Communication: Harder Than It Sounds

The Casa Rosada.  Eva Peron's old home

I had a great tour through Argentina.  Though I was there for storytelling, I got a chance to see some neat stuff and learn some cool things.

The cemetery at Recoleta.  Eva Peron's current home

I saw my first ever Patagonian Mara.

Looks sort of like a cross between a rabbit and a small pig.  Wildest looking rodent ever.

I got a chance to check out some amazing architecture.

Almost every street corner in Recoleta looks like something out of an art book!

Spent about thirty minutes in a small museum completely dedicated to toilets.

And I passed a rather interesting afternoon in a large city of dead people.

Most of the time I spent telling stories!

I spent hours with audiences who displayed various levels of English from proficient to non-existent.  Each and every show brought its own challenges and triumphs.

I enjoyed talking to the kids afterwards as they attempted to be brave enough to chance a question in English.  I ventured a few words in Spanish, and I learned that the Argentines have different words than what I’d learned in other parts of the Spanish speaking world.

All in all, it was a great learning experience and a great deal of fun.

The biggest problems I had when it came to comprehension did not come from the Argentines, but from my translator who is from New Zealand. 

Frank was a great tour manager

I always expect that I will understand him since we speak the same language, but those New Zealanders have a very negligent relationship with consonant sounds and they, or at least Frank, run towards the nasally. 

What this means is that occasionally Frank would say something and I would be lost as to what it was.  It was particularly bad if the word was at the end of a sentence.  I would wait a moment and try to guess what he’d said by using context.  Once, when he'd had a long morning, and I'd just finished two shows, he told me we could stop at a stawus if we liked.  Baffled, I turned that over in my head and requested he tell me again what we should do, (thinking he had perhaps lapsed into Spanish).  He said it again, stawus.  When I still couldn't figure it out, he put on his fake American accent and said this.

He was always overly amused at my lack of ability to work out his mutterings.

My favorite example of confusion had nothing to do with my inability to understand him.  In fact, I heard him just fine and still, communication didn’t happen.

We were having breakfast my first Friday in country, and we were discussing a party we’d gone to the night before.  This party was with the staff of DreamOn, the company that hired me to come to Argentina. 

Frank was talking about one of the women with whom I’d spent a good deal of the evening. 

He said, “Sylvia sells China.”

My brain latched onto that phrase and created an entire universe of images that assaulted me with their randomness as I tried to fit them into what I knew of the quiet woman I’d met eleven hours earlier.

It was a bizarre non-sequitur in the midst of our conversation about the dinner.  Why would he say such an odd thing, why do I care if she has a side job, and how does he even know this useless bit of information?  I suddenly saw Sylvia with a valise wherein she had lots of pictures of porcelain plates, saucers, and cups. 

I recalled that I'd bought a tea set when we were together in Hong Kong.  

I had a wild notion that he thought I might be in the market for more dishes.  This all took place in a matter of seconds because his next sentence was…

“Kiki sells Korea.”

Ah, then I got it.  Sylvia spends her day phoning schools in China and convincing them to book a DreamOn artist into their school.   

He means this:

Not this:

So, here I am, sitting in a Spanish speaking country in the midst of a café where I'm not doing such a terrible job reading the menu despite it being in a different language, and the only person I can’t seem to comprehend is the fellow sitting across from me who is speaking a brand of the English language that’s not too different from my own.

Communication is hard.  Misunderstandings are common.  Patience is necessary.

Is it any wonder people who disagree can’t find common ground?  Is it any wonder people who have been traditional enemies hear insults where none exist?  Is it any wonder a fighting couple always assumes their partner is picking at them?  The list of communication problems that we build between us could go on forever!

We only hear what we think we hear, not necessarily what somebody said.

I guess it all depends on the story you find yourself in with the person at hand.  Perhaps we should try to hear with more care and listen with more love.  

Yes, that sounds good, but I'll bet it won't help me understand Frank the next time he asks me if I want some awtha.

Happy Communicating!

July 24th - Jacqueline K. Ogburn - A Curious Collaboration: Writing Picture Books

A Curious Collaboration:  Writing Picture Books

by Jacqueline K. Ogburn

Jacqueline is a spectacular author who has written a piece for the blog about the process of working with an illustrator.  If you are thinking about writing a children's book or you've ever wondered what that process might be like, this is a must read. 

I first met this amazing writer at a SCBWI conference over ten years ago.  She is a great friend, a very down to earth person, and has been everything from a sounding board to a mentor.  She belongs to a group of writers and illustrators called WINC, Writers and Illustrators of North Carolina.

It is great when you love and admire the work your friends do.  Jackie Ogburn is one of my favorite children's book authors...and I'm not just saying this because she named a character in one of her books after me.  The Bake Shop Ghost is a great read.

I'm not the only one who thought it was amazing.  It was turned into a short film.  Check out the trailer for it.

She's also the author of one of my favorite literary tales to tell.  The Magic Nesting Doll is a feast for both the eyes and the ears.  This piece is so beautifully written, it reads like a traditional tale.  It involves an enchanted Czar, a magic nesting doll, fantastic beasts and a young girl who breaks a spell that causes Winter without Spring, Night without Moon, and Dark without Dawn.  A great read!

 

She has so many good ones, I am spoiled for picking favorites, but I absolutely love Scarlett Angelina Wolverton-Manning.  What happens when you kidnap a helpless young girl only to discover there's something odd and unsettling about her?  I've been working on turning this one into a performance piece.  I'll be rolling it out later on this year!

Her work is worth exploring if you are mining for some new material.  Her entry is both interesting and thought provoking.


Happy Reading!

July 17th - Michael McCarty - More Than just a Storyteller

More Than 'Just A Storyteller'

Michael McCarty

"Have Mouth Will Run It"

What on earth do you say about a fellow whose slogan is, "Have mouth will run it"?  Lots, actually.  Michael McCarty is a dear friend and an amazing person.  On my recent trip to Argentina I found out that the DreamOn staff refers to him as, 'God'.

He was once a Black Panther.  He is still an educator,  motivator, acupuncturist, life enthusiast, and unparalleled performer.  He can make anything seem like a good idea if he says it the right way.

His entry, More than 'Just a Storyteller', explores how storytelling transforms the lives of the people who share it.  His piece, like himself, is both moving and powerful.

This is one of his personal pieces called 'Vindication'  It is a heart rending account of our history in America.

Happy Telling!

Coming Attractions For July! Lyn Ford - Common Core for Empathy

July 10th 2014

Storytelling:  A Common Core for Empathy

by Lyn Ford

Lyn Ford is an amazingly versatile teller who is also a huge education advocate.  She has a wonderful, soulful voice and a powerful presence.  In her entry, she takes on the Common Core Standards, and shows how the philosophies used to create them are trying to force us into an educational system that looks deeper than the surface of instructional material.  Common Core tries to find connections with the past and present that could help us move into a brighter future.  There is more to learning than just memorizing something for a test!

I've known Lyn for more years than I care to count.  She is someone I always look forward to seeing because she has one of the most grounded souls I've ever encountered.  Watching her makes you smile, think and trust.  There is a quality about her that is both soothing and intriguing.  Find her if you can and take a seat!

Lyn is also an author and a contributor to articles, anthologies in the storytelling world.  Here is her latest!  Affrilachian Tales.

Check her out telling about that Signifying Monkey!

Happy Learning!

Antonio Sacre - Can I hit my child with a Chancla to get him off the playground? How parents can use stories to make difficult transitions slightly better.

This is a Chancla for those of you, like me, who had no idea

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

― Albert Einstein

Antonio Sacre

My 4-year-old son will not leave the playground. Nothing works. My calm voice, my “happiest child on the block voice”, the “1-2-3 magic” counting trick. Cajoling. Pleading. Appealing to reason. Threats. I’m watching all the other parents on the playground watch me, compassionate, smug, and fearful that their own turn for the public shaming of being “The Worst Parent on the Playground” is fast approaching.

How did my mom get us off the playground? Oh wait, I was raised in the 1970s, my mom was nowhere to be found. We came home when we were hungry and the street lights lit up the suburban sky.

How did my Cuban grandmother do it? She should throw her chancla, her slipper, out of the window, and like some magic boomerang, it would travel through little Havana in Miami to the playground, hit me and my two brothers on the head, and return to her hand in one second flat. She’d put it back on her foot and continue cooking, and we would sulk home through the Miami humidity.

I think, can I just leave my son and tell him to come home when he’s tired? It’s only three blocks through our neighborhood in Los Angeles that is patrolled nightly by helicopters and frequently tagged with graffiti. He’ll be fine.

Can I hit him with a chancla? I beg, I threaten, I chase, and I’m at my wit’s end.

And then, like my abuela reaching from beyond the grave with a spectral chancla, an idea hits me. Tell him a story. I am so rattled and embarrassed that I can’t believe I didn’t think of it until now.

Yes, I am a professional storyteller, and have been for 20 years, but in this moment, I’m a frustrated dad, looking for a life-line, and before another parenting technique I’ve learned from some well-meaning and well-written parenting books escapes my lips, I get as close as I can to the whirling, sweaty mass of humanity that my son has become and I speak the magic words.

“Once upon a time…”

My son slows for a second and his eyes lock in on mine. A tiny window opens, precariously, hovering, expectant.

I have 50 stories in my repertoire that I can pull out at any time for any audience. I can tell stories for 12 hours and never repeat a story. I know folk tales, myths, legends, histories, jokes, riddles, dichos, tall tales, personal stories, magical stories.

And it this moment, it’s all gone. I can’t think of a story or a character or an archetype to save my life. Three little pigs? Gone. Hansel and Gretel? Juan Bobo? Lazy Jack?

All gone.

His eyes flicker, he’s looking at the slide and the swings and the tree and his friends and the sand box, and it’s way, way past bath and dinner time, and now his bed time is in jeopardy.

My grandmother hits me with another chancla, and I remember the lesson I just taught to 4th graders a few hours before, when my life was good and calm and I was competent and sane.

“Most stories have four elements: people (character), place (setting), a problem (conflict) and a solution (resolution).” I even wrote it on the board.

And I say to my son, before he can escape, “Once upon a time, there was a 4-year old boy, at the park, who didn’t want to leave. And then, something amazing happened.”

If someone were to give me a million dollars in that moment for the next sentence in that story, I would not have been able to answer them.

But my son says to me in Spanish, “Daddy, what happened?”

And I say, “Mi’jo, I’ll tell you what happened on the walk back home.”

He eyes me for a long, long three seconds.

And then, like magic, he grabs my hand, tugs me in the direction toward home, and in a sweet, angelic voice, like nothing at all has transpired on the playground, he says, “Daddy, what happened?”

In the few seconds it takes for all of this to transpire, all of my story memory floods back, and I take one strand from one story, one character from another, and the story gets us through a quick bath, dinner, and on to bedtime books, only an hour past his normal bedtime.

Antonio’s story recipe:

1.            Character: choose two of your favorite family members, living or passed. Have them talk with a voice you miss or one that you love, even if they didn’t sound that way.

2.            Setting: put them in your favorite place to be when you were the age that your child is now.

3.            Problem: have them want something your child wants: one more minute on the playground, another scoop of ice-cream, whatever it is you are dealing with, but adjusted for the time period. For example, they don’t want to play on their iPad, they want to play kick the can again.

4.            Have them not get that thing, but get something surprising or silly or wonderful instead.

Does it always work? Of course not. That’s what chanclas are for. But when it does work, it’s magical.

Antonio can be found in many places.  Here is a fabulous video series he did about storytelling.

Sara DeBeer : Storytelling Ancient Mind Melding

Sara DeBeer

Storytelling: Ancient Mind Melding

 In my work as a teller of traditional folktales, I engage listeners in the experience of co-creating stories. Children often mirror my expressions: when I scowl with greed or scorn, they scowl as well; when my face grows worried and concerned, their faces share the worry, the concern; when my face lights up with joy or triumph, I look out on a sea of smiles. 

While the bond which joins teller and listener is strong, equally powerful is the realization that every listener perceives the characters, the setting, and the story in his or her own way. Story-listening and story exploration provide important opportunities for students to exercise their ability to create their own internal images.

We see what we see!

Being a teaching artist is quite different from telling stories to hundreds of kids in an auditorium (or a cafetorium, or worse yet, a gym). In the classroom, I shift back and forth between being a performer, telling a story while students listen in rapt attention, and being a facilitator, encouraging students to share observations about the stories and the art of storytelling.  Students see that voice, gesture, and language can strengthen the presentation of a story and its impact.  

An artist can serve as a role model for students, whether the students are going to model their lives directly on that artist (becoming artists themselves) or whether they incorporate some aspects of that art form into their daily lives; contact with a resident storyteller strengthens all students' communication skills.  At the same time, by observing the students' interaction with the artist and the art, teachers often perceive their own students in a whole new way. 

Click here for a study about the importance of teaching artists!

           

During my visits to classrooms, I include time for students to process the story which they just heard. Younger students draw pictures of their favorite part of the story, and sequence the drawings, creating a book which retells the story. Older students work as a group to create monologues based on different characters in the story. They then take turns reading aloud the monologues. We choose to make parts of the monologues choral, so there is a role for the entire class during the oral reading activity.

           

Whether I am presenting an assembly program, or working as a teaching artist, I ask for information from teachers ahead of time so my presentations integrate with themes currently being studied in the classrooms. Although some see me as an “entertainer”, I see myself foremost as an educator. With a Masters in Education from the Bank Street School of New York, and years of experience as a classroom teacher, I am able to partner with teachers and design programs which tie in with on-going classroom studies of science, social studies, and language arts.  Teachers who work with me soon recognize that stories can be a tool for helping students learn any subject.

            

Click here to check out Artsblog for Arts & Ed info!

In these different ways, I aim to instill a love of the value of storylistening and storytelling, as well as an appreciation of the richness of the folktales and folk traditions of a broad range of world cultures. When children lose themselves in the world of stories, they find new understanding of what it means to be human.

You can find our more about Sara at storydebeer.com

Happy Teaching!