Kirk, an Instructor of Passion

  

In the very first week of our observation, Kirk got a reputation for being “crazy” among us. Some of us were even afraid to observe his class again, for we all felt awkward when we had to follow him to do “crazy” things.

By the time I went to his class, I had got well-prepared in mind for the craziness. He is really an instructor of passion. Ten minutes after the class began, he was sweating all over. In addition to speaking loudly or shouting, he had been gesturing, moving his body all the time. He combined pronunciation with breath and movement of the body so that students do not only read out the sounds, but feel the difference of the body in pronunciation.

Imagine the students and the instructor all “dancing”, shouting sounds together. It is full of passion, funn , engaging . No one in class could have a chance to get distracted. This may well account for the crazy things he asks students to do in class.

Last week, he further explained his way of teaching. It turns out this way of practicing pronunciation comes from the way actors of Shakespeare train their voice and speaking. Only a devoted teacher , a hard-working teacher could have come up with the idea of applying acting techniques to pronunciation study!

Touring a Rich Community

On Saturday afternoon, before we went to the book sale, we took a tour of the rich community nearby.  One house after another stand among big shadowy trees, surrounded by huge courtyard of meadows. As the houses are generally painted white, they stand out among green trees and meadows. In fact, we should call them mansions, for every house seems to have more than ten rooms. Some have porches , High round columns stand on the front . How magnificent they are.

Yet what strikes me most is the huge courtyard every house enjoys. The houses are far away from the road, separated by huge great meadows.  Generally a path winds through the meadow, to the entrance. There seem to be stripes of light green and dark green on some  meadow which has just been mown. Different shades of green are there.

In some courtyard we find pingpong table at which the owner and his friends play the ball.  Also trampoline is set up maybe for children to jump or for adults to keep fit. It seems that both luxuries have much to do with keeping oneself healthy.

The courtyard of every house generally is marked by low white fences.The beauty of the houses and its attached meadow is in the view of all passersby. It is a view possessed by the rich , but shared by all.

  

Going to church (2)

                                  

    After the donation was over, a black woman in her thirties rose .She was of great height, plump , sexy , above all, healthy , reminding me of dark brown soil in vast fields stretching far far away. Somehow the warm breath of earth came over me immediately.

    The woman sort of danced while she sang. Her voice rang as she moved slowly around the rows of chairs to the beat of the song. I could not understand what she sang, but the volume and pitch of the song amazed me. With no music to accompany her, she caught all of us with her clear , high-pitched and somewhat rough voice. Something about her moved me. I do not know what it was. Maybe it was the spontaneous issuing of the song, her own indulgence in the music itself, the sadness (which I felt) revealed that rendered the singing vivid and natural. It  was completely still. All the eyes were on her. Clearly the spell was on everyone.

   After the service was over, I had a chat with the woman sitting next to me , and the guy sitting behind me. Both of them had moved into New Haven recently, the woman following her son , the guy dong research job in a company nearby. It seems to me that people in New Haven are highly mobile.

   In the fellowship we joined in , we had more talk with people present.. Everyone was so kind, ready to give whatever help they could. One old woman offered to take me to various free programs . The preacher hoped that we would go again. It seemed more like a social gathering.

Going to church (1)

          

The church we went to

Last Sunday we went to church for the first time in our life. We were warmly greeted at the entrance. The church window and the cross in the front were so different that we took quite a few pictures .

The people who come to attend the service

When the service began, we sat down as the other people did. We read prayers and sang psalms. When I could not follow, the woman sitting next to me kindly picked up the book on the bench to point out the exact page to me. The scene of so many people standing and reading the same thing aloud solemnly , the voices of men and women , old and young , coming out together gave me the feeling of unity and strength of some kind. The preacher talked for quite some time. Actually, I became

a little drowsy in time. But one sentence he said echoed still in my mind,” Do not let evil overcome kindness. Let kindness overcome evil.” Why do so many people practice religion in the world? Maybe such is just what everyone of them cherishes.

After that , I saw a plate piled with small paper bags passing around . I wondered what it was. The woman sitting next to me told me it was the donation. It was so surprising to me. I read somewhere that there was a donation box in church where people put in notes. But here the donation comes in such a different way!  Why should it be wrapped in small pieces of paper ? Though I wondered about this, I donated one dollar, “naked”, without papers covering it. In China, we have a saying to the effect that one feels good if he has done something good. I know that churches provide free food to poor people. It is good that everyone of us is doing something to help people in need.

  

Catching the train to New Haven

After shopping in Clinton, a bus took us to Westbrook train station. Susan Wang told us

Westbrook train station

that we could catch the 7:05 pm train to get back to New Haven. There were ten of us. Except two  boys , all of us carried big shopping bags. When we arrived, it was 6:45. It was a small station , with two tracks lying between two platforms. A walkway spans across the platforms. It is strange there was not a single worker there. The station seemed to work on its own.

Track 1

At almost 7:05, a train pulled in. We asked the conductress whether the train would get to New Haven, the answer was no. She did not know when the next train was. But she kindly gave us a schedule of the train. At this moment , Susan Wang ,who had been to Clinton four times , became unsure about which track to take .She said it was track 2, while others say it was track 1. We were arguing with each other when one of us noticed a train coming in track 1.  So , all of us, ten of us, rushed upstairs . A few of us found an elevator , so a few rushed back to get in. You could imagine the fuss of shouting and running up and down. However, the train did not stop at all. It was until then we realized Susan mistook the weekend schedule for weekday.

We began to look at the schedule carefully. A black man smiled to us, telling us the next train would be at 8:16. We smiled back in doubt. Then another train came in , we switched to track 2 again. Again the train did not stop. All of us laughed. How silly and embarrassing we must have looked! We, who try to look ladylike in front of students, rushed up and down ,here and there , out of breath ,with big shopping bags ,again and again!

The inside of the train.

At last we made sure it was track 1 at 8;16, as the black man told us. Finally we got on the train to New Haven!