Can’t touch this!
By raincoasterStolen from a post over at the delightfully twisted dadsmacker blog entitled “As if we needed more evidence that China will soon rule the world,” this is actual video footage of a Taiwanese kindergarten English class. Think about that; they get languages in Kindergarten. Who do you know who’s doing that, other than MadMan Jolie-Pitt, over at the Lycée?
Zut alors!
The teacher’s comments:
This is the way to teach English to Asian kids…the MC Hammer way. I work at an English school in Taiwan and was asked to come up with an idea for a performance. So I came up with this. This video shows one of our first practice sessions putting the whole thing together.
The only thing that could make this better is if they were wearing actual HammerPants. Here’s the video of the final, costumed performance, for fans of green, vaguely tinselly costumes on HammerDancing Taiwanese Kindergarteners. Here’s what their teacher says:
The kids were totally petrified, and performed way worse than the rehersals, but what can I expect from 5 year olds dancing and singing in another language. The best part is at 1:57. These kids have no shame. Keep in mind there were a couple hundred well-to-do parents in the audience. It’s not cheap to send your kids to English schools in Taiwan. But now they can rest easy knowing their money is being well spent. Haha, like on the costumes for example…
By the way, did you know MC Hammer has a blog?
September 24th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
It could be that the kids on the mainland are equally determined to learn English before they lose their first baby tooth but currently Taiwan is not the same as China and won’t be ruling the world any time soon. (Sorry to nitpick.)
September 24th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Quite so. I certainly don’t get the two confused, particularly as I live in Chinatown. That’s the title that Dadsmacker gave their post, which I am bound by The Code Of The Internets to quote accurately, and the US doesn’t recognize Taiwan as existing independently at all, so their confusion is understandable.
China has fewer privately-funded elite kindergartens, tis true, but you can make quite a decent living by Chinese standards if you go over there and teach English. There are a couple of British people who are celebrities to a billion Chinese, and of whom nobody outside China has ever heard because they are the ones who hosted the television English lessons for a decade.
But what do you think of the video? Don’t you agree about the Hammer pants?
September 25th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
That is prettty funny! Although using singing and melody is a good way to learn a different language, I’m not convinced about their song choice!
September 25th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Me neither. I regret ever posting this. I’ve had that bloody song in my head for days!!!