ray eyes
Lives in a cardboard house
I almost gave him the prize
Until you
Came along - thanks for opening my eyes
Things you do - right or wrong
It should come as no surprise
When you live in a town where there's always somebody
Stranger than you
At 83rd and amsterdam there's an indian jew
Who pierced all his private parts with a permanent screw
He sleeps on a bed of nails
Which came from outer space
And in my taller tales
I gave him pride of place
Until you
Came along - thanks for opening my eyes
Things you do - right or wrong
It should come as no surprise
When you live in a town where there's always somebody stranger than you
Stranger than you
I'm not complaining even though I'm not sure what you are
I've got the strangest feeling (good) about this love bizarre
I could have stayed in bed
H iding from this freaky show
I'm happy that instead
I knew just where to go
When you came along - thanks for opening my eyes
Things you do - right or wrong
It should come as no surprise
When you live in a town where there's always somebody
Stranger than you
Are you a boy - are you a girl
Are you an oyster - are you a pearl
Are you a fish - are you a fowl?
Are you an angel - are you from hell
II. Willy Schwarz: MINSTREL MAN
(Live for the Moment, Rattay Music, GEMA, 1999)
Pre-listening activities
Discuss the following with your students:
- Guess what story the song will relate on the basis of the following words: mountains, fiddle, mystery, father, TV, troubadour, sea, rupees
- Do you know what country the song will be about? In your opinion, which words give the country away?
- Listen to the first ten seconds of the music. What instruments do you recognize? Are those instruments traditional in your culture too? What atmosphere do you expect such instruments to create?
Pre-listening-comprehension
- Before listening to the song, students in pairs arrange the cut up stanzas in the order they expect to hear them.
Listening-comprehension
- Listen to the song and check if the order of the stanzas is correct. What has helped them find the right order of the stanzas? Check if students understand all the expressions.
Analysis
- What is the message of the song? Do the students share the same fears? Why (not)? What is similar and what is different in their part of the world?
- Discuss the way the fiddler has chosen to share his fears with his audience (and consequently the performer of the song as well). Is it common to use music and songs to reflect on current affairs in your culture? (The students might mention some other examples from more or less recent history, like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, U2 or Sting.)
- Discuss if there is some advice they could give the Willy Schwarz to cheer him up and alleviate his fears.
Post-listening activities
Ask your students to do one or more of the following:
- In pairs write the script of an imaginary dialogue about the same topic between the singer and a musician coming from the students' culture, and then act out the conversation.
- Find out more about the country in question, bring in a map and some pictures and make a short presentation for the next lesson.
- Find out more about the singer and the musicians in the band. Where are they from? What kind of songs do they play?
- Imagine you are the minstrel man in the song, and write down what you did and ate yesterday, what your plans and fears are in connection with the future, and/or what basic values you would teach to your children.
- Imagine you are a folk musician in your own culture, and write down what you did and ate yesterday, what your plans and fears are in connection with the future, and/or what basic values you would teach to your children.
MINSTREL MAN
Willy Schwarz (Live for the Moment, Rattay Music, GEMA, 1999)
Way up in the mountains; that's where I encountered him;
He sang and played his fiddle at the dawning of the day.
The old folks ignored him, the children adored him;
That minstrel man I met ten thousand miles away;
"My people have always sung, before ever the world begun.
From town to town I come but I'm gone away soon.
I sing about history, of love and of mystery;
Sit here beside me and I'll play you a tune"
"My father taught me to sing, to tune up the soundless string,
And set me wandering with my weightless load.
But people, the times have changed, and everything's rearranged;
Now radios drown me out, and I'm down the road.
"And what is this news I hear? TV will be here next year;
My village will be watching American shows!"
A jet stream up in the blue falls slowly on Katmandu,
Leaves traces in the new Himalayan snows.
"And what of this troubadour? Can I live as I did before?
My songs, my fathers' lore, and my childrens' joys?
And when this old voice is gone; the echo will linger on,
Then fade to silence in a sea of noise."
And after he played for me, his fiddle upon his knee;
I placed a few rupees in his hand that day.
And his simple melody is simply a part of me;
That minstrel man I met ten thousand miles away.
See more titles in several languages in the bibliography under
Further
reading, viewing and singing.
next chapter: 4.11 Bibliography
