Comic Strips 101

What do you teach your writing students when you've already taught them everything you know? Such is the dilemma that my writing group has this week. The sophomores here are in the second half of their fourth semester in writing. When the foreign teachers were given these students as first-semester freshmen they thought that it would be just for one semester. Because of that, that first semester saw the teachers cramming everything we could about writing in 16 weeks. However, one semester turned into two and two semesters into four, and we're thinking, "okay, guys, what's next?". :) We don't possibly have anything left to teach about Western writing! They've learned about 5-paragraph essays and thesis statements and argumentative essays and newspapers and movie reviews and poetry and creative stories... We've beat the thing to death. :) So, that leaves us with what? What can we possibly teach them in the six weeks left in the semester?

Comic strips.

Two weeks of planning and several hours later, Robb, Jonny and I have a lesson plan that has students understanding the how-to of comic strips and drawing cartoons and trying to make them funny. Actually, at this point we'll take any kind of story. The funny part is a bonus. They don't have to be funny, but the students get extra points if they are funny.
Ah, but there's the clincher. Funny takes on a whole new meaning when you're in a different land such as this one. Especially a land such as this one.

If you can explain a Far Side comic or even Calvin and Hobbes to a Chinese student AND get them laughing at the end, then you get a special prize. Then you should write a book about your special technique because none of us has been able to do it--ever. You can get in all the details and idioms and cultural reasons of a Far Side comic, but the more we try to explain it, the less funny it gets. :) :) Meanwhile you're trying to explain why saying "bought the farm" when someone dies is funny and all they can think about is that these insensitive Americans love laughing at death. :) On the other end I have seen comedy shows here on TV- the Chinese are laughing their heads off and I just don't get it. What's funny to us is not funny to them, and what's funny to them is not funny to us (except they love slapstick comedy from certain movies, like Mrs. Doubtfire). So, how is this going to work? We'll let you know.

Right now we're just aiming for them to put a story like the Three Little Pigs into a comic strip. Next week we'll do claymations (just kidding...sort of) :)

Meanwhile Jonny is running around with Disney singing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, the Big Bad Wolf, the Big Bad Wolf?"

We're changing lives in here China :) :)