Unit eleven

Exercise 1. Read, translate and transcribe the following poem by American poet Carol Levin from the collection “Place one foot here”. Write down all unknown words into your dictionary. Use them in sentences of your own:

Philosophical Slapstick Comedy

Greek character is kind of cloddish, kind of left over

Turkey. Opposite

from the Italians or Yugoslavs we met dislocating

the air with their elbows & opinions.

Yesterday on the top deck of the boat back from Aguara

the atmosphere was peacock blue,

the sea, very serene, all very Greek. On one side of the deck

a shy man played

full blast a radio, playing a kind of flute music

almost oriental, on the other side

of the deck an English boy & a Greek boy played two

guitars singing Bob Dylan

at the top of their lungs in perfect English. A mess

of noise that didn’t

really blend at all. That’s Athens. Where I counted on

meeting great thinkers. Pericles, Socrates, Plato & Aristotle. Always

In Athens the Greek music

comes into my window from the street, like it is now, drowning

any inclination to hear my self think.

Exercise 2. Speak about great thinkers of Greece and Rome. Repeat their names for clarity of articulation. Consult the dictionary. Work for precision with a minimum of tension. After you have accurately mastered the phrases for clarity, work for speed in repetition.

Exercise 3. Read and transcribe the following poem by Carol Levin. Translate it. Repeat new words over and over. Accuracy first, the speed! Make a recording of the way you sound as you begin your studies, and then make a comparison, recording every six to twelve months:

Dibs On Summer ‘68

But then

An age sage gets to the newsstands

before me. His book Boom makes a splash

in television and lecture venues.

Heretofore

I’ve trumpeted my personal sixties unseasoned

polyphonic trope, stimulated now I accelerate

the midwifeing.

Boom

recounts struggles of Thomas Gilmore,

Stokley Carmichael and Dr. King,

courageous freedom fighters

for blacks facing

raciest red necks. I tender a tale, believe it

or not,

of Christina, my lovers fiancee,

lured to a bogus convent on a remote

isle in the Aegean, dressed in black

held captive behind fifteen foot walls

painted pink. I think she’s still there.

All before

many people alive today

were even born. Old news

akin to spume on ocean waves crashes

and drains

as the next breaker flaunts

its pizzaz.

Boom.

Unseasoned my

unfinished narrative is my estuary typed

in black on a remote manuscript, A David

facing Goliath struggling to be freed.

(Boom, Tom Brokaw. Random House 2007

Exercise 4. Discuss the poem with your group-mate. Remember that you are not in competition with anyone, and that you will progress at your own rate.

Exercise 5. Decode a modern song you have never heard before, translate and transcribe every line. Write down the unknown words into your dictionary. Use them in sentences of your own.

Exercise 6. Tell about the song decoded. Discuss the transcription. Try to persuade the audience that the text transcribing deserves their attention. Speak with distinctness. Use the Intonation patterns in accordance with the emotions conveyed by the author.

Exercise 7. Write down the questions of the listeners. Answer them. Work for precision with a minimum of tension. After you have accurately mastered the phrases for clarity, work for speed in repetition.

Exercise 8. Imagine you are aboard the ship. Consult the dictionary and find the terms which name the parts of the ship. Repeat them for clarity of articulation.

Exercise 9. You have received a letter from an unknown person. Express your feelings. Use the Intonation patterns in accordance with your emotions (doubt, reproach, uncertainty, hurt feelings etc).

Exercise 10. Describe the ideal teacher of phonetics. Speak on the appearance, skills, manners etc. Prove your position. Use some proverbs, sayings, idioms, and tongue-twisters. Mind your pronunciation.

Exercise 11. Read, translate and transcribe the following poem by American poet Carol Levin from the collection “Place one foot here”. Write down all unknown words into your dictionary. Use them in sentences of your own:

The Imagination Is A Threat

“Every secret has its little casket”

Gaston Bachelard

Dear ones, the pads of my fingers dust

your girlish curlicues in cursive on fading

picture-post-cards Grandma saved. Writing side

of the glossy Chistofro Columbo slicing blue waves:

“now in the Mediteranian

have gone on tours of Portagal, Spain, Naples & Pompei”

and your boyish, although teensy printing on a photo of Athens.

“I am looking at the Acroplis and on the end of it it looks

like a face has nose and eyes and a mouth”.