According to UNESCO, World Book Day is organized to promote reading, publishing and copyright. This last item is quite the hot potato these days with music and ebook downloads. Below I have included a couple of links to debates on this topic to get your brain juices flowing. I would like to open a debate here to know what you think about this issue.
Is there sound if a tree falls in the
forest and there is no one there to hear it?
Do colors exist if there are no eyes to perceive them? Of course there are sound waves, but many
would argue that the sound is not the wave, but rather the effect those waves
have on an ear. Likewise, certain
frequencies of light waves determine color only once they come in contact with
an eye. I wonder if the same could be
said for a book, or perhaps more precisely for literature. If a book is written but never read, is it
literature? Is it the reader who
breathes life into a piece of writing? I
would argue that this is exactly what happens.
Despite my somewhat sarcastic take on
International Days in my Days’d and
Confused post, World Book Day might be the most apropos time for this blog
to dedicate some time and thought to reading and writing. After all, I began this blog with the purpose
of encouraging my students to read more and take the step (or gigantic leap) to
start writing. Literature, and art in
general, is sometimes described as being a conversation. When I first heard this as a child at school,
I didn’t really understand how or why my teacher talked about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or In Cold Blood as being part of a
conversation. Of course, when he claimed
that they were part of the same, ongoing, never-ending conversation, I thought
he had finally gone certifiably bonkers.
When he added that we could get in on the conversation, I was expecting
the men in white robes to come bursting through the door with a straight jacket
at any minute. Now, it is hard for me to
imagine why I didn’t grasp the idea right away.
Everything that has been written is a response to what had been written
before and an antecedent to what will be written after. The most exhilarating part is that by
allowing ourselves to experience and share what we read, we become participants
in the conversation.
Considering that I am an English
teacher in Spain, one of my goals is to get non-native English speakers to plunge
into the conversation. I have been
teaching for over 20 years now, and in that time there have always been
students who were eager to partake in the conversation. However, by and large most students have been
reluctant to make the effort in the first place or they haven’t had what it
takes to stick with it after an initial burst of enthusiasm. So the question nagging at the back of my
mind has been how to make reading (in English) more accessible and more
appealing to the greatest number of students.
I’ve come up with a double-pronged argument: language learning and human
experience.
It has been shown that reading is an
effective way to improve one’s language skills.
There are many obvious reasons for this.
Attentive reading can increase and activate vocabulary, heighten
awareness of grammatical patterns and structures and improve writing
skills. Beyond these worthwhile
advantages, I believe that reading is one of the best motivators to keep us
learning. Recent studies have shown that
reading is a much more effective way to learn both vocabulary and grammar than
traditional studying based on memorizing.
Some of these studies have emphasized that grammar systems are extremely
complex – so complex, in fact, that there is no universal agreement among
grammarians as to a unified explanation.
At first glance this assertion would seem to be desperately demotivating
for the foreign language student. The
good news is that these same studies conclude that we tend to “absorb” grammar
through “comprehensible input”.
Basically, this is a student’s dream.
While you can’t expect information to get into your head through osmosis
when you sleep with your head on an English textbook, this means that
meaningful exposure to a language is a better way to learn than staring at
grammar rules for hours on end. Finally,
researchers contend that the best way to get comprehensible input is - you
guessed it - reading!
In the previous paragraph I have
tried to show you how reading can improve your English. What I would really love to see, though, is
you breathing enriching air into the corpus of literature in English. That doesn’t mean that you have to become a
literary genius. It just means that by reading, thinking, talking, feeling,
sharing and maybe even writing about what you have read you will add your own
experience to the universal conversation.
That’s pretty exciting.
I would also include socio-cultural
factors here. Reading can help us to
reflect on other points of view, different ways of doing things and contrasting
cultural perspectives. This, in turn,
can help us become more understanding human beings and potentially more
constructive, positive, tolerant citizens.
Literature can help us to gain a wider vision of the human
experience. Despite constant
technological developments that supposedly make us better connected, I often
notice that everyday life has a tendency to strap blinders on the sides of our
eyes. We lose sight of the big picture while we are focused on getting through
the day without forgetting to pick up your three-year-old from preschool. (Uh-oh)
So, to wrap things up, I would like
to urge all of you to pick up a book and read it. You’ll enjoy some, abhor others. You’ll laugh and cry and get frustrated. You’ll travel around the world and in someone
else’s dreams. You’ll smile and chuckle
and roll your eyes. Your heart will race
and your eyelids will grow heavy. You'll ponder new ideas and see the world in different ways. But, most of all,
you’ll get in on the conversation.
I would like to express my most sincere thanks to all of those who attended our public reading event last night. And to those whose plucked up the courage to read a text out loud to a cram-packed venue, I salute you. All of the readers in all of the languages did a wonderful job. As an English teacher, I would have those of you who read in my native language know that I am especially appreciative. Even though it may sound like a cliché, it really is the participants who make an activity like this work.
While I want to be careful not to get ahead of myself, I can't help but mention that I am already looking forward to the next reading which will be held on April 23, World Book Day.
The first day of the year, when most
of us are sleeping off a long night of too much food and probably a few drinks
too many, has been declared Global Family Day.Hey, sounds like a good idea.The
family is a complex yet fundamental institution in our society.January 1 has also been the World Day of
Peace since 1967.You may have missed
this most important event due to that same hangover that kept you from lovey-dovey
cuddling on, oh yeah, New Year’s Day.
Let’s jump forward to International
Customs Day (January 26). I wonder if that is “customs” like the agency
responsible for collecting duties at the airport. OK, probably not, but what exactly is this
day for? I think we need to clarify this
day, after all there are plenty of customs that we may be better off without. Anyway,
we have to get ourselves emotionally prepared for the next day - International
Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. No matter how you cut it, the systematic
murder of millions of people in the middle of Europe just 70 years ago cannot
be brushed aside.
Just think about all those poor kids
in the world living on the streets trying to survive from one day to the next,
but save it for January 31: Street Children’s Day. World Wetlands Day (February 2) is not merely
a crazy environmental call for duck lovers.
Our wetlands are crucial for biodiversity and therefore for our own
well-being. February 3 seems to be free
for the moment, but World Cancer Day rushes in on February 4. We all have lost loved ones taken from us too
soon by this relentless disease. We have
to do something about it.
International Day of Zero Tolerance
to Female Genital Mutilation – February 6.
World Day of the Sick – February 11. Both extremely worthy causes. Are you writing this all down? Schedule in World Radio Day on February
13. What? World Day of Social Justice is on February
20. Few issues have a greater impact
than social justice, even though I have to say I am getting a little weary at
this point and it is still the middle of February. Deep breath.
Get a good night’s sleep and re-energize.
International Mother Language Day is
celebrated on the following day. I can
probably manage to go to some kind of demonstration if I skip dinner with my
family. After all, it isn’t Global Family
Day anyway. At last we’ve made it to March which starts
off with International Day for Ear and Hearing on the 3rd. Are you
ready for the International Women’s Day public reading event on March 8? In
your free time you can prepare a text to read between work, family, cooking,
cleaning, shopping, studying, getting exercise and preparing for World Day of
Muslim Culture, Peace, Dialogue and Film, which is a short three days
away. March 14 is a double whammy: International
Day of Action for Rivers and, my favorite, Pi Day. Before your mouth starts watering, no, it’s
not Pie Day, but Pi Day. Don’t ask.
I could go on. Heck, in October there
are 34 International or World “Days”. On
March 20 alone there are five “days”. I
can’t take it. I’m physically fatigued,
emotionally emaciated, mentally muddled, spiritually spent. I’m plumb tuckered out. I am failing miserably as a citizen of our
global village. I haven’t observed the International Day
of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
since, uh, never. I have a hard enough time getting from Monday
to Tuesday, much less from World Hemophilia Day to International Day of
Innocent Children Victims of Aggression.
The last thing I wish to do here is
belittle any of these causes, concerns or commemorations. I really believe that we have to remember our
past and try, albeit imperfectly, to learn from it. We must not forget the weak, the disabled,
the less fortunate, the needy. However,
I ask you, sincerely, how can I dedicate the necessary time and energy to all these
meaningful “days”? Do I pick and
choose? Genital mutilation, yes. Cancer, no.
Please, don’t make me do that.
If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll sit this one out.
Our next project is to organize a public reading which will take place on March 8, International Women's Day. Below I have posted a short text about what this day means along with some quotes about women. After that, there is a poem about becoming a woman. You can read the poem and watch the author recite it if you want. Remember, all comments are welcome.
International Women's Day
By Simran Khurana
International Women's Day is not about asserting the superiority of one gender over the other. It is not about petty quarrels about who gets to do the dishes after dinner. The United Nations instituted International Women's Day to commemorate the contribution of women in the socio-political sphere as well as in global peace and security.
Historically, women have been suppressed and treated unfairly. Even in the West, women were not given equal opportunities for work. Women were not given voting powers and they could not participate in political activity. Relegated to the hearth and household, women had little else to do other than raise children.
International Women's Day can be traced back to the women's suffrage movement in the late nineteenth century. Over two centuries, women achieved tremendous progress in every walk of life. Women's emancipation took new meaning when women traveled to space, and fought alongside men at battlefields.
Yet we find many pockets in the world, where women are suppressed and demeaned. Gender bias exists at every social stratum, even in the most developed societies. In some regions, patriarchal societies diminish the role of women in important matters. This masochist thinking has brought about a serious economic and social downfall.
Whether you are a woman or man, you must know that International Women's Day celebrates your emancipation. Had it not been for women's emancipation, free thinking would be impossible. An educated woman can raise intelligent children, which in turn creates a self-reliant society. Celebrate the spirit of womanhood with insightful International Women's Day quotes.
· Gandhi
Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity.
· Farrah Fawcett
God gave women intuition and femininity. Used properly, the combination easily jumbles the brain of any man I've ever met.
· Harriet Beecher Stowe
Women are the real architects of society.
· Barbara Bush
Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the President's spouse. I wish him well!
· Virginia Woolf
Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size.
· Timothy Leary
Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.
· Nancy Pelosi
Women are leaders everywhere you look -- from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household. Our country was built by strong women and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes.
· Eleanor Roosevelt
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.
· Robert Elliott Gonzales, Poems and Paragraphs
All the world's a stage, and it's a dead easy guess which sex has all the speaking parts.
· Margaret Sanger
A free race cannot be born of slave mothers.
· Mel Gibson
I love women. They're the best thing ever created. If they want to be like men and come down to our level, that's fine.
· Ellen DeGeneres
I really don't think I need buns of steel. I'd be happy with buns of cinnamon.
· Joseph Conrad
Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.
· Margaret Thatcher
If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.
"Sound Advice"
by Hope Anita Smith
"Get your hands off your imagination," my grandma said to me. And then she and my momma laughed long and loud as they hugged me to them. "You got to earn the right to plant your arms akimbo. You got to work a little harder. You got to live a little longer. You got to finish becoming a woman, and then you can stand and place your hands upon your hips, and your hips will hold them up."
Well, here we all are with a post-Valentine's Day, literary bash hangover. Yesterday we celebrated our first public reading event and I think it went pretty well. We did some different activities related to reading out loud (which is harder than it would seem) and we also did a haiku poem writing exercise. I would like to express my gratitude to those who took part and I hope that you will feel inspired to participate in our next event which is coming up fast - March 8! - to celebrate International Women's Day.
You can read more about what we did yesterday (Feb. 14) at EOIOU Reading to Write which you can find a link to on the right of this page.
Thanks so much for sending this text. Hope you all enjoy reading it.
The place was dimly lit by a night
light next to the camp bed where Tom lay. Craig looked closely at the boy,
wondering whether to wake him. He seemed to have recovered from Sophie’s vodka,
and was sleeping peacefully in his Spiderman pyjamas.
Craig’s eye was caught by something
on the floor beside the pillow. It was a photograph. Craig picked it up and
held it in the light. It appeared to have been taken at his mother’s birthday
party, and showed Tom with Sophie, her arm around his shoulders. Craig smiled
to himself. I’m not the only who was captivated by her that afternoon, he
thought. He put the picture back, saying nothing to Sophie.
My steady reader writes, "I thought it would be great to make a 'totum revolutum' of our favourites languages. Most of all I'd love to share it with our beloved bloggers." So here it is.
Die Slowly
by Marta Medeiros
He who does not travel,
who does not read,
who does not listen to music,
who does not find grace in himself, dies slowly.
He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,
who does not allow himself to be helped,
who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck,
about the rain that never stops, dies slowly.
He who becomes the slave of habit,
who follows the same routes every day,
who never changes pace,
who does not risk and change the colour of his clothes,
who does not speak and does not experience, dies slowly.
He or she who shuns passion,
who prefers black on white,
dotting ones rather than a bundle of emotions,
the kind that make your eyes glimmer,
that turn a yawn into a smile,
that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings, dies slowly.
He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,
who is unhappy at work,
who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,
to thus follow a dream,
those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives, die slowly.
He or she who abandon a project before starting it,
who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn’t know,
he or she who don’t reply when they are asked something they do know, die slowly.
Let’s try and avoid death in small doses,
always reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort by far
greater than the simple fact of breathing.
Only a burning patience will lead to the attainment of a splendid happiness.
A beloved blogger so kindly wrote, "In keeping with the theme of slightly 'warped love' I submit Sinead O' Connor's deliciously beautiful but cutting 'Thank you for hearing me'."
You know who you are!
Thank You for Hearing Me
By Sinéad O'Connor
Thank you for hearing me Thank you for hearing me Thank you for hearing me Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for loving me Thank you for loving me Thank you for loving me Thank you for loving me
Thank you for seeing me Thank you for seeing me Thank you for seeing me Thank you for seeing me
And for not leaving me And for not leaving me And for not leaving me And for not leaving me
Thank you for staying with me Thank you for staying with me Thank you for staying with me Thank you for staying with me
Thanks for not hurting me Thanks for not hurting me Thanks for not hurting me Thanks for not hurting me
You are gentle with me You are gentle with me You are gentle with me You are gentle with me
Thanks for silence with me Thanks for silence with me Thanks for silence with me Thanks for silence with me
Thank you for holding me And saying "I could be" Thank you for saying "Baby" Thank you for holding me
Thank you for helping me Thank you for helping me Thank you for helping me Thank you, thank you for helping me
Thank you for breaking my heart Thank you for tearing me apart Now I've a strong, strong heart Thank you for breaking my heart
If you are interested in reading a text on Thursday but are having a hard time coming up with something, I have some ideas that you might find worth taking a look at.
He sat the boy on the footlocker under the gaslamp and with a plastic comb and a pair of scissors he set about cutting his hair. He tried to do a good job and it took some time. When he was done he took the towel from around the boy's shoulders and he scooped the golden hair from the floor and wiped the boy's face and shoulders with a damp cloth and held a mirror for him to see.
[The Boy:] You did a good job, Papa.
[The Man:] Good.
[The Boy:] I look really skinny.
[The Man:] You are really skinny.
He cut his own hair but it didn't come out so good. He trimmed his beard with the scissors while a pan of water heated and then he shaved himself with a plastic safety razor. The boy watched. When he was done he regarded himself in the mirror. He seemed to have no chin. He turned to the boy. How do I look? The boy cocked his head. I don't know, he said. Will you be cold? (225.1-225.6)
Poem
How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live 'em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give 'em.
There isn't much time left before our public reading event on Thursday, February 14. We are going to get together from 9-10 in the morning and then again starting around 7 in the evening. I hope you can come!
Below I have posted the lyrics to a Springsteen song from his Devils & Dust album. It is a beautifully sad story of ... well, I'll let you decide.
Black Cowboys
by Bruce Sprinsteen
Rainey Williams' playground was the
Mott Haven streets where he ran past melted candles and flower wreaths,
names and photos of young black faces, whose death and blood consecrated
these places. Rainey's mother said, "Rainey stay at my side,
for you are my blessing you are my pride. It's your love here that keeps
my soul alive. I want you to come home from school and stay inside."
Rainey'd do his work and put his
books away. There was a channel showed a western movie every day.
Lynette brought him home books on the black cowboys of the Oklahoma range
and the Seminole scouts who fought the tribes of the Great Plains.
Summer come and the days grew long. Rainey always had his mother's smile
to depend on. Along a street of stray bullets he made his way, to
the warmth of her arms at the end of each day.
Come the fall the rain flooded these homes,
here in Ezekiel's valley of dry bones, it fell hard and dark to the ground.
It fell without a sound. Lynette took up with a man whose business was
the boulevard, whose smile was fixed in a face that was never off guard.
In the pipes 'neath the kitchen sink his secrets he kept. In the day,
behind drawn curtains, in Lynette's bedroom he slept.
Then she got lost in the days.
The smile Rainey depended on dusted away, the arms that held him were no
more his home. He lay at night his head pressed to her chest listening
to the ghost in her bones.
In the kitchen Rainey slipped his
hand between the pipes. From a brown bag pulled five hundred dollar
bills and stuck it in his coat side, stood in the dark at his mother's
bed, brushed her hair and kissed her eyes.
In the twilight Rainey walked to the
station along streets of stone. Through Pennsylvania and Ohio his train
drifted on. Through the small towns of Indiana the big train crept,
as he lay his head back on the seat and slept. He awoke and the towns
gave way to muddy fields of green, corn and cotton and an endless
nothin' in between. Over the rutted hills of Oklahoma the red sun
slipped and was gone. The moon rose and stripped the earth to its bone.
I would like to invite you to take part in a public reading event taking place on February 14th. Yes, it is on Valentine's Day and the theme that will tie everything together is love - but with a twist! We are looking for something beyond just the same old sickly sweet romance that we often find in the mass media. There are lots of kinds of love (parent-child, best friends, siblings, etc.) and love goes through many different stages (intimacy, frustration, hate, reconciliation, disappointment, etc.). The idea is to wrestle with some of these aspects of love. What will come out of it all? We'll just have to wait and see.
Find a text that speaks to you of any of these manifestations of this powerful element of human experience and you can read it to an appreciative audience. The text can come from any source, from poems to exerpts from novels, from songs to non-fiction, from classic thinkers to original work!
We can also look at posting your texts on this blog so those who can't go to the reading will be able read these pearls of wisdom and beauty from the comfort of their homes.
