Chinese School Rap Video, Year 3
Following a long line of Middlebury Chinese School rap videos, this year’s video was just released.
2010:
2009:
2008:
Posts tagged ‘language school’
Aug 6
3 Comments
Aug 4
Arabic School Video Stirs Controversy
Billed on this mysterious website as the “THE VIDEO BANNED BY THE MIDDLEBURY LANGUAGE SCHOOLS,” it appears (but unconfirmed) that a group of Middlebury Arabic students out at Mills College in California have gotten themselves in some trouble for this video:
Austin Davis ’11, a Middlebury Arabic student interning in DC at the Center for American Progress this summer, watched the video and had this response: “It’s really dumb, definitely not in good taste, and a bit racist (the dress, esp.), but it’s not mind-blowingly offensive. It looks like it was done by culturally insensitive first years.” Davis also helps translate some of the main phrases from Arabic:
Muthifakhr = “another employee,” “Thalith Alif”=”3000,” and “Tanwiin Fatha” is just a grammatical device.
While much of the controversy may be manufactured by the students themselves, the Arabic students’ response video below implies some sort of censorship. The students cry censorship in their video description:
Stand up against censorship. Stand for freedom of speech. Say no to the Middlebury College Language Schools and the stifling of student-sheep. Say yes to thoughts and intersections and the the meeting of two cultures not in a clash but in an embrace.
Props for finally rivaling the Chinese school videos, but anyone know for sure what happened here or care to help further enlighten readers as to the content of the video?
UPDATE: post above edited for clarity. See below for a response from one commenter that claims to be a Midd at Mills administrator that says the video was not censored: “It was shown at the Arabic School Talent Show on Monday, with a disclaimer read beforehand.”
Jul 19
Life in Language Immersion: Russian
I’m teaming up with students at Middlebury this summer to produce a series of videos on what it’s like to be at language school. Here’s a “confessional” take by Helena Treeck ’12, narrating her day-to-day in Russian School. Produced by Casey Mahoney ’11.
Jul 13
When the Language Pledge Fails
Finally truth about language the language school surfaces? Illegal English:
With all the gravity that is placed on the pledge, you’d think that language school kids would be very good about only speaking their chosen language, both fearing potentially-wasted money and getting on the bad sign of the infamous ‘language-school police.’ But you’d think wrong.
So the registered trademark of Middlebury, “No English Spoken Here,” is not as pure and sacred as one might think, but that doesn’t mean the schools aren’t good. They still are probably the best way to learn a language in an immersion environment. Even abroad, the temptation to speak English can be far worse because you have to deal with culture shock in addition to your inability to speak.
The English Spoken Here post does a good job describing why people break the pledge — language school is stressful. There is no outlet, no English music, no NYTimes.com. But the post misses the differentiation of Middlebury undergraduate students vs. other institution students. My guess is that language pledge violators are more often Middlebury students who know the campus, know English-speaking people on campus, etc. I also ponder how the honor code plays in to Middlebury undergrads studying languages during the summer — what duty do non-language school students have in keeping other students’ pledge and is there a duty to report peers breaking the pledge?
Jun 29
Spanish Spoken Here
Throughout the summer, we’ll be posting an assortment of language school videos. And much like last summer, the videos promise to range from confessional to performance-capture to entertaining Chinese rap videos (all made prior to the Middkid Rap). Let’s kick it off:
