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Don't Stop Till ... Taiwan?
Wed., Mar. 14. 2012 12:28pm EDT
We love getting emails from our missionary friends who take ApologetiX with them to distant lands. Here's a really creative one from a friend in Taiwan:I have a few ESL students over here in Taiwan and while I can't straight out teach them English out of the Bible, sometimes I look for creative ways to incorporate the Bible into our lessons.
My oldest student is a sophomore in High School. I've been teaching Cindy (name inserted for you to pray for) for 18 months now and she's come to expect that our lessons will go off into any direction. Tonight we started talking about American music because one of her friends shared with her a song from "Glee." When I found out that it was a cheap knock-off of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," I reached for my iPod and pulled up the newest Apologetix CD, to play for her "Don't Stop Till Egypt."
I explained to her what a "Parody" was (made it one of her English words for the night) and likewise told her about your band and what you do: how you take "Popular" (another English word for her tonight) songs and "parody" them, giving them a Christian message and speak of things straight from the Bible. I told her that your version was nearly "dead-on" ("Accurate" was the word we made into a word for her to remember) to the "Original" (Another English word for the evening) right down to the high-pitched vocals.
What really got her interest, though, was when I told her that you used the song to retell the Christmas story. While she doesn't know much about Christianity (yet -- I'm still praying on that end -- and looking for opportunities to share) she does know the Christmas story. We listened to the song two full times and talked about what parts of the Christmas story fit into your lyrics and how your parody was a better remake of the original than "Glee" was. (PS: She likes your vocals) When we ended the class she said that she really liked your version better.
We then went to Jason Mraz "I'm Yours" and then played "I'm Cured" for "Comparison"and "Contrast" (other new English words for her to learn).... since she was already "Familiar" (her last new word for the night) with the "original" version, it made hearing your "Parody" interesting. All in all it was one of our more humorous ESL sessions --- we meet in a local 7-11 and tonight we were singing semi-loudly along with you -- learning English and talking about Christmas with thanks to Apologetix. ROFL.
Thought you might like that one.
Your friend in Taiwan,
Wayne Shuman
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