Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting!

Recently, I've been assigned to help out with the annual English singing competition. At the end of October, schools from all around Taichung will perform song and dance numbers in the hopes of winning 1st place. This year, we are singing portions of the songs "Stand" by Rascal Flats, "Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting," "We are the Champions," and "Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now," which will all be used to illustrate the story "The Old Man and the Sea."

Imagining a group of Taiwanese children singing English songs is pretty dang adorable. But the weeks leading up to the competition are actually quite rigorous. For the 5th and 6th graders participating at my school, the singing competition means a month of hour long practices starting at 7:35AM a few days a week, as well as rehearsals during nap time on Tuesdays and Fridays. Talk about dedication--they're missing nap time for goodness sakes!

And if you've ever heard me sing before, you'd realize I'd normally have no place helping out for a singing competition--I'm off key, oblivious to rhythm, and have a voice that's remarkably high-pitched, deep, and nasally all rolled into one. Luckily, my role is really to help students with their English pronunciation. My first day, I was instructed to merely recite the lyrics as loudly and clearly as possible to the students and have them repeat. I had to stifle some laughter as I enunciated the lyrics"THERE WERE FUN-KY CHINA MEN FROM FUN-KY CHINA TOWN" and heard a group of roughly 30 kids monotonously repeat that back.

Later, my co-teacher asked me to shut the door and the windows and had me recite lyrics into a recorder. These files were later burned onto a CD so all students could listen and practice from home. It's a strange feeling to know that 30 Taiwanese kids will be listening and practicing to your voice.

A few days after that, I was busy lesson planning while my co-teacher and the music teacher were discussing the competition. Suddenly, I hear my co-teacher say "Chia, it is time to record." I took this as a sign that I needed to record again and instinctively shut the door and windows, pulling a seat right next to my co-teacher, who has the recorder in hand. My co-teacher then says "Now, with music," as she pulls up the instrumental music of "Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting" and presses play.

In my head, I'm thinking Oh, shoot! Now I have to sing! As the music starts, I timidly start to sing, trying my best to keep up with the beat, although admittedly not fully aligning with the rhythm since I sang portions too slow or speed up at parts.Meanwhile, the music teacher is counting "1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3" to the rhythm of the song.  Halfway through though, I start to build some confidence, and really get into it, growing louder in volume and even trying to hit the high notes as I sing"kickin' from the hip!" When it's over, I look over at my co-teacher and the music teacher, hoping to see signs of approval. Instead, I see my co-teacher and music teacher exchange glances and discuss in Chinese. After about 30 seconds of confusion on my end, my co-teacher says to me "Maybe we can do one without singing." In true Taiwanese fashion, they had been too polite to interrupt my singing and tell me they simply wanted to record the music with the music teacher counting the beats.

All my singing gone to waste! Actually, I am pretty okay with that. Despite my new found confidence in singing, I'm pretty sure I still sounded like a bag of kittens being thrashed against a wall.

Till next time!
Chia