Longest 2 minutes ever
So some more positive news to report: recently, we were required to make oral presentations before our classmates. We were to come up with 2-3 minutes' worth of things to say. In English, that's laughably easy; in Cree, a tad terrifying.
But I'd been pretty diligent, and knew that, worse comes to worst, I could probably string together something. And on my own, or in front of one other person, I could. But, boy, once the day came and I got in front of that group (about 10 other students and my instructor) I found my throat going tight.
Like most in the class, my strategy was to rely on a set of phrases I'd memorized, down to the syllable. I also made sure I learned the Cree verb forms for "to say," so I could tell a rough story. (This way I could stick in a "s/he says" here, and a "I said" there, etc..) But there's a big gap between intake and output, that's for sure. Hearing, in other words, is very different from speaking.
Well, I must've picked something up these first 2 months or so. Not only did I achieve the magic 2-minute mark, I surpassed it by almost 3 minutes! Yessir, a 5-minute monologue about, among other things, what a friend cooked me for breakfast, and a porcupine I saw near the road one day. What was neat for me was that the kâkwa story was more or less ad-libbed. Now, sure, I didn't exactly race through my presentation, and the content wasn't as sizzling as an episode of Desperate Housewives, but I daresay it was competent.
And, hey, it's nice to exceed expectations. The next challenge: a paired dialogue at the end of this month. Mamaskac!
ekosi,
Rick
But I'd been pretty diligent, and knew that, worse comes to worst, I could probably string together something. And on my own, or in front of one other person, I could. But, boy, once the day came and I got in front of that group (about 10 other students and my instructor) I found my throat going tight.
Like most in the class, my strategy was to rely on a set of phrases I'd memorized, down to the syllable. I also made sure I learned the Cree verb forms for "to say," so I could tell a rough story. (This way I could stick in a "s/he says" here, and a "I said" there, etc..) But there's a big gap between intake and output, that's for sure. Hearing, in other words, is very different from speaking.
Well, I must've picked something up these first 2 months or so. Not only did I achieve the magic 2-minute mark, I surpassed it by almost 3 minutes! Yessir, a 5-minute monologue about, among other things, what a friend cooked me for breakfast, and a porcupine I saw near the road one day. What was neat for me was that the kâkwa story was more or less ad-libbed. Now, sure, I didn't exactly race through my presentation, and the content wasn't as sizzling as an episode of Desperate Housewives, but I daresay it was competent.
And, hey, it's nice to exceed expectations. The next challenge: a paired dialogue at the end of this month. Mamaskac!
ekosi,
Rick
posted by Rick Harp at 1:01 PM
1 Comments:
Boozhoo Niichii,
Congrats on your presentation. It's good to hear you're doing good and keeping busy. I must say, I was a bit shocked to read you were nervous about presenting in front of 10 people... what w/ your former Contact audience. Nervousness: I love that feeling and hate it at the same time. *haha*
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