When Life Imitates Teaching - The Process In the Pudding!

 

I had my first live show of the 2021 - 2022 season at a community event!

It was part of the Lollipop series at Carrboro Parks and Rec!

I was not as prepared as I usually am. I could feel the rust.

I walked out of the house and realized I'd forgotten to paint my toenails. Of course, I had. When is the last time an audience saw my toes?

I painted my nails on the way there as The David drove.

six people came to the show not counting The David and the organizer.

All six members of the public sat right in the front row.

There were two women who knew each other and their daughters who seemed to be about three came in holding hands. There was also a dad and his daughter. She was four.

It took me about thirty seconds to realize that the two ladies and their daughters didn't speak English.

Welcome back to live telling!

I told a story called Silly Annabelle which is highly participatory with sound and movement. There is lots of repetition, and once you learn the patterns, you can figure out what happens next.

The four-year-old and her father who were able to follow the tale were very participatory. They beautifully modeled the way to interact with the storyteller. 

The non-English speakers participated as well. They waved their hands in the air, danced with the dragon, shook the trees, clapped, considered, and made all of the right sounds. They even learned most of the refrains by the end and said them more or less as they clapped, or danced around.

The David and the organizer were in the back of the room. They could only see the back of the six participants. 

When the show was over, and the six people were packing to go, I thanked everyone for coming, and I spent a few moments communicating with the two ladies. They were from Japan. That was all they could tell me. 

Source

The organizer came over to speak to everyone and that is when she found out they couldn't speak much English. She was shocked because of how participatory they were.

As we left the venue, I told The David that it was interesting that my first show back - just for kicks - most of my audience had no idea what I was saying. 

He looked at me quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"The two ladies and their children didn't speak any English."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "They were participating really well."

"I spoke to them. I know they weren't completely sure what I was saying."

He raised his eyebrows. "You couldn't tell that from the back. They participated with everything!"

Source

It was only after the fact, that I realized I'd just exemplified the workshop I'd given the weekend before.

I was speaking with English teachers from all over the world who were teaching English to children in Tunisia. They are working in a program called American Corner Tunis.

I sent them an hour-long pre-recorded workshop, and I joined the workshop at the end for a Q&A. The students enjoyed the workshop, and they were very excited about working on their new skills and using more storytelling in the classroom.

Not one of them questioned whether or not it would be a useful tool, and all of them appreciated how storytelling could both inform and shape how they worked with their students from the little ones all the way up to high school.

I have done a number of workshops about using storytelling with audiences who might not speak English. We learn from each other how to make a story work across cultural and language divides. (I am going to stop using the word barriers when I think about how we communicate with people who have different life experiences from us.) When I was putting the workshop for Tunisia together I had a moment. It has been a while since I was telling in person. Zoom doesn't give you the same kind of feeling with an audience.

I was concerned that I would be very rusty in person, and in some ways I am. Still, the process I have lived with for thirty years on how to deal with various audiences and find ways to meet them where they are and communicate is still part of me.

The temperature is dropping.

Schools are making their arrangements.

Bookstores are calling for appearances

Conferences are tentatively trying in-person gatherings.

Me? I'm getting ready to socially distance embrace audiences. 

This season is going to be amazing - No matter what happens!

Happy Telling!

For a bit of fun, here is another blog I did about communicating across the language divide.