Written by Loretta Liu
Edited and posted by Matthew Yang
On 2/1/21, the Manhasset and Syosset ALYUS branches held the joint zoom session for Journey to the West- Cultural Appreciation. Members who participated from the Manhasset Branch were Matthew Yang (1 hour) and Loretta Liu (1 hour).
Before we began, everyone was split into breakout rooms with each room having two tutors and around three students. I (Loretta) was partnered with Alan Huang from the Syosset branch. We were assigned 潘文欣 (Pan Wenxin), 尹影 (Yin Ying) and Ryan (who came in later). We started by watching videos about the story such as the version made in 1986 and an animated video that told the story in a more parodic way. After watching the videos, we would read the parts that happened in the videos. Each student would read one paragraph and they would be asked to summarize what happened to the best of their ability. As they were reading, we would correct them on their pronunciation or help them with a difficult/weird word. If they didn’t understand what exactly happened, Alan would summarize and clarify some vocabulary and events. We would switch between watching videos and reading. Before class ended, we watched a bit of an unrelated movie as a break from reading.
The class went smoothly. There weren’t any issues with the lesson except for a student who came in later. During the reading and videos, the students weren’t very willing to talk and discuss but it was understandable as some students were uncomfortable. The videos helped paint a clearer picture of the story and made it more interesting with different interpretations of the setting and characters.
