And the Grammy for best spoken word goes to....

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Hello out there in blogville,

So...you may be familiar with Brett Yellen, China's preeminent statue poser. But alas, I will now gain fame on a much larger scale as a recording artist. Look out Beatles, Elvis, and Rolling Stones...here I come. However, rather than the rock and roll, I will have chosen to make my name in the spoken word genre.

Two weeks ago the other exchange teacher and I received word that we would be recording dialogue to help the Jingshan School students prepare for the massive national exam. Basically, and this isn't over hyping the test, this exam is the make or break moment in a Chinese student's life. Picture the SATs...but much much bigger. Needless to say that much preparation and stress goes in to this exam. However, this test is not simply prepared for in the final years of high school, but all schooling is leading up to this. Even in early grades. I was talking with one of the English teachers about the exam and its stakes...yikes! More interestingly, it appears that if students had been goofing off, even in earlier grades, it might be too little too late to make up the ground. Translation..goof off in middle school...one might not get into a good college or get a good job in the increasingly competitive Chinese job market. There's no essay or points for being class president...your placement is based on your score for college. I was told that those children of wealthy parents who don't do well, might travel abroad for college.

Anyway, back to the recordings. The Jingshan School has both a TV studio and a radio recording room. As I walked into this sound proof room I felt like the Beatles, and had visions of me sitting next to John Lennon. However, there was one major difference. I wasn't recording timeless music, but dialogues such as....."This is a holiday on December 25th...." While I tried my best...it was tough to muster a lot of emotion reading about occupations.

The process however was cool...I don't think the Chinese engineer on the other side of the glass got my radio humor. After the first take I yell..."print it!" Nothing. Also, my "what's my motivation here?" fell on deaf ears for sure.

Some of the dialogues had more character at the end. However, a strange thing happened...while most of the snipits were lifeless term identifications...all of a sudden my lines got more serious. I had to read a story in which I was a sick orphan whose parents died of AIDS....it seemed kind of out of place.

Finally, through this exercise I was able to exorcise some demons from about 10 years ago when auditioned for a pager commercial in a downtown Boston radio studio. I was mesmerizing as the young child whose mother was trying to find a way to keep tabs on him. Let's just say the producers didn't agree with my interpretation of the character. They didn't call me.

And in closing...the Yellen experiment this week has been met with mixed results. I wouldn't say class went as well as it could of, and my ability to control the masses was well...met with some resistance. Don't worry....back on track next week.

Until next time,
Brett

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