URGENT English Lesson Help Needed!!!

[erbiumfiber]

Hi. Comazon is currently staying with a Japanese family in Tokyo. He will visit the English class of each of the two daughters in the family. One is a third- year junior high schooler and the other is a first-year senior high schooler. He has to prepare a 10-minute English lesson about California (where he is from). However, he is from Northern California, the greater San Francisco metropolitan area, Silicon Valley, etc. So not much about Hollywood and surfing.

To make matters worse, Comazon has limited access to the Internet as the family uses AOL (hey, did anyone know there were AOL people in Japan at this late date) and an ancient computer and he cannot post anywhere.

Although it's just a short presentation, Comazon hasn't taught English so even simple suggestions would be appreciated. He has a clear, easy-to-understand voice and doesn't speak too fast so these are in his favor.

Comazon's been staying at my place for much of the past few weeks, so that's the reason I'm posting for him (he's had access to decent Internet while in Tokyo- I have DSL).

So, please, pitch in everyone. I don't think the lesson needs to be interactive but I guess if you have great "breaking the ice" activities (like 20 questions what state am I from?) that would be appreciated.

I think this plan was kind of sprung upon him so it's not like he's had months to come up with ideas.

Thanks in advance!

erbiumfiber for Comazon

[japanat]

Tell him to get the family to take him to the city/town library, and get a photo book of SanFran (this isn't tomorrow is it? If so, ignore this...). Introduce himself. Make everyone stand up, and push the desks to the walls. Divide the room in half, yes/no. Make statements about Calif/the US/SF, and students go to that side. Correct answer continues, wrong answer sits down.

He'll need to talk to his host family about which statements he wants to use, in order to make sure they are things that Japanese kids at least might know the answer to. "Did the Gold Rush begin in 1949?" is not something they'd have any clue about. "Can I watch 'Dragonball Z' on TV in Calif?" they can guess.

Tell him to keep it light, and relax. Introduction only could take most of the time if he's not careful. The teacher is likely to have students prepare questions for him, as well.

[Comazon]

OMG I suck...I should've used Internet Explorer or anything else besides the AOL browser for trying to log-in to OP9. Sorry Erbiumfiber!

It's on Thursday morning, not tomorrow (I'd throw myself in front of a JR train if it was tomorrow). I think I'm only supposed to talk about me and where I'm from for 10 minutes, mainly focusing on where I'm from. I believe that the teacher will be translating as I'm speaking, too. I love the idea of a game, but I think I'm only there to talk for a little bit. Nothing more. :gloomy:

I'm awful at coming up with long speeches, and need some advice BADLY on what to say. What would you ramble on about for 10 minutes pertaining to your home country?

Help me please. *begging on e-knees*

[japanat]

A normal day for you in high school. Especially about being able to make your own choices regarding so many classes. A lunch menu (you can get them off the internet). What kids do in their free time.

[Azrael]

Ah, the "talk about SF" self-intro. I know it well.

Talk about the Golden Gate Bridge. It helps to have a picture. Tell the short story of how, in the 1800's, there was gold in San Francisco. So many people wanted to go to SF, but SF is like an island. So they had to make a bridge. A bridge to gold. The bridge was like a gate to gold. Golden Gate Bridge.

You may mention Alcatraz. Tell them how the worst, famous American "yakuza" were sent there. It's a jail on an island. There are sharks in the water, so even if prisoners escape, they will be eaten by sharks. ...You may want to do some swimming/eaten by a shark gestures here. Again, having a picture helps.

You can mention the San Francisco Giants. Many of the boys will probably have heard of Barry Bonds. IF you happen to have a New Horizon book, the beginning of the 2nd year book (if memory serves me right) has a thing about SBC Park (is that what it's called these days...?), splash hits, and the dogs that retrieve baseballs out of the bay. Since this is the new version of New Horizon, I don't think a chuusan/kouichi would have seen that book, but if you can get your hands on it that would help.

You can also mention how former Nipponham Fighters baseball star/current prettyboy model Shinjo played for the SF Giants. Again, pictures would be grand.

Don't bother mentioning anything other than San Francisco. They won't know it - they won't care. They will barely know SF.

That should fill out 10 minutes.

[stsparky]

Ah, the "talk about SF" self-intro. I know it well. ... That should fill out 10 minutes. If you mention Alcatraz - there are the two movies Clint Eastwood's Escape From Alcatraz and Nicolas Cage's The Rock.
I think the Mythbuster episode where they examined the escape is on the web - Escape From Alcatraz: [/URL]It is probably the most famous myth of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco%2C_California"]San Francisco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Hyneman), where the show is based.
Prisoners successfully escaped Alcatraz prison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island) using an inflatable raft made from rain ponchos. Plausible The makeshift raft crafted by the MythBusters team did indeed reach the shore.

Listed as "Plausible" because no evidence has ever been found suggesting the prisoners survived the actual incident, and personal effects washed up later on shore, indicating that the men probably failed to navigate correctly and drowned in San Francisco Bay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay). However, a portion of the scale tests (cut for time but later shown in "MythBusters Outtakes" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_episodes:_Specials#Special_4_.E2.80.94 _.22MythBusters_Outtakes.22)) did show that these belongings could have been released by the successfully escaped prisoners and washed up where they were found through strategic use of the Bay's tides to throw the authorities off their trail.

[erbiumfiber]

Don't forget there's the book about San Francisco at my apartment- stop by and pick it up, I'll leave it out on the table.

[bakagaijin]

For the introduction part, I never did the traditional self intro. Get the kids involved right away. They'll be curious about you but a little bit shy (usually)

Write up five or six questions on the board.

Where am I from?
What is my country/hometown famous for?
What are my hobbies?
What is my favorite Japanese food? (say natto.. even if you don't like it)
What is my favorite movie?
What's my favorite fruit?
What is my favorite character?
How tall am I ?
How much do I weigh?
How many brothers and sisters do I have etc...


It usually starts slowly. Let the Japanese teacher translate or, if you know Japanese just throw it out there. That should get the ball rolling.

Write three boxes on the board. If the students miss, it's strike 1. After three strikes, give them the answer.

10 minutes will go by easily.

[Comazon]

Sweet, these recommendations are gold.

Thanks to all for the advice (x2 for Japanat). I'll let everyone know how it goes on Thursday.

Now if only I can get over my fear of talking in front of crowds... ^_^;;

[Comazon]

Okay, I did a bit of everyone's advice and it went okay, I think.

I kind of followed Bakagaijin's recommendation by talking a bit about me, I guess. The teacher really wanted it more on San Francisco though, so I didn't spend that much time on me.

Next I pretty much used everything Az mentioned, including the story behind the San Francisco Gate Bridge. I didn't have a picture of Shinjo, but the teacher made big and beautiful copies from the San Francisco picture book I mooched off Erbiumfiber, which had SBC Park, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, and even a Trolley for good measure (the trolley went over quite well in the classes). I also had a picture of Barry Bonds, so that was all good.

I finished it off with everything that Japanat recommended. The teacher even made copies of the lunch menu for everyone.

Okay, so here's how the classes went down (I had to do the presentation several times):

First Class:

I sucked. I was nervous and kept going "uhh..." and "umm..." the entire time. To make matters worse, there were these 2 German exchange students trying to prove me wrong about Alcatraz (I claimed no one escaped alive, as I didn't want to get into detail about how some people MIGHT have escaped). They also were questioning if there are really sharks in the water and if anyone swims in it because of the sharks. Damn high school exchange students... :gloomy:

Second Class:

MUCH better. I didn't "umm..." at all (I think), and the lunch menu was a huge hit! I never heard so many "oishii so (sou?)" in my life.

Third Class:

They were MUCH younger and I thought my speech would be too far above their heads, so I just said a bunch of stuff like, "I have a dog. His name is Rocky. Rocky is 3 years old," and other crap like that.

I didn't learn until just before that I was supposed to fill up the ENTIRE 50 MIN SLOT. Those basic sentences didn't last me very long, so it was all Q&A from there.

One question was, "Do you like octopus?"
I was like, "Uhh...sure. I like octopus."
The whole class was then in an uproar because the nickname for one kid was Tako. Lame... :meh:

A kid asked me if I have seen Akihabara, and I said I did. So another kid wanted to ask, "You like maids?" except he messed up and said, "I like maids." So then the class laughed at him hysterically and he put his head down. Hell, even I laughed at him a little. :rofl:

The class was noisy as Hell, but fun.

Anyway, that was my day. Thanks to all for your help. As you can tell, I would've been screwed without it. :clap:

[stsparky]

... First Class:

I sucked. I was nervous and kept going "uhh..." and "umm..." the entire time. To make matters worse, there were these 2 German exchange students trying to prove me wrong about Alcatraz (I claimed no one escaped alive, as I didn't want to get into detail about how some people MIGHT have escaped). They also were questioning if there are really sharks in the water and if anyone swims in it because of the sharks. Damn high school exchange students... :gloomy: ... Anyway, that was my day. Thanks to all for your help. As you can tell, I would've been screwed without it. :clap:

Popular culture is strong - aren't you glad I gave you a head's up. :D

[Comazon]

I knew a lot about the "successful" escape of the prisoners already (I've been to Alcatraz too, as well), but I had no idea about the Mythbusters making a raft to test the theory. That's cool. :D