Devenish

As mentioned in another post, one of the classes I teach at Konan is called Kiso ensyu I , which roughly translates as Introductory Seminar , or so I'm told. There is no prescribed curriculum or syllabus for this course: it is intended an introduction to academic studies for incoming students of English, who until just a few weeks ago were still in high school. The gap year is still alien to most Japanese students, more's the pity. In the absence of a fixed curriculum, I am free to do "pretty much what I like." Since the intersection of [the set of activities covered by this expression] and [the set of legitimate and appropriate things to do with a class of slightly post-adolescent teenagers] includes listening to and talking about English songs—and not much else—that is what we are doing. Beginning next week, the course will introduce students to singer-songwriters that, but for this course, they would never, ever, listen to: Harry Chapin, Ralph McTell, Joni M