Talk about a fun way to spend a St. Patrick’s Day afternoon!
I gave a little program at the preschool my church sponsors today (figuring that at least one group of kids was going to learn that there’s more to Irish culture than leprechauns!). What a fun group of kids!
I started off by asking them what today is (got a correct answer there: “St. Patrick’s Day”). I then asked them what country we think about on St. Patrick’s Day (again, a correct answer: “Ireland”). Then I asked them if anyone knew what language people speak in Ireland (figuring that I’d hear mostly “English,” and maybe, if I was really lucky, “Irish” or “Gaelic”): Only one little guy put his hand up. “Chinese?” I thought I was going to die laughing! (note to self: next year rent “Yu Ming is Ainm Dom” for these kids).
I taught them a little counting song in Irish (“Lámh, Lámh Eile”), which they picked up quickly (I made copies of the song, with phonetics and an English translation, available to the teachers, so hopefully they’ll remember it next year). I then told them an abbreviated version of the selkie story from “The Secret of Roan Inish,” and sang “An Mhaighdean Mhara” (which the teachers really enjoyed). Finally, I asked “who wants to dance?,” whipped out the ol’ feadóg, and played “Lilting Banshee” while they all did their best Michael Flatley imitation (I got 'em good and tired…I’m sure their parents will appreciate that!).
I’ll have to do this again next year…I haven’t had so much fun in ages!
Yeah, once you get a little distance from it–I mean, you’re out of the trenches in terms of your own kids’ ages–it’s even more fun. I should dip a toe in now myself.
D., we were there last summer. M’wife & daughters contributed the “chinese-looking-people” count while we were there.
But you’ve obviously never seen rush hour in a Chinese city or you’d never claim “half”.
(Yeah, I know it was a joke. And we did see a few east asians in Dublin, enough to be noticable - but as Californians from the SF Bay area, our first thought was “Damn but this place is white!” For some reason the smaller towns didn’t produce that reaction, but a major city with so FEW asian faces seemed odd. It’s all what you’re used to, I suppose.)
