Post-post-modernism in the EFL classroom
Well, I’m on a roll since I had my holiday- I’ve even found inspiration in an Adam Sandler movie. I kid you not!
This particular one was Click- the one about a guy who gets a remote control from Christopher Walken he can control his life with. I mean, come on! It’s Christopher Walken, of course it’s gonna be cursed! It turned out to be so over the top, sentimental and predictable that we decided to fast forward to the end… Ha! You have to laugh- fast forwarding a film whose fatuous point was about not fast forwarding your life! Lucky I did laugh at that, because it was about the only chuckle I got…
After we had taken away our unpleasantly cynical grins, we started to wonder- what if it was deliberate? What if they made it so bad that we had no choice but to fast forward it and so make a joke of ourselves? Was it some kind of genius, interactive version of the movie Adaption???
But no, post-modernist jokes like that haven’t been funny since Being John Malkovich came out. Luckily, with films as with architecture and even occasionally modern art we have finally reached the post-post-modernist age where we say “Okay, we can’t fundamentally, philosophically prove why a glass office block with fake Greek pillars is crap, but it is, right, so stop taking the Michael and give us something space age”.
Ditto in politics and world affairs- even the most namby pamby liberal (e.g. me) accepts that you can tell other cultures that female circumcision is wrong, even if it’s ‘neo-colonial’ and there might be some holes in your argument to prove it is cruel, pointless and inhuman. It is wrong, okay. Stop it, get over it, move on!
So, where are we, my fellow TEFLdonians? Have we reached the point where we are not going to be embarassed about sniggering about Mario Rinvolucri’s frown when he did a video on teaching the Silent Way (no positive feedback allowed, makes the students dependant apparently). Are we going to let Berlitz get away with the same money from old rope as in the 1930′s just because we can’t prove to 99% accuracy that it is hogswash? Any other unfashionable relics from the 30′s you’d like bring back when you are at it???
Well, that’s enough ranting from me for now, I’ve used up my weekly ration of exclamation marks. Will save the rest for the next time I sit through a cheesy American comedy…
