On August 4th and 5th, I had three classes with 12 wonderful Hiroshima-area high school students. They were all interested in English and they worked so hard. We laughed a lot, practiced all four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), and had a wonderful time together.

On the first day, the students enjoyed learning about American culture, specifically fast food culture. We talked about the history of the hamburger and how it became the most typically "American" food. This brought up the theme of immigration (because German immigrants brought this food to America) and how the USA is a multiethnic society, a point that was repeated in all three lessons. Next, we watched a short scene from the movie Forrest Gump (1994) and talked about ways that students can study English, history and culture by using popular films or TV shows. We ended the first day by reading a short story by Sandra Cisneros, called "No Speak English" (from the 1984 collection, The House on Mango Street), and we discussed how literature can be used to learn both language (such as figurative or metaphorical language, like similes: "The taxi door opened like a waiter's arm" or "Her voice sounded like tin") and culture, in this case the lives of Mexican immigrants to the USA.

On the second day, we talked about Walt Disney and animation, and the ways that this has come to represent "American culture." The students learned some history, but also had fun watching some short clips from various movies and listening to songs featured in animation. Finally, we began a grammatical exercise using a scene from the film Benjamin Button (2008), which we did not have time to finish. My hope is that the students will complete the task on their own--and that they will come back to Yasuda and study with us in the English department! I hope to see them all again soon!

Taras Alexander Sak