They Say Music is Universal...

But I really have to take issue with that. I mean, maybe anyone with functional hearing can recognize that some kinds of sequentially arranged sounds are meant to be music, but what they're going to get out of it is so highly subjective that they may not even be hearing the same things. All of which is to say that most of the English classes taught at public junior high schools in Japan have adopted the practice of using pop music songs in English as a learning tool. Some people claim it's to teach pronunciation, others say it's so that the kids will get a sense of the rythms of English. Others say it's just to try and pique the kids' interest. But one thing is certain: I do not approve of most of what those kids have to listen to.

In theory the songs ought to be chosen to match the speaking and pronunciation levels of the students. It would be quite foolish to try and give beginners a song like "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious","Louie Louie", or anything by the Fu-Schnickens. And it shouldn't be too fast, too slow or much more than 4 minutes long. So what winds up being chosen?

Alas, this is one of the areas in which the ministry of education leaves everything unsaid and up to the individual teacher's discretion. Now, the teacher of the 3rd year kids at my school generally does a pretty decent job of choosing songs. From a learning standpoint, anyway. She generally tries to choose songs that have been used recently in TV programs or commercials so the kids will have heard them before. And then she tries to pick songs in which the grammar is about at a level the kids can understand. So far this group has done songs by Abba, Wham!, Journey and Earth, Wind and Fire.

In contrast, the 2nd years' teacher picks songs that he learned how to play on the bass guitar. So far these kids have had to do two Beatles songs and one Bryan Adams. Now, I understand that almost everyone thinks that the Beatles are the greatest blah blah yakkety schmackety ever. But forcing the kids to sing along to "Summer of '69" strikes me as being kind of sick. I can't recommend listening to Bryan Adams, mainly because I like you guys. But you oughta read the lyrics to this piece of crap. This prick is trying to romanticize, what, his best high school summer ever? What's so great about a garage band that goes nowhere, a job at a drive-in movie theater and a first love that clearly didn't last beyond that summer? And beyond all that, this song was released when he was 25 years old and a rising star in the early days of MTV. At this point in his career he had money, credit, fans, groupies, success and the potential to have even more. But he had the audacity to yowl about how much better things were when he was standing on some girl's porch, trying to work up the courage to kiss her? No. Fuck this song and fuck Bryan Adams.

And seriously, there's something a little careless and more than a little bit off about a middle-aged guy who intentionally chooses a song about how much better life was in high school and forces junior high kids to sing it without ever explaining to them what the words mean.

Fffffhhhhah. Maybe it's time for me to find something else to think about besides things about work that make me angry.