Ice Ice Baby

English Corner is one of our few obligations at Lanshan Yizhong. It is a series of sessions at regular times where students have the opportunity to come see us, talk to us and to take part in activities which we organise for them.

The activities are sometimes hit and miss, and our lunchtime sessions are almost dead in the water now that the days are becoming warmer and sunnier and school sports competitions are in full swing, but we have success with a regular showing of the American TV series 'Smallville' and our evening junior and senior corners.

It was after a visit by Aaron from Dao Xian that I got the inspiration for one of our best English corners yet. All weekend he and Anthony had been singing that infamous rap song 'Ice Ice baby', by the one and only Mr Vanilla Ice. We thought one day, wouldn't it be hilarious if we could get the kids singing it. I thought a bit more and thought why not? It's the perfect kind of speaking activity for the older students. Gets them thinking about their speech patterns, the rhythm, pronunciation - all that crap, and as a competition would be good fun.

So we did it. After two weeks of supremely
entertaining practice, last Thursday was the night. It was amazing. These students had really gotten into it and we were both seriously impressed with how well they managed to perform it. We had about six groups perform in the end, although many more had come along to practice with us, and the winners received the pretty decent prize of a map of Wisconsin and two bracelets, while the runners up got slightly less dazzling badges and keyrings.

No break-dancing, but you can't have it all.

And in case any of you have forgotten them, those immortal lines are now firmly imprinted on my brain, so I'll share:

Alright stop, collaborate and listen
Ice is back with a brand new invention
Something, grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop yo, I don't know
Turn off the light, and I'll glow
To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up the stage and wax a chump like a candle

Dance, go rush to the speaker that booms
I'm killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly, when I hear a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it you better gain weight
You better hit bulls eye the kid don't play
If there was a problem yo I'll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

Ice ice baby... ... ...