tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73570951562656217022023-11-16T13:06:13.754+01:00Espionage (Casey Creel)Sounding board for an opera-going language teachernoccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-80799206947228579212020-04-09T00:53:00.002+02:002020-04-09T01:13:12.515+02:00Wenn Gottfried Benn während Corona den Osterspaziergang von Goethe umgedichtet hätte<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Strapazieren im Passgang<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Von den nicht bereiteten Strömen spräche<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">doch des Faschings schmähend ansteckender Strick.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Im Saale tütet Abfallstück<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">der alte Winzer von der Spielfläche<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">ein, sind die rauen Berge zu dürr<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">für seinesgleichen dortiges Streben. Nur<u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">ohnmächtig schaudert des zornigen Greises<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Schweifen über den Korridor:<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Alter, so'ne Wirtschaft duldet keine Crisis.<u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Überall regt sich Halbbildung, Gräben,<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">alles will sie mit Darben beheben.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">An Volumen fehlts im Gehirn.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Sie nimmt beschmutzte Männchen dafür.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Kehre dich um, vom miesen Dröhnen<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">nach dem Staat zurückzusehnen!<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Aus dem hohlen Verstand des Toren<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">dringt ungetuntes Gebimmel vor.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Jede besonnene Seele begehrt<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">nur noch dem ehern leiernden Pöbeln<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">den Stillstand. Selbst die, die aufbranden,<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">an adligen Häusern, an stumpfen Lernfächern,<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">an Landwerks- und Gewerbeschanden,<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">an dem Druck von Zwingherrn und Schächern<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">an der krassen, entsetzlichen Menge<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">der Strolchen gehörenden politischen Macht<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">sie sind alle, die Wichte, gejagt.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Sieh nur, sieh, wie brennend die Fänge<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">der Härten rasen, die Melder erlegt,<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">wie Verdruss in breiten Strängen<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">so manche krustigen Sachen darlegt,<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">die alle, bis zum Stinken der Fladen,<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">entfernt der lahmen Vorstellung waren.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Selbst von des Ärgers ferner Schaden<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">hinken uns narbige Neider heran.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Ich spüre schon des Schorfes Schimmel.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Hier ist des Volkes barer Fimmel.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Zuweilen hauchet bloß und klein:<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span lang="DE">Bin ich hier Mensch, darf ichs noch sein?</span></div>
noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-67963143685314725272018-11-06T09:58:00.000+01:002018-11-06T18:10:03.392+01:00A theatrical coup hoping for a political one: Kirill Serebrennikov’s Così fan tutte<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Mozart:</span></b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 106%;"> <b><i>Così
fan tutte</i></b>: Soloists and Chorus of the Opernhaus Zürich, Philharmonia
Zürich / Cornelius Meister (conductor), Opernhaus Zürich, Zurich, 4.11.2018.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Cast:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Fiordiligi
– Ruzan Mantashyan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dorabella
– Anna Goryachova<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Guglielmo
– Andrei Bondarenko<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Ferrando
– Frédéric Antoun<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Despina
– Rebeca Olvera<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Don
Alfonso – Michael Nagy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sempronio
– Francesco Guglielmino<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tizio
– David Schwindling<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Production:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Director
(<i>in absentia</i>), Set designer, and
Costume designer – Kirill Serebrennikov<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Assistant
director and Choreographer – Evgeny Kulagin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Stage
Assistant – Nikolay Simonov<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Costume
Assistant – Tatiana Dolmatovskaya<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Lighting
– Franck Evin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Video
designer – Ilya Shagalov<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Choir
director – Ernst Raffelsberger<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Dramaturgy and Russian
interpreter – Beate Breidenbach</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 106%;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">There’s
historical </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAUwYcTGejc"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">flooding</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> in Italy this week
which, exacerbated by climate change, is corroding the foundations upon which
great cities rest. There’s a ruling coalition in Italy right now that is
promising a flat income tax and flirting with Putin. There’s an extraordinary
Italian movie running in European cinemas right now, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dogman</i>, that makes no bones about brutality and fear and our route
to ruin. And there’s a Mozart opera set in Naples that is playing in Zurich
right now, an opera that sends its heroes off to war so that they can lie to
their girlfriends, catch them in a cruel trap, and prove how deceitful women –
all women – are. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Così fan tutte</i>. If
there were ever a moment to redraft a canonical Italian opera, this least funny
of Mozart’s comedies would seem a good place to start.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What’s
even less funny is that the government of Vladimir Putin placed the director of
this production, Kirill Serebrennikov, under house arrest in 2017, the charges
apparently fabricated and likely stemming from conservative attacks on Serebrennikov’s
‘immoral’ depictions of Russian classics. America is not so far down the road
Russia has lately forged, and the midterm election results this week will only
be a partial indication of how fast she intends to hurtle into thuggish
lawlessness, but imagine Steven Soderbergh with an ankle monitor pinning him to
his couch in New York City if you want some sense of how badly affairs have
soured in the great nation of Russia. Serebrennikov is a brave and talented
filmmaker and director. Revoking his artistic freedom ‘over there’ puts the
onus on us here: our books, shows, plays, films, even operas, must become
smarter and better, and we in the audience have to follow good art where it
leads. Anything else would reinforce the intolerable status quo. There’s no
formula for how ‘political’ any one work has to be, but we owe it to the
censored not to censor ourselves with self-imposed dullness, via work that
neither reflects nor challenges our reality.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Brave
too is the Opernhaus Zürich for engaging Serebrennikov during his house arrest
– his oft-delayed trial is finally set to start November 7 – as directing
operas is one of the few things he is still able to do, now that he has been
deprived of every electronic medium except a camera, a computer unconnected to
the internet, and the USB stick of correspondence his lawyer shuttles back and
forth between him and the nearest wifi in order to connect with artists on-site
at the Opernhaus Zürich. Serebrennikov has delegated day-to-day decisions for
this production to Evgeny Kulagin, his choreographer and right-hand-man from
their days together at the Gogol Centre of Moscow. A production like this and
its wide </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/arts/music/kirill-serebrennikov-opera-zurich.html"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">media attention</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> could go a long
way towards slowly taming the brazen Russian judiciary, at least in this
instance. Or not. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">So
what is the production? A major theatrical coup, as it turns out. The opera comes
off here as dead serious in the matters of love and war, but sardonic in the
matters of sex and pleasure. Act I’s lovers’ tricks are far crueller than
elsewhere, Act II’s lovers’ betrayals are as solemn as any tragedy, and scores
of little gags bring incidental wit throughout. Kirill Serebrennikov has
managed, quite spectacularly, to respect the ‘sad Mozart’ (as Adorno saw him)
within a genuinely droll evening; he has teased out the parts of the story
that, implicitly and explicitly, offend our taste, and thrown them back at us
in harsh, icky, playful ways. Serebrennikov, gay, Jewish, politically
persecuted and artistically censored, is calling for solidarity with the
oppressed. He succeeded at turning <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Così
fan tutte</i> into a dark comedy with a righteous political message.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31QZa25VCr793_I2yDY7X3Qx7OHIKYEco6LP0o5D-w0e0IQbfNKoRmnrJjeo9bh1eaxmGX6MFWZ7GGBreId7nrcP0amBeLAhH5aVeilReVxhgtr2sXWelXpbaRsgoA16ulpS8aSXVlL0/s1600/Cosi+1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="617" data-original-width="880" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31QZa25VCr793_I2yDY7X3Qx7OHIKYEco6LP0o5D-w0e0IQbfNKoRmnrJjeo9bh1eaxmGX6MFWZ7GGBreId7nrcP0amBeLAhH5aVeilReVxhgtr2sXWelXpbaRsgoA16ulpS8aSXVlL0/s640/Cosi+1.PNG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: Monika Rittershaus</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">And
all without cuts or major changes to the story, I might add. The only drastic
measure is to have Guglielmo and Ferrando convince their girlfriends that they are
not just heading out into some military campaign, but that they have died in
one. The women, beyond distraught, clutch urns of their ashes and chug
barbiturates as their mascara runs. The storytelling is smartly non-committal
here: with the two men viewing the earthly events simulcast up to their
second-story perches, it’s ambiguous whether they only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">told</i> the women they’re dead – a hideous act that, somehow, Mozart’s
music psychologically withstands – or whether they’re actually dead, and
watching from the afterlife upstairs. Either way, this trick rubs our noses in a
reminder that when actual soldiers join actual armies, some of them end up with a bullet to the head. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In come
two ersatz suitors hired by Don Alfonso (sung with dry confidence by Michael
Nagy), who vapes and boozes whilst the heroes are sculpting their abs at the
gym. In this staging, it’s not Guglielmo and Ferrando wearing some dumb Groucho
glasses who are courting their own girlfriends, it’s these two strangers, the hired
muscle, appearing as actual Albanians. The believability problem of the
potentially ridiculous plot? Solved. Appearing in nonspeaking roles inserted
surgically into the libretto, the men are some pretty nasty mofos. They first
appear in the thawbs of Persian Gulf billionaires, and later discard these for their
underwear, full-sleeve tattoos exposed. They help themselves to what’s in the
fridge, plop down on the couch and watch a football match or a skin flick, and
mean what they say when they beg the women to love them, or else. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Their
‘courtship’ of Fiordiligi and Dorabella thus appears in an entirely new light. When
they threaten to poison themselves, it’s no longer the harmless insistence of
yore (‘Draw near, cruel ones; see the dire effect of despairing love’ and so
forth), it’s a threat of sexual violence coming from total strangers on the
same day these two women just buried their boyfriends. Serebrennikov doesn’t need
to discard Mozart and da Ponte where they’re inconvenient to his vision, nor must
he resort to morphing the libretto into some tortured revamp. He simply adds
this layer on top, using all the topics that are already present or implied. The
effect is devastating – what Don Alfonso, Guglielmo, and Ferrando are
submitting these women to, just to win a misogynist bet, is jarring and
excruciating. Imagine hearing ‘Come scoglio’ in such a light: this Fiordiligi (Ruzan
Mantashyan, far from pitch perfect, but oh, what a rich sound) wields a gun. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">There
are misfires. Although I enjoyed that Despina is made to be the women’s shrink
as much as their housekeeper as she spurs them on towards acknowledging their
libidos, poor Rebeca Olvera is made to sing both of Despina’s arias (in her
small but pristine voice) beside an incoherent, NSFW slideshow of, amongst
other things, misandrist slogans and doodles by inspired by Valerie Solanas and
her SCUM manifesto (‘Society for Cutting Up Men’). Solanas will be known to
Andy Warhol fans as the radical feminist who sent a bullet through Warhol’s
spleen. It’s one thing to provoke your audience and accuse it of complacency.
It’s another to merely show them a barrage of random pictures from a hodgepodge
of post-war feminism, with the X-rated ones sped up too fast to actually make
anyone squirm. Mozart’s operas like to end in an Enlightenment appeal for
reason and reconciliation; this part of the production implies a culture war of
an eye for an eye. Even worse is that Ilya Shagalov’s videos undermine their
own power, since several of his other images, like the footage of Pussy Riot
getting arrested, comprise a desperate call for us to fight actual tyranny,
including of the patriarchal sort. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Still,
the evening more than holds together in Act II by means of this insertion of Don
Alfonso’s two hired seducers, and by confronting Guglielmo and Ferrando with a Dorabella
who actually enjoys sex. The men are never let off the hook, and nor does it
feel preachy or moralising to show them at their chauvinistic worst. Just as in
the recent </span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">story</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> ‘Cat Person’,
these heroes are only gentlemen until they lose control of their women, at
which point they reach straight for sexualised slurs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
gorgeous four-aria sequence of each of the protagonist’s reflecting on the once-unthinkable
was one long state of ecstatic anguish, the saddest ‘Per pietà’ you could ever
wish for. Vocally, baritone Andrei Bondarenko is beyond reproach, though his
acting pales next to that of Frédéric Antoun; inversely, Antoun’s singing
sounded clumsy and pinched. Anna Goryachova as Dorabella was excellently
confident in the darkness of this role, and in the production’s sexuality. Her
singing was mixed, stronger in the second half, very well blended with others,
suffering from similar pitch problems as did Mantashyan, and wonderfully
powerful in her big middle voice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Key
to holding things together was the conducting by Cornelius Meister. He’s a
terrific Mozartian, giving a restrained but </span><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">buoyant</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> reading in the beginning of
the score before taking more license with dynamics in the second act. Here he joyously
let his orchestra breathe, impeccably flush with the singers, always aided by
Andrea del Bianco on harpsichord. Speaking of license: Meister even let
Serebrennikov insert </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">the Commendatore's theme music</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> from the </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Don Giovanni</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> score into his orchestra; how
else could the production reintroduce the dead Guglielmo and Ferrando to Fiordiligi and Dorabella? It comes right when they’re about to marry those
boorish suitors, wearing traditional wedding dresses that look like something
from a Patrick Leigh Fermor travelogue: tradition and pageantry and repression
of women, all wrapped snugly together. The women get to unshackle themselves;
will Serebrennikov?</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggmX_Sr1Y7H8bvbkfwi5x3-S-u13AR39FCSOkgDWJHPcXUp__Dy6w86WGlAxbHk_Nvr0EHQPyK7yGrRPCgkiKCqVUb_em0ClsC2Ha118yHkNhjkBxMlIDsz5AGI9D7XWEA-9JnBkLQ6Dg/s1600/Cosi+2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="1019" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggmX_Sr1Y7H8bvbkfwi5x3-S-u13AR39FCSOkgDWJHPcXUp__Dy6w86WGlAxbHk_Nvr0EHQPyK7yGrRPCgkiKCqVUb_em0ClsC2Ha118yHkNhjkBxMlIDsz5AGI9D7XWEA-9JnBkLQ6Dg/s640/Cosi+2.PNG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: Monika Rittershaus</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">See
the </span><a href="https://chn.ge/2Orjfj3"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">petition</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> against his house arrest. The
production runs until 1 December. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Casey
Creel<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-56042551513456493802018-04-22T11:24:00.003+02:002018-04-22T11:35:38.643+02:00Organize your teaching: 8 tips for using browser bookmarks to keep track of web-based resources <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The problem:</span></b> a teacher deals with a daunting multitude of documents and resources, especially if they're teaching students in the secondary school and upper school, and almost regardless of which subject they teach.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Overview, with tips and global solutions: <a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.ch/2018/04/organize-your-teaching-computer-tips.html">here</a>.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Solution for keeping track of <b>websites</b>: learn to use bookmarks well. Here are 8 tips and tricks.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/04/organize-your-teaching-8-tips-for-using.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-58507776574984053542018-04-14T19:07:00.001+02:002018-04-14T19:14:04.076+02:00Homework in Foreign Language Teaching: what kind of homework are language teachers assigning, and why?<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In preparing for an inset on homework in my school, I began looking for advice on best practices for homework in the foreign language classroom. This sort of literature is pretty hard to find. I also realised I don't really know all that much about the homework my colleagues in the Foreign Languages department of my school are assigning, so I decided to ask them. Here is the survey I sent. The results will help us as a department to share tips, reflect on our own practice, and align our homework with the philosophy of the school.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br></span>
<br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/04/homework-in-foreign-language-teaching.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-43197632609997151562018-04-12T17:39:00.002+02:002018-04-13T08:29:20.080+02:00Barry Kosky's Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin at the Zurich Opera house. A review in the form of notes.<br>
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Curtain rises, beginning: the two women are frozen, they are
a photograph. They then begin moving when the music changes, they are now a
memory. They are dressed in black, and there is a haze on the stage. They are
singing of the past. Complacent, quaint, but ever so forlorn. The two women, sung by Liliana Nikiteanu and Margerita Nekrasova, sing beautifully a sad song with
folk twang. The lower voice is so earthy it sounds – how do I describe this – like a woolen muff has been
dipped in wine and squeezed into sound. They sing of men – men who are deceitful in life, but who become somehow saintly in their passing. My mother
says my grandmother did the same hagiographic nattering about a husband she couldn't bear until he died, whereupon he could do no wrong. Ahh, the passage of
time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/04/barry-koskys-tchaikovsky-eugene-onegin.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-38866411857396014482018-04-08T19:35:00.002+02:002018-04-22T11:33:02.774+02:00Organize your teaching: computer tips for teachers looking to keep track of their resources<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The problem:</span></b> a teacher deals with a daunting multitude of documents and resources, especially if they're teaching students in the secondary school and upper school, and almost regardless of which subject they teach. What do I mean by resources? </span><br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/04/organize-your-teaching-computer-tips.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-43224455694222082262018-04-07T17:52:00.001+02:002018-04-09T08:08:21.799+02:00Bach's Johannespassion (Part 3: the mystery of the choir)<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the past two articles I wrote on Bach's <i>Johannespassion</i>, I referred to the dual role of the choir (<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.ch/2018/03/bachs-johannespassion.html">Part 1</a> and <a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.ch/2018/03/bachs-johannespassion-part-2-mystery-of.html">Part 2</a>).</span><br>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"The pain that accompanies the joy, borne of Christ's suffering, becomes our own pain, the people's pain, the choir's pain, as <b>the choir plays the part of Christ's followers and indeed all humankind</b>." </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"The choir itself has <b>two roles -- to sing to God as Christians, and to reenact the passion as a mob, as Jews</b>." </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"I</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> find the structure of the work fascinating in the way it moves back and forth between different characters, arias, recitative and <b>the chimerical choir</b>."</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The choir of this oratorio sings three kinds of music:</span><br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/04/bachs-johannespassion-part-3-mystery-of.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-20267270658881899202018-04-05T23:36:00.000+02:002018-06-19T16:49:50.493+02:00Schubert's Winterreise with Michael Volle (Helmut Deutsch accompanying) at the Zurich opera house: review and notesI was lucky enough last night to hear Michael Volle sing Schubert's <i>Winterreise </i>at the Zurich opera house. Lucky because I can afford the too expensive ticket of 60 CHF. Lucky because I lucked into a seat in the first row, and to boot was on the left-hand side, with an excellent view of Helmut Deutsch's fingers at the keyboard. I've always enjoyed concerts more when my view was better, and this vicinity to the performers was a rare luxury. Lucky finally because I live in a city where Lieder are performed fairly regularly and to a very high standard. I remember spending a week in New York and finding no performances of Lieder anywhere, and now I have steady access to it, and am grateful.<br>
<br>
So far in Zurich at the opera house I've heard:<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.pavolbreslik.com/en/">Pavol Breslik</a> sing <i>Die schöne Müllerin</i> (well cast, well sung, strangely tense, with a fabulous encore performance of "Der Erlkönig"). Better than his recent Lensky in Barry Kosky's <i>Onegin</i>.</li>
<li>Waltraud Meier sing various Lieder, the finest of which was her Schönberg (the great <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6FyLuEkV5c">"Lied der Waldtaube"</a> from the <i>Gurrelieder</i>), the poorest of which was her botched encore singing of "Der Erlkönig". I find connecting to her sung emoting to be difficult, but the Schönberg was the absolute best fit for her voice (far better than her uneven Brahms).</li>
<li>and now Michael Volle, easily the biggest voice I've ever heard sing Lieder, sung bigger than Hans Hotter. Fittingly for music this intense, there was no encore, not even of "Der Erlkönig."</li>
</ul>
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What is it like to have a modern Wagnerian baritone sing little Schubert, what with Schubert's almost embarrassingly intimate and twisted pain? That was my question going in, and my focus throughout. I am sad to say that Herr Volle waited until the very last song (the mercilessly desolate "Leiermann," which he sang spectacularly well) to show his mastery of delicate singing -- delicacy produced by a change in tone, a fresh rendering of the text, a greater nuance with dynamics, a capacity to haunt without resorting to force. Delicacy: overdo it and the singing is mannered and enervated. But to sing Schubert straightforward or too boldly is to repaint Van Gogh as if he were Van Dyck. You cannot use the voice of the hunter to sing the whimpering of the hunted. </div>
<div>
</div><a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/04/schuberts-winterreise-with-michael.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-2575266819990333272018-04-04T18:08:00.004+02:002020-06-26T17:48:16.389+02:00The Netherparts: How low country can you go?For Easter, I visited the Netherlands. As I get older I care less and less about manufacturing experiences out of travel, am less often alone when I travel, and am despite my deadened aesthetic sensitivities more confident with age that I am seeing a place on my terms while still somehow submitting to it. So it was with the Netherlands, and here are my notes.<br>
<br>
The first thing I noticed about Amsterdam was that it is overrun with Brits, and perhaps the best way to illustrate the Dutch character is in comparison to its neighbors. If Brexit was an impulse for people who complain about too many Poles living in their midst, then perhaps Amsterdam needs a counter-gesture (Brittenuit?) to close its airports to the flights leaving every three minutes from England's airports. Or maybe they, the locals, simply don't give a Dam.<br>
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The British there travel in packs, either in groups of twenty twenty-somethings or as pleasant families; their is no other deployment visible of Brits in Amsterdam. You don't see tour buses full of retirees, or romantic couples, or thirty+ sports tourists, for example. You either get prams, or Instagram (strollers or rollers?). It is not as if the twenty-somethings you see are on their best behavior. The only favor they would appear to do the city, besides filling its coffers with cash and its canals with upchuck, is that in comparison they make the Dutch seem so poised. Placing a British twenty-something tourist in Amsterdam, all dolled up and blinged out, next to a Dutch twenty-something local is like putting a donkey next to a thoroughbred, except that the donkey speaks a language you mostly recognize, and the thoroughbred speaks ... well, more on what the Dutch speak later.<br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-netherparts-how-low-country-can-you.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-79796566067107052512018-03-30T15:06:00.002+02:002018-04-07T17:58:27.195+02:00Bach's Johannespassion (Part 2: the mystery of Bach)<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I had the pleasure of hearing Bach's </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Johannespassion</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> on Palm Sunday in the Grossmünster of Zurich. It was sung by the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UftYzW7hzyg">Bach Collegium</a>, in which my friend Laura sings. On Easter Sunday this year I will be in Amsterdam, and the Concertgebouw is giving the <i>Matthäuspassion</i>, so I will hear these two works a week apart, each for the first time. Obviously, two sung passion plays by Bach are going to have as many similarities as differences (Bach told the story of Christ's crucifixion at least three times in large-scale works), and before I sink into this later, more intimate and pensive work (<i>Matthäuspassion</i>), I'd like to spend more time thinking about the more intensely dramatic <i>Johannespassion</i> that affected me so.</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">For reference I really admire this recording from Munich, conducted by Karl Richter, sung by an enormous chorus of ice-cold Germans:</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I find it impossible to imagine what sort of a man Bach was, harder still to imagine the emotional world he inhabited (and the far less religious one that usurped it). The music itself would point to a man of the deepest, most mystical religious devotion. The non-Biblical libretti circle over and over again around the humility needed to honor God, around the gracious gift of undeserved mercy. The thought that, until Mendelssohn, this massif of artistic <i>ambition </i>went mostly unperformed beyond Leipzig for a hundred years, der Schall nearly verschollen -- it boggles the mind that the question of posterity did not appear to concern him, or that any steps he took for his own posterity were only meagerly successful, and left no traces in his music. Is this Bach an artist without ego? Would our modern idea of an artist concede even the possibility of such a thing? Writing music for any given Sunday, music that lasts for a thousand years? Is this Bach merely a talented family man working to please a court patron, his talent a coincident miracle? </span><br>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/03/bachs-johannespassion-part-2-mystery-of.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-9617076179230213302018-03-29T17:29:00.000+02:002018-03-30T15:10:10.467+02:00Ideally, being a teacher makes you smarter, to include with technology (no matter what you teach) -- but there are no guarantees.There's this extraordinary <a href="http://coding2learn.org/">blogger</a> in England named Marc Scott who teaches computing and technology in schools. My brother, also a teacher (of math), referred me in 2013 to an <a href="http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/">article he wrote</a> that persuaded me once and for all of a few things:<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li>Using a computer is like driving a car: the technology of the interface allows you near total ignorance of how things work. </li>
<li>I adore driving, and am still afraid to open the hood. Even now, if you want to teach me car part terms beyond "bumper", "steering wheel" and "rearview mirror", I would probably put my fingers in my ears and sing the Star Spangled Banner. I was like this with other things too, for most of my life.</li>
<li>It reminded me of when I used to see people who could figure things out that I couldn't (like the kid during a school video project who could set up a VCR to record sound correctly even when the cables made it less than obvious). Here's the worst thing about me: I would peevishly make them help me, and tell myself meanwhile that I was better than them for not needing to know such things. Is this what it's like to be very, very wealthy?</li>
<li>Being a good troubleshooter is the result of all kinds of intellectual successes working together: being patient, thinking logically, the dull-flush of trial and error, refusing to personify the problem, cultivating intuition. </li>
</ul>
Of note here is that I used to be the sort of person who liked to get frustrated. Imagine what that is like, to <i>prefer</i> to get upset when it is more strenuous to do so than to relax. To <i>perform </i>one's frustration, via tantrums, even in adulthood, concomitant swearing and all. Imagine too the intellectual stuntedness of someone who has taught himself that growing angry, that throwing remote controls when you hit the wrong button and can't exit the menu without accidentally changing settings, is the normal way to deal with a problem; that the indignity of having to sort something out is far more grievous and pressing than the indignity of being a whining idiot.<br>
<br>
From impulsive and in many ways stubbornly anti-learning, to a teacher. That's me.<br>
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<br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/03/ideally-being-teacher-makes-you-smarter.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-5768183538077334542018-03-28T19:00:00.006+02:002018-04-07T15:51:04.004+02:00Bach's Johannespassion (Part 1: the mystery of the music)<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I had the intense pleasure of hearing Bach's <i>Johannespassion</i> on Palm Sunday in the Grossmünster of Zurich. It was sung by the Bach Collegium, of which my friend Laura is a member, and it was the first time I had heard the work live. I have been listening to it for about a year. I am besotted by it and am writing a few notes in the hope that you might also find it meaningful.</span><br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6sxdxRZK3StglOf3TVD75zsfGV9dGcPDH4DaNgjMQQjGeQkyMDJYj8dLxX1EZekdfN3ew4Jh95KSwzD0fUWlYOFIHZ_BJ3JN0Jc96w-5kFa8z__LT2qmvaOUfk1ZfVy4krKsgulNDTCA/s1600/Bach+Collegium+Z%25C3%25BCrich.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="956" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6sxdxRZK3StglOf3TVD75zsfGV9dGcPDH4DaNgjMQQjGeQkyMDJYj8dLxX1EZekdfN3ew4Jh95KSwzD0fUWlYOFIHZ_BJ3JN0Jc96w-5kFa8z__LT2qmvaOUfk1ZfVy4krKsgulNDTCA/s320/Bach+Collegium+Z%25C3%25BCrich.PNG" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Credit: Bach Collegium Zürich</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Beginnings: the opening chorale</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Herr, unser Herrscher": the strings come climbing at you from a low octave, woodwinds darkening the atmosphere with a plaintive cry. The pulse is gentle and insistent. The first climax ('43) is full of mercy, climbing back down as gracefully as the ascent was anguished. Then comes the crescendo of first text: Lord, our master. It is proclaimed exclaimed, private and piercing. It feels fortissimo and sounds mezzo-forte. The strings and winds continue their ostinato thrust. 11 full minutes it takes for the ternary opening to announce that God is great, to evoke Christ's humiliation and lowliness, to announce anew that God is great.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The psychology of such music is hard to pin down; it is stupendously beautiful, affecting. It is grandly convinced of God's greatness, as bold a sound as anything intended to witness something magisterial. And the pain that accompanies it, borne of Christ's suffering, becomes our own pain, the people's pain, the choir's pain, as the choir plays the part of Christ's followers and indeed all humankind. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How can these two conflicting sentiments be mixed? Why is it that Bach's Pietism is so articulate, so lavish in showing the exquisite nature of joy amidst suffering? Why is joy itself true most when it is seated at the table of morbidity? I think of New Orleans and its jazz funerals, the dirges preceding the hymns, death <i>before</i> life, Mahler's "Sterben will ich, um zu leben". They make so much of our modern pleasure-joy appear hollow, unaccompanied as it mostly is by any rootedness in the yang of sadness. </span><br>
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<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2018/03/bachs-johannespassion.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-51124176189385516002017-12-02T18:08:00.000+01:002018-03-29T18:26:22.531+02:00Notes on using the MYP Phase system of Language Acquisition in the IB<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This post is for anyone who teaches foreign languages in an MYP school (Middle Years Programme, the curricular framework for Grades 6 through 10 for the International Baccalaureate). </span><br>
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<span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Building an MYP curriculum from scratch is a
gargantuan task. I sympathise with anyone who is trying to get their professional practice to fit with the MYP, given that it is a framework more than a curriculum itself and given the beautiful openness, but frustrating vagueness, that this can entail. The application of the Phases and their
criteria is a constant topic in an MYP school, given that …<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;">A school may inherit students from the PYP from three different
language levels. There is an argument to be very conservative with placement in Grade 6 if the MYP curriculum of your school is built around a grammar-based scope and sequence. Many Grade 6 students are studying grammar in ways that are new to them if they came from the PYP, and they have a weaker systematic knowledge of the language as a set of rules and
patterns than their language level would initially indicate. You could start your
most advanced new Grade 6 students in an “Advanced Phase 2” class, even though
there is an argument to be made for starting them in Phase 4 or 5, even.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;">The advantages of a conservative use of the Phases – e.g. using
the Phase 3 criteria for two years of study, not just one – are that:</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt;">o<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt;">students’ marks are higher and you can still apply the criteria
strictly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt;">o<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt;">You can also flag students whose grammar needs major investment
through their scores in Criterion D, whilst still rewarding them for some of
their successes elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt;">o<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt;">One challenge with the MYP criteria is that they grow in <i>intellectual</i>
depth across the Phases, seemingly more than they grow in linguistic depth. The
intention of this is clear – the MYP wants to tie foreign language learning
with the development of critical thinking. However, there exists a disparity
between younger students with advanced language skills and their ability to do
some of the cognitive heavy lifting of the upper Phases, such as analysis and
drawing conclusions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;">The alternative, a more generous/sequential use of the Phases –
e.g. viewing one year as one Phase, with some Grade 10 students in a Phase 5
class – comes itself with problems that are not to be overlooked:</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2017/12/notes-on-using-myp-phase-system-of.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-30883025546682045422017-10-13T18:30:00.001+02:002020-05-03T13:15:50.762+02:00Salome on the Zürisee: An Essay on Desire in Five Parts (Part 5)<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">V: The Sweet Flesh would turn Sour</span><br>
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Salome</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">was a lucrative success for Strauss. The royalties paid for his vacation home in Garmisch. He wrote it in 1905, early in his career as a composer, barely 40 years old. If today we are left with an opera that is lightly shocking, then it is even more interesting why it was accepted as more or less benign already 110 years ago. There must be any number of stories worth telling about its reception and performance history since its premiere. (The Nazis, who embraced Strauss enthusiastically, simply pretended</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Salome </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">did not exist.) </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Somewhat independently of its shock value today, even independent of any questions of Wilde</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">'s and Strauss' aesthetic-political ambitions or lack of them, we are faced with the question we are always faced with when exhuming other centuries' art and displaying it for our own benefit: what does it mean and what can we take from it?</span></span><br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidsOqd5rzRDy1_XFLmUxxYpkFFdWIHOiBqmKrhInGdArXWIv-lGpNmvCkqtMtXBxRkjjxwWn0dLrKeFMiQajUC9mO6mdromuQBpad46mYfM7RKwH0arkjAHXe_0oOwQordsI2kl-SUilk/s1600/20171013_205447+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidsOqd5rzRDy1_XFLmUxxYpkFFdWIHOiBqmKrhInGdArXWIv-lGpNmvCkqtMtXBxRkjjxwWn0dLrKeFMiQajUC9mO6mdromuQBpad46mYfM7RKwH0arkjAHXe_0oOwQordsI2kl-SUilk/s320/20171013_205447+%25281%2529.jpg" width="240"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shamefully inaccurate whitewashing of Strauss’ coziness under the Nazis (programme notes from a concert in Finland): <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-127396669.html">here</a> is a fuller picture of Nazi-era Strauss.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2017/10/salome-on-zurisee-essay-in-five-parts.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-85487303719687166912017-10-13T17:50:00.000+02:002020-05-03T12:53:24.355+02:00Salome on the Zürisee: An Essay on Desire in Five Parts (Part 4)<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">IV Skandalerfolg</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Let me return to an earlier question: why does this opera exist, and, given its existence, why does it have so few if any successors? It is largely a work from the mind and times of Oscar Wilde, who wrote the original play, even if spectators like me are happy to overattribute to the composer and ignore his sources. Wilde must have been enraptured at pairing the bawdiness of his societal clique with the greedy piety of Victorian Bible thumpers. In turn, a Viennese society-Strauss must have been attuned to this same mix as he trafficked in Wilhelmine Berlin. Plus, Strauss-the-Wagnerian must have admired the play</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">'s<span style="background-color: white;"> <b>morbidity</b>.</span></span></span><br>
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</div><a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2017/10/salome-on-zurisee-essay-on-desire-in_61.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-58878224945836284682017-10-13T16:25:00.000+02:002018-04-08T18:01:14.518+02:00Salome on the Zürisee: An Essay on Desire in Five Parts (Part 3)<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
III The Arrangement of Desire</div>
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The story has five core characters, whose desires all contrast and who are all a product of their competing desires. Beyond these five, there are only a few palace guards and hangers-on, plus five asexual Jewish theologians, nattering and unflatteringly robed amidst palatial splendour. The dissonance and chromatic gnarliness of Strauss’ music doubles its power by its taut sticking to a one-act storyline, stripped of subplot, with characters too crazed to see each other, so busy are they staring. Of the five – Narraboth, John the Baptist, Herod, his wife Herodias, and Salome herself – no one can have what they want, nobody is content with what they have, and each relays desire to the others in hideous ways. It is less like a story and more like a cruising park of dissatisfied id. <i>Salome</i> is likely the horniest opera in the repertory.<br>
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</div><a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2017/10/salome-on-zurisee-essay-on-desire-in_79.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-46240517234246156332017-10-13T15:32:00.001+02:002017-10-13T21:17:34.577+02:00Salome on the Zürisee: An Essay on Desire in Five Parts (Part 2)<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
II The Violent Boredom of Possession</div>
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“Every dream must be awoken from – even fulfilled dreams.” (Sam Peckinpah)</div>
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If you know the story of <i>Salome</i> – King Herod the Great, having imprisoned John the Baptist, libidinously bids his pubescing step-daughter to dance for him, which she does, because she wants the head of John the Baptist in return, which she is granted, then kisses, as she desired him but could not get him, chaste, to bend alive – you will know that the only awakening for Salome from her dream is death. Her death returns, Greekly, Shakespearianly, order to the world. Her sex is punished, her brazenness is publicly condemned, her singular perversion is destroyed. </div>
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(In 2017 in America, Herod would be the one punished, for desiring an underage teenager; he would be castrated, tarred and twittered, and Salome would triumphantly adorn herself with pierces and tats.)<br>
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</div><a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2017/10/salome-on-zurisee-essay-on-desire-in_13.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-51401558406139384602017-10-11T09:48:00.000+02:002018-04-08T17:32:27.252+02:00Salome on the Zürisee: An Essay on Desire in Five Parts (Part 1)Part 1: The Opera in the House<br>
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Sit in the 1100-seat Zürich opera
house, ganz oben im zweiten Rang, for 35 or maybe 95 Franks, and bend your neck
towards the stage, so that you can see more than just the front. No matter how
far you lean in, your view of the orchestra is always better, which, depending
on the opera and the production, might be an advantage. If the woman on your
left is leaning farther forward than you care to, blocking your view of
anything, or if the scene is set too far upstage, then your neck will after a
while naturally revert to perpendicular to the opera, you’ll lean back into
your seat, and you’ll look up to the ceiling of the house. It is mere meters
away. <o:p></o:p><br>
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</div><a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2017/10/salome-on-zurisee-essay-on-desire-in.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-1802367730235926802017-04-23T19:40:00.001+02:002017-10-19T08:23:25.552+02:00Sight vs. Sound: notes on the most successful opera staging I've yet seenOf all the problems with opera, the art form to end all art forms, the conflict between the many sources of stimulation is the hardest to resolve. The feast of the senses can leave you with gout. First is the singing, which is solo, where one human voice has to hold up a house. The singing can be doubled, tripled, multiplied up to eight, and then these single voices sing different things in unison, with or without a choir behind it; and you, the listener, the seer, the audience goer, who is not satisfied with a recording of the opera, or for that matter with refraining from the potential tedium altogether, are supposed to either sort it all out, or somehow let it all in.<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHhvVeiUfrjJRM0p1Fl68OEhqz-VCDCmj2saymv6OIYsh88hL_EZxzcGXPt5GG-AMLPPcmd14ylSFd4iAO4sxgsq9xwt5nNIG37fxw3bBJEoI2fjAryB62m3_cuBVH8o-MBRDojIoF77Q/s1600/Amadeus+too+many+notes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHhvVeiUfrjJRM0p1Fl68OEhqz-VCDCmj2saymv6OIYsh88hL_EZxzcGXPt5GG-AMLPPcmd14ylSFd4iAO4sxgsq9xwt5nNIG37fxw3bBJEoI2fjAryB62m3_cuBVH8o-MBRDojIoF77Q/s320/Amadeus+too+many+notes.jpg" width="320"></a></div>
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The other music is orchestral, and huge, but cannot be bigger than the voices, so it is hidden in a literal pit. The theatre of the thing is embedded in the singing, which is embedded in the score, and the source of the score, the thing in the pit, is meant not to be seen, but to be heard and felt. And there's no point of seeing opera in person if the theatricality makes no sense. If they try to tell the story with unsung words, as in a play, they are no longer purely operatic, so every single dramatic occurrence is sung, or sung about, on average for three hours. But they let you out, sometimes twice, to drink some alcohol, eat some canapés, and talk to your friends, if you have them, and if you do most of them are probably about seventy years old; alcohol drunk and bladders emptied if you made it through the line, they bring you back in for an hour more. Add that the sets are often still paintings with sculpture, and are expected to change a few times in four hours if you are to get your money's worth (opera is a preposterously expensive art form), and that certain operas call for ballet, and you've wrought the makings of a grand mess. No other ritual has the potential to be so exhausting, so numbing, except perhaps a Catholic mass. And should the whole thing somehow hold together, it has something of the divine.<br>
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Having been yanked around with opera for at least twenty years, I've concluded separately, indeed after each visit to the opera house afresh, that opera is incoherent, or nice, or worthwhile, only understood live, only understood in recordings, for other people, for me and only me, dead, bland, hit or miss, indulgent, difficult, a status symbol, life-changing, consummate, supersaturated, ennobling, or irrelevant. But I've never left an opera house feeling about opera the way I did upon seeing Verdi's Macbeth, staged by Barrie Kosky at the Operhaus Zürich.<br>
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The production probably isn't revolutionary, it might not even be particularly original (see the Orson Welles <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-QWhEupZQA">film</a>), but more than any other opera staging I've yet seen, it uses the stage to <i>show</i> the music. Even more, it hears the music it wants to hear, and instead of settling for Verdi's imperfect musical telling, instead of yielding to Verdi's sometime inability to use music to depict drama, the staging manipulates it, brings to the fore what works, and distorts what otherwise wouldn't. The result is not somehow the perfect marriage between drama and music; instead, it's a magnificent instance of using the dramatic telling of ossified music to renew it and enhance it. It shows the full potential of the stage to keep opera alive.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2017/04/sight-vs-sound-notes-on-most-successful.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-19115338150290664132017-03-28T18:52:00.002+02:002017-03-28T18:52:42.945+02:00Mindfulness and "the folklore of common sense"<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">There are a
couple of ideas I've been churning through at a slow and unfocused rate the
last few months and I thought I would post them here. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Students in schools may be taught about mindfulness these days. Define
that term for yourself first, before you keep reading, as it's a broad and vague topic. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Mindfulness, in
its manifestation as DIY psychological life-coaching, is often linked
to a panoply of ideas that (as I understand them) urge an individual to
re-stylise, retract, expand and revamp his or her ideas about
inherent capabilities, stress levels, focuses, personal conceptions
of limits, etc. The sales pitch can often be reduced to "don't
convince yourself you can't" and "find quiet amidst stress" and
"learn from your challenges". Mindfulness and its cousin mindset are
currently hot topics amongst educators -- the wisdom of its truisms is
infectiously inviting -- so be prepared to see quotes, anecdotes, and stats
that tie into this trend everywhere around you.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">It occurs to me
that there's a link between this fascination with mindfulness and the topic of lying/self-deception. Culturally, we are paying increased attention to the importance of
our narratives that we have with ourselves, our explaining things to ourselves
in terms of benefits, costs, justifications, and outright lying. Books abound about popular behavioural psychology. The chief specialist on lying, Dan Ariely, is invited to consult on tv shows, and his books sell very well.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Here are my thoughts linking mindfulness and self-deception: we lie to ourselves when we take on more than we can handle, and
we lie to ourselves about why we're suffering once the handling turns to mishandling. We
act out in various ways, referred pain from the root cause. So the
optimism of the mindfulness movement is that although you lie to
yourself when you think you can do it all, paradoxically, being mindful
can help you do ever more. What narratives of deception are at play here?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Then I came
across this article on the social science that has gone into studying sports
fans, and the reviewer of this literature made a couple of observations that
really gave me pause. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">The critic
(Louis Menand) begins with a summary of the book he is reviewing, <i>This is Your Brain on Sports</i> (in
gorgeous <em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">New Yorker</span></em>
style, of course; emphasis mine):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">"Wertheim
and Sommers’s [the authors'] basic conceit is that although people seem to
behave irrationally when it comes to sports, they’re acting no differently from
the way they do in the rest of their lives. If cheering on the underdog, loving
perennial losers, and risking life and limb to snag a cheesy T-shirt fired out
of a cannon are, objectively, absurd things to do, then it’s natural to be
irrational. 'Your brain on sports,' they conclude, 'is really just your
regular brain acting as it does in other contexts.'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">"The
authors nail their points down with <b>the mighty hammer of cognitive science</b>. 'As
outlandish as sports conduct might seem,' they explain, 'it is rooted in
basic human psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive tendency.' Their
procedure is therefore to find for the various sports-related attitudes and
behaviors they discuss (Wertheim is an editor at <em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Sports Illustrated</span></em>) scientific findings
(Sommers is a psychologist at Tufts) that ground them in biology."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Menand
continues with his critical view of this kind of scientific commentary as
it is used for a mass audience:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">"It is
good to know that these assertions have been proved in a laboratory, because
they have been part of <strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">the
folklore of common sense</span></strong> for pretty much ever. <em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">This Is Your Brain on Sports</span></em> is
a book for people who think that if, instead of saying that people are happy
when their team wins, you say 'Activity increased in a region called the
ventral striatum,' or, instead of talking about stress, you talk about 'a
surge of cortisol,' then you are on to something.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">"What
you’re on to is physicalism, which (leaving the metaphysics aside) is simply a
method of redescription. <strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">We’re
conscious of our thoughts and feelings; what we’re not conscious of is their
physical correlates, the chemical states in our bodies that constitute them and
without which nothing could be felt or thought.</span></strong> 'The experience
of rooting for your favorite team can actually be captured at a neural
level,' Wertheim and Sommers say. This is true, because so can the
experience of everything.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">"<strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">The fallacy to watch out for is the
assumption that brain states tell us something about what an experience means
to the person having it. </span></strong>Brain states of the kind that Wertheim
and Sommers describe—that is, things like hormonal increases and changes in the
ventral striatum—are indifferent to meaning. On that level, the brain of
someone whose team has just lost the Super Bowl is indistinguishable from the
brain of someone who is grieving for the death of a loved one. No one would say
that those experiences are equivalent."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Back to mindfulness: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Without
painting with too broad a brush (are hormonal increases really indifferent to
meaning??) I merely wanted to submit to you my fascination with the phrase
"the folklore of common sense," given the ubiquity of mindfulness and
mindset pep talks. I absolutely don't have a clear picture for myself when
thinking about what the significance is of knowing scientifically what you're
feeling emotionally, or whether seeing evidence of irrationality is a
meaningful armament against irrationality. That is to say, these broad issues,
against which popular fascination with behaviouralism quite directly abuts, are too important to ignore, but
also too vast for me to proffer easy answers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Here is the link to the book review: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/16/the-professional-sports-bubble</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-716140315638029192017-03-26T14:49:00.000+02:002017-03-26T20:55:43.042+02:00Translating Ingeborg Bachmann's "The Thirtieth Year" (Das dreißigste Jahr)The Austrian post-War poet and author <b>Ingeborg Bachmann</b> (1926-1973) is not as famous outside of the German-speaking world (and even within the German-speaking world) as some of her later counterparts, such as Elfriede Jelinek, who won the Nobel prize, or Peter Handke, who according to Jelinek <i>should</i> have won the Nobel prize. Bachmann's work is read less often in English than that of Swiss author Max Frisch, with whom Bachmann was romantically linked. When W.G. Sebald issued a book of essays on Austrian literature (<i>Unheimliche Heimat</i>), he wrote about Handke at length without mentioning Bachmann once. When I tell my English-speaking friends I'm reading Bachmann, their stares are blank. "Never heard of her." "Sounds interesting."<br>
<br>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGu2-lsZtAIJV2c3Psm_RIM4KxIBgN1BUTPedRaVHAgUuOD7L7doGVkE4pD4fSibtwM4u0Ds3WEJGTL_VbtlecSCiyFiCVeL85NBOW43dFmGiP5rBK2ABJF5lFX0kP9d_OJNilzw9Rrg4/s1600/ingeborg-bachmann-130-_v-img__16__9__l_-1dc0e8f74459dd04c91a0d45af4972b9069f1135.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGu2-lsZtAIJV2c3Psm_RIM4KxIBgN1BUTPedRaVHAgUuOD7L7doGVkE4pD4fSibtwM4u0Ds3WEJGTL_VbtlecSCiyFiCVeL85NBOW43dFmGiP5rBK2ABJF5lFX0kP9d_OJNilzw9Rrg4/s320/ingeborg-bachmann-130-_v-img__16__9__l_-1dc0e8f74459dd04c91a0d45af4972b9069f1135.jpg" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: Bayerischer Rundfunk</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br>
<br>
This is not to say she is some obscure figure. She was part of the Gruppe 47 -- the most meaningful literary project of German authors in response to the crimes of World War II -- and there is a major prize named after her -- the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis. Her poetry is highly regarded and as widely read as poetry can be. Her poetry collection <i>Die gestundete Zeit</i> is required reading in Austrian and German schools. Her legacy is one of immense moral authority and highly critical assessments of her too-complacent post-Nazi society.<br>
<br>
But there's no shaking the impression that Bachmann lurks in the background of the prominent voices of 20th century German literature, fairly or unfairly, likely a result of her gender, her relatively short life (she died in a fire in Rome, probably addicted to barbiturates), and her overwhelming moroseness. Her most famous poem begins with the line "Es kommen härtere Tage" -- harder days are coming. Her major story "Das dreißigste Jahr" (1961) opens with an anonymous character who awakens, Samsa-like, "an einem Tag, den er vergessen wird, und liegt plötzlich da, ohne sich erheben zu können" (on a day he will forget, and lies there, unable to lift himself). The critic Reich-Ranicki describes a Bachmann so sheepish and sombre that <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-8777513.html">her poetry reading</a> was barely audible, even after achieving acclaim.<br>
<br>
So when my husband turned 30 this month, and my colleague Michael Redeker referred me to her story about turning 30, I returned to Bachmann's language for the first time since college, when I read her in Thomas DiNapoli's class on 20th century German women authors and was awestruck by her poetic power. I imagined giving the story to my husband as a birthday present, though its darkness hardly suits the occasion of his good fortune and cheer. I realized his German skills wouldn't get him through a story of this length, which at 44 pages is no whopper but with its highly poetic, trance-like prose still demands close attention. I sought a translation from here in Zürich, where I live, and found nothing, so I ordered one, but it's out of print. I sat down and started translating myself.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2017/03/translating-ingeborg-bachmanns.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-35905135521977145702015-08-03T13:42:00.002+02:002015-08-15T19:24:50.034+02:00Swiss National Day: a photo journal for August 1<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I've been in
Switzerland for only a few weeks now and, quite apart from the mass
totality of daily impressions and new expressions, I've had just
enough time to anticipate the <i>Bundesfeiertag</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Swiss</span> National Day of
August 1. How do the Swiss celebrate their country? What public
displays and private sentiments are observable? Are Swiss like
Germans? Americans? Neither nor? One thing about being in Zürich
(and environs) is how evident history is; one can't help but notice
the Middle Ages here, and ask questions about entire expanses of time
that are here confronting you on the street. In Basel the Roman ruins
of <span style="font-style: normal;">Kaiseraugst </span>are not the
slightest bit out of place from the farm land and towns surrounding
them. The continuity makes these links through time seem fresh, and
the uniqueness of Switzerland makes them conspicuous. It is nearly
impossible to imagine Switzerland producing a writer like Patrick
Modiano, writing sentences like “... I fear that, as in all
suburbs, houses and streets will have changed beyond recognition,”
as Switzerland has a claim to an extraordinary record of
uninterruptedness, and growth of the very slow sort. Such
self-assured stability could lead to any number of expressions of
national identity. National days can bend towards pride and
prejudice, or p.c. pomp, or shoulder-shrugging barbecues. What
dominates in Switzerland in 2015, to a new set of eyes?</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<br>
<a href="https://e-spion-age.blogspot.com/2015/08/ive-been-inswitzerland-for-only-few.html#more">Finish reading this post by clicking here»</a>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-5963906875559414782015-05-29T12:08:00.002+02:002015-05-29T12:08:17.771+02:00Stammtisch als Teil des DaF-UnterrichtsSeit zwei Jahren betreibe ich einen Stammtisch für meine Schüler und Schülerinnen. Damit meine ich ein regelmäßiges, legeres Treffen, bei dem wir uns -- Kinder sowie Lehrpersonal -- nur auf Deutsch unterhalten. Wir sitzen jeden Freitag an unserem gewöhnlichen, für uns reservierten Tisch (in der Mensa, aber immerhin) und plaudern. Das sind Lernende in den 6. bis 10. Klassen, die in der Sekundarstufe Deutsch lernen. Manche sprechen zu Hause Deutsch, manche sind sozusagen Null-Anfänger und können zunächst mal nur 'Hallo' sagen; der Löwenanteil der Kenntnisse liegt natürlich irgendwo dazwischen. Ich fasse jetzt kurz meine Erlebnisse zusammen, falls das für andere Lehrer und Lehrerinnen von Hilfe sein kann.<br />
<br />
1. <b>Die Kinder brauchen einen Stammtisch</b>. Das ist also ein Muss. Wer außerhalb des Klassenzimmers mal die Gelegenheit hat, sich in der Zielsprache zu versuchen, merkt sich auch innerhalb des Klassenzimmers viel mehr. Und nicht nur merken -- der Beobachter wird zum Teilnehmer. Aktive Sprachfertigkeiten werden geübt und verbessert, die im Unterricht aus welchem Grund auch immer vernachlässigt werden können. Teilnahme am Stammtisch ist also bei mir ein Teil des Unterrichts und zählt genau wie Hausaufgabe zur Note.<br />
<br />
2. <b>Der Stammtisch muss obligatorisch sein. </b>Ich habe es mal so versucht, dass die Lernenden freiwillig kommen könnten. Und so ist der Stammtisch gescheitert. In dem Alter brauchen sie meiner Erfahrung nach mehr Struktur und Aufforderungen als bei älteren Zielgruppen, die vielleicht autodidaktischer sind und aus eigenem Interesse eine Sprache aussuchen.<br />
<br />
3. <b>Der Stammtisch kann aber nicht <i>nur </i>pflichtgemäß funktionieren. </b>Obligatorisch sein heißt nicht (nur) trocken sein, routinemäßig sein, langweilig sein. Im Ersten Jahr habe ich meinen Schülern gesagt, sie mussten alle zwei Wochen kommen. Inzwischen habe ich das auf einmal im Monat reduziert. Manche haben selbstverständlich weniger Lust auf ein gemeinsames, deutschsprachiges Essen als andere, und dass muss ich schließlich akzeptieren. Damit es nicht nur immer die üblichen Verdächtigen sind, stelle ich als Lehrer selber die 4 Gruppen fest, und wir wechseln die Gruppen jede Woche ab. Natürlich dürfen Kinder öfter als alle vier wochen kommen, wenn sie wollen. Das machen auch viele.<br />
<br />
4. <b>Es wird geholfen, nicht korrigiert</b><i style="font-weight: bold;">. </i>Die Lernenden dürfen sich gegenseitig fragen, wie ein Wort auf Deutsch heißt und ob es 'der Zimmer' oder 'das Zimmer' ist. Das Lehrpersonal ist dafür da, in Zweifelsfällen was zu erklären. Und auch oft das Gespräch zu steuern. Aber eine Regel gilt immer: der Lehrer korrigiert nicht. Beim Stammtisch geht es wirklich nur darum, dass die Kinder deutsche Sätze und deutschsprachige Diskussionen wagen. Man wagt etwas Neues und Schwieriges meistens nur dann, wenn man sich traut, wenn man sich wohl fühlt. Würdest du dich wohl fühlen, wenn du dauernd unterbrochen würdest? Langsam nicht mehr, oder? Würdest du dich in einer komischen, fremden Sprache versuchen, wenn du das Gefühl hättest, 90% deiner Aussagen wären falsch? Langsam nicht mehr. Natürlich darf man die Lernenden korrigieren -- im Unterricht. Bei der Hausaufgabe. Bei Prüfungen. Sollten sie aber nicht mindestens ab und zu die Chance haben, die Sprache unbesorgt und frei, als Mittel zum Zweck des freundlichen Kommunizierens, zu verwenden? Das schaffen sie mit Unterstützung. Nicht mit Pedanterie.noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-64394698691115124682015-05-05T06:55:00.001+02:002015-05-05T16:54:21.929+02:00ngụy and quisling: etymology as world history<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's more than one interesting back-story to the etymology of <i>ngụy</i> and <i>quisling</i>, two words which I saw as translations for each other in the placards placed below museum exhibitions on the Vietnamese/American war in the Da Lat museum. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Vidkun <span class="il">Quisling</span></a> was the Norwegian fascist who took control of the Norwegian government in a 1940 coup d'etat and collaborated closely with the Nazi German regime. His last name is now a common noun: a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span class="il">quisling</span></a> refers to any collaborator with an enemy during an occupation. A government that collaborates with the enemy is not quite the same thing as a "puppet state" -- a government directly set up by the enemy -- but the meanings are nevertheless quite close. Thus, for the Vietnamese government, the Americans were the enemy, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Diem" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Ngo Dinh Diem</a> was a <span class="il">quisling</span>. This means that the museum's use of the word <span class="il">quisling</span> to refer to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Republic_of_Vietnam" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">ARVN</a> must have been fully intentional and correct (at first I thought it was an accident or a mistranslation) in accordance with their political interpretation of that government. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As for the word <i><a href="https://vi.wiktionary.org/wiki/ng%E1%BB%A5y" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">ngụy</a></i>, the story goes back all the way to around 200 B.C., to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_(state)" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Wei</a> state of China (current-day Central/Eastern China). The Vietnamese word <i>ngụy </i>descends from the Chinese word for this state (in Pinyin, Wei, or<span style="color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> </span><span lang="zh" style="color: #252525; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%AD%8F" style="background: none; color: #663366; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="wikt:魏">魏</a></span>, which in old Chinese phonology was pronounced closer to <i>Nquj </i>-- much closer to the Vietnamese!). The Wei state was conquered in 225 B.C. by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_(state)" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Qin</a> state during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin%27s_wars_of_unification" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Qin wars of unification</a> -- the first time historical China was united under one rule, forever changing its history as a nation state. I need some help reading the <a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng%E1%BB%A5y" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Vietnamese article</a> that explains the word <i>ngụy</i>, but it appears to be the case that the Qin empire regarded Wei as a false and illegitimate state -- a "puppet state" -- and thus the name of the state itself became synonymous with an illegitimate government. The word <i>ngụy</i> appears to also have a general meaning of <i>pseudo</i>- or <i>camouflage</i> in other contexts. The word <i>ngụy</i> in post-1975 Vietnam appears to be a very important word that is applied to governments ranging from the Nguyễn Dynasty </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to French Indochina to the American war period. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really like these words because they show you the power of language to take you back across time and understand the world as it was seen by others. To some extent, each word we use is a link to a history that is waiting to be retrieved.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-TsmvlnoALOXN1_1ucw_1Ijo0nb6jj-QP_fCSO3j7RHQ7ggNDvhhEbZBBybbvuM3egqC5HaE1Tcp5CqYWoEPiUDEKCfiV1AkDLa9Dip86dlBw1xj2EDFiiYwXR1F0MKPRjFfmzecUmQ/s1600/DSCN5890.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-TsmvlnoALOXN1_1ucw_1Ijo0nb6jj-QP_fCSO3j7RHQ7ggNDvhhEbZBBybbvuM3egqC5HaE1Tcp5CqYWoEPiUDEKCfiV1AkDLa9Dip86dlBw1xj2EDFiiYwXR1F0MKPRjFfmzecUmQ/s400/DSCN5890.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Learning about war history with students in Da Lat while camping: Fun, Adventure, and Education!</td></tr>
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noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7357095156265621702.post-83672096998760921672015-04-30T20:46:00.002+02:002015-04-30T20:57:58.340+02:00Mögliche Werdegänge im Leben eines Expats: meine Bemerkungen<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bald ist es für mich so weit, nach einem Aufenthalt von dreieinhalb Jahren in Vietnam anderswo zu leben. Unsere Gesellschaft, unsere Freundeskreise, unsere Perspektiven werden in der Tat immer globaler. Jetzt am Ende meiner Zeit hier fällt mir Einiges ein, wo ich als "Expat" (ein Wort, das ehrlich gesagt im Endeffekt soviel wie "betuchter Ausländer" bedeutet) begonnen habe und wo ich jetzt stehe. Meine Laufbahn dabei sieht bestimmt nicht genau so aus wie die von anderen Menschen, sie wird ja manchen Menschen sogar unerkennbar sein. Dennoch glaube ich, ich habe mit anderen etwas gemeinsam. Vielleicht nur mit den Leuten, die ähnliche Werte und Hintergründe haben, aber egal. Ich fasse meine Erlebnisse kurz zusammen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Im Januar 2012 zog ich nach Saigon (Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt) mit meinem damaligen Freund -- mittlerweile Ehemann -- um. Er ist Amerikaner vietnamesischer Abstammung. Nach drei längeren Aufenthalten in Deutschland war es für mich das erste Mal, in Asien zu leben und überhaupt das erste Mal in einem Entwicklungsland. Ich war 28 Jahre alt. Keiner von uns konnte damals sagen, wie lang wir bleiben wollten bzw. würden.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Man ist [sprich: ich war] am Anfang trotz aller Vorbereitung ahnungslos. Dies sollte man erkennen und akzeptieren. Wer glaubt, viel vom Zielland zu verstehen, bloß weil er Reisebücher gelesen hat, der mag sich wohl irren (solche Lektüre dient meiner Erfahrung nach dazu, höchstens Interesse zu wecken). Fakten sind in der Regel nicht dasselbe wie Einsichten, auch wenn sie wichtig sind. Vor allem ist Bescheidenheit vonnöten -- wer von der ersten Welt in die dritte Welt rüberwandert wird oft mit seiner eigenen Arroganz konfrontiert. Was einem nicht sofort gefällt, versucht er am besten zunächst zu ignorieren. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Arm sein ist ein <b>Vorteil</b>. Wer als Ausländer arm oder mindestens nicht reich ist -- besonders in Entwicklungsländern wie Vietnam -- hat vielleicht mal eine Chance, wenn keine Garantie, die Leute zu verstehen und an ihrer Welt teilzunehmen. Huyen und ich hatten zu Beginn unseres Vietnamlebens zunächst keine Arbeit, nur Spargelder, die uns 6 Monate reichen sollten. Wir <i>mussten </i>kochen, wir <i>mussten </i>in der Straße essen, wir <i>mussten </i>eine billige Unterkunft finden. Wir sind im ersten Jahr fast immer mit dem Fahrrad oder mit dem Bus gefahren. So lernt man die Stadt und das Volk auch besser kennen. Mit Geld kannst du eine Mauer um dich bauen. Ohne Geld musst du einigermaßen damit zurechtkommen, wie Einheimische das auch schaffen. Ohne Geld wird man gezwungen, nach Kompromissen zu suchen, anstatt nur den Bequemlichkeiten der Heimat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dafür aber: <i>zu</i> arm sein macht kaputt. <i>Zu</i> arm sein heißt nervös sein. Und zu viel Veränderung zu schnell macht auch kaputt. Hauptsache, man versucht, irgendwie eine Bilanz zu ziehen. Auch wenn das einem nicht sofort gelingt. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. In den ersten Monaten besteht die beste, vielleicht auch die einzige Gelegenheit, die Sprache des neuen Landes zu lernen. Wer es länger als ein Jahr lang schafft, im Ausland zurechtzukommen ohne der örtlichen Sprache mächtig zu sein, wird auch langsam zu faul, sich mit der riesigen Herausforderung auseinanderzusetzen, diese zu lernen. Ich kenne schon viele Leute, die seit 8, 10, sogar 20 Jahren im Ausland leben, ohne über auskömmliche Sprachkenntnisse zu verfügen, die für etwa eine einfache Taxifahrt erforderlich sind (in Vietnam ist man verwöhnt, man braucht nur dem Taxifahrer die Adresse schriftlich zu zeigen). Versuchst du ihnen auch das kleinste bisschen beizubringen, etwa die richtige Aussprache eines Alltagswortes, bleiben sie meistens stecken. Sie sind wegen ihrer frühen Misserfolgen noch überzeugt, sie können das nicht. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mir wird nach 3 Jahren immer wieder die Frage gestellt, wie lange ich im Land schon lebe, da mein Vietnamesisch so gut sei. Mit der Antwort "ba năm rồi</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">" sind die meisten Leute zufrieden, aber dafür muss ich immer schnell hinzufügen: die Länge ist an sich eigentlich egal, 80% meiner Vietnamesischkenntnisse habe ich innerhalb meiner ersten 10 Monate im Land erworben, seitdem ruhe ich mich leider etwas auf meinen Lorbeeren aus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Was Vietnamesisch betrifft: sie ist eine von der Grammtik her grandios simple Sprache, die dennoch sehr schwer für den westlichen Mund auszusprechen ist. Das Zeitfenster schließt sich schnell, dieses beträchtliche Hindernis zu überwinden. Was aber nicht heißt, dass es nicht machbar ist! Die im Punkt 1 erwähnte Bescheidenheit betrifft auch Sprache: Wer sich weigert, die Sprache des Auslandes zu lernen, baut eine weitere Mauer um sich herum.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Auf Dauer erkennt man seine Grenzen. Selbst wer im Ausland jahrelang bleibt, selbst wenn er oder sie ursprünglich vorhatte, das neue Land in sich aufzunehmen und sich selber zu verwandeln, wacht eines Morgens auf und findet, einiges am Aufnahmeland ist entsetzlich. Dieser Schritt ist notwendig und gesund, wenn auch schmerzhaft. Zum Glück erlebte ich meinen schwierigsten solchen Absturz schon vor meiner Vietnamzeit, und zwar in Deutschland. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Auf Dauer kehrt man im Inneren zur "Heimat" zurück. Man vermisst sie, man vermisst das Essen, man vermisst seine Muttersprache, man vermisst das Gefühl, immer davon ausgehen zu können, er wird ohne Weiteres verstanden. Wirklich <i>verstanden</i>. Ohne irgendwelche Bemühungen auf beiden Seiten verstanden. Die Zielsprache nervt, hört sich unglaublich hässlich an. Man beginnt sie zu verachten, in der Dusche zu verspotten. Das Essen wird plötzlich ekelhaft. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gerade, wenn man sich in dieser Phase befindet, wird es wichtig zu verstehen, dass die erlebten Probleme genauso viel mit sich selbst zu tun haben wie mit der Außenwelt.</b> Wenn du es aus Unzufriedenheit anderen -- unschuldigen -- Menschen verübelst, dass sie so sind wie sie sind, dann musst du dich halt im Spiegel anschauen und bedenken, wie du selber deine Probleme lösen kannst. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Danach bleibt man meistens etwas skeptisch, ob es sich lohnt, sich der Kultur, der Sprache, der Gesellschaft des Auslandes zu widmen. Zwar macht man es noch, aber mit weniger Energie, mit weniger Enthusiasmus. Stattdessen findet man in anderen Expats eine Quelle von Trost. Manche </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">beginnen </i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">das Leben im Ausland mit einer Suche nach anderen Expats. Eine sehr vernünftige Entscheidung, je nachdem, was man sich von seinem Auslandsaufenthalt überhaupt wünscht. Ich natürlich finde es schade, wenn man sich nicht mindestens daran versucht, wenn man sich nicht ernsthaft und bedeutungsvoll mit der örtlichen Gesellschaft auseinandersetzen </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">will</i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Dafür kostet dies sehr viel Zeit und gelingt nicht jedem, auch nicht jedem, der nur Wohlwollen im Herzen hat. Das verstehe ich. Und nicht jedes Land macht es gerade leicht -- Vietnam zum Beispiel ist alles andere als transparent. Nichtsdestotrotz bin ich nach wie vor der Meinung: je mehr du dich bemühst, desto mehr bekommst du selber davon. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMFpjBqKiB1jycseTNddxef_3f2g6cyvgtZJSqifM7IFllnvlj7kFYvX8vsNZBXxWdO_EnQ0GW6pO2q8pQulaBtS_GzwgnLD-NY8J_TdoD6Efohki8ewsaAbivdz6ylCX81RaBShXd3U/s1600/Huyen+cafe+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMFpjBqKiB1jycseTNddxef_3f2g6cyvgtZJSqifM7IFllnvlj7kFYvX8vsNZBXxWdO_EnQ0GW6pO2q8pQulaBtS_GzwgnLD-NY8J_TdoD6Efohki8ewsaAbivdz6ylCX81RaBShXd3U/s1600/Huyen+cafe+2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eine Vietnamesin bringt einem Amerikaner Vietnamesisch bei. Na gut, dieser Amerikaner wuchs mit Vietnamesisch zu Hause auf, aber dafür kennt er Vieles nicht. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>noccaguyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408520217957275095noreply@blogger.com0