A joke…
Hi Everybody!
I just made my first “video joke”. Although it was a fast production, it should be useful to some learners. I am STILL trying to find better video editing software, so the quality is low. And I KNOW I should have shaved first but it was a holiday in China and my face needed a rest!
Click here to watch the video. As always, let me know what you think.
Nafis Said,
May 4, 2008 @ 2:08 am
Dear teacher Joe,
You are always so handsome, with shaving or without shaving!
I did not see you face to face but, you are so respectful for me.Do not worry about the appearance!
Thank you so much for the joke as well!
Chichi Said,
May 4, 2008 @ 2:15 am
Hi Teacherjoe
I like this video. I think that the story is funny, its length is proper and also it is useful for listening, reading, and speaking. I had some parts I couldn’t get with normal speed without subtitles, but I could understand it to read subtitles and explanations of words and idioms. On the second time of playing it, I stopped the video at each sentence and mimicked the way you speak. I can completely listen to and understand what you speak with normal speed without subtitles on the third time of playing it.
I forget what I have learned very soon, so I really think that it’s very important to keep learning every day, but I don’t have enough time to study. I listen to English on iPod and read a English book or a magazine on the way of commuting everyday and sometimes stop by on a café and study. I think my listening and reading are improving, but my speaking is less than that. I will try to find chances to talk with people in English and enjoy it.
teacherjoe Said,
May 4, 2008 @ 4:47 am
Nafis and Chichi,
Thanks for your comments! Is there any way I can make a joke easier to understand on video? Maybe for future jokes I will do a bit more acting, but I’m not sure if that will really help or not. For example, if there’s a woman in the joke, should I use a fake (but very bad quality) female voice when I speak? My current students laugh at that kind of thing, but they’re just kids. I’m just wondering…
Nafis Said,
May 4, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
Dear teacher Joe,
Sorry for my Really Really bad mistakes! I wanted to say that I have so respect for you and I made a bad mistake! Now, I correct it and appologize for that mistake.
For me, the footnotes came and went very quickly and I could not follow them. I had to pause the video and then look at them. But, it is not a very bad things because I can pause it and listen to it how many times I want,so , it is ok with me.
Chichi Said,
May 5, 2008 @ 2:45 am
Hi teacherjoe,
I like to make kids laugh with expression of my face and voice
I think that adding a bit more acting on your video might be more interesting for us, but I don’t know if it really helps us to understand easier… A Japanese traditional comic storytelling Rakugo that a man or a woman plays plural characters in the story and makes audience laugh, is sometimes performed in English these days, though it still keeps a traditional unique style. It is said that the English Rakugo is good to learn English. I think that it may be able to make anybody approach English more easily. And also I’ve heard that a laugh activates brain, so it might work for learning English too. But I think it would be a little bit difficult to make people laugh with limited expression on the video.
I thought that disappearing of the explanations on your video joke was a little bit too fast, too. It will become a good training to read fast. Still I think the video is easy to understand and useful. I just like it.
teacherjoe Said,
May 5, 2008 @ 4:32 am
Chichi,
Your comment reminds me that I once listened to some Rakugo stories in both Japanese and English. I’m afraid the English was too slow. The storyteller was quite famous, but his English was not so good, so he kept on repeating some short sentences which was quite different from the Japanese version. Still, it could be a good way to learn.
I just had a crazy idea… Maybe I should make a Japanese version of my jokes (Japanese-style not Japanese language) to put on a “Japanese You Tube” kind of web site and a Chinese version for my Chinese students and a French version on a French web site, etc. It would be a lot of work, but it might be worth the effort…