Teaching Baseball in Pittsburgh

I've come to the conclusion that baseball might be the hardest sport to teach internationals in the US.  I taught American football to my Chinese students in Rochester. I taught ice hockey to my Bhutanese students here (and I don't even like ice hockey!)  But, I've been trying to teach baseball now for two weeks and I haven't yet seen that gleam of understanding in their eyes.  Part of it might be that they are trying to understand it through the lens of cricket-as evidenced when one of my students asked, three days into the topic, how many balls each person pitches.  (Granted, my understanding of cricket comes mainly through the Bollywood movie Lagaan and a few all-night cricket tournaments at RIT, but at least I was able to recognize where that discrepancy came from and re-route them by explaining that, in baseball, the pitcher is always the pitcher-the role of pitching doesn't rotate from player to player.)  I guess I should recognize as progress that they have stopped calling the pitcher a bowler and be happy with small steps in the right direction. 

I think what is confusing them the most right now is understanding when a base runner has to run to the next base-so we haven't even started talking about leading off the base or stealing bases!  But, when I think about it all, I can understand how it can be confusing.  I mean, think about-why is a foul ball a strike when the count is 2-1, but not when it's 2-2?  And the terminology-the 'batter' changes to the 'runner' after he hits the ball.  It makes sense once you understand the game but getting to that point is a different story. 

But, why is it important enough for me to dedicate time to this topic?  In class, we have actually used baseball to talk about many aspects of American culture.  Whether you think baseball is still America's national pastime or not, it is likely that you can see its impact in everyday life.  Let's start with idioms-baseball, far more than any other professional sport, has added idioms into everyday conversation-and not just in the business world!  Even the most anti-sports person will probably refer to the three strike rule.  And did you know that baseball was the first professional sport to sing the National Anthem before the start of each and every game?  Yup, since World War II.

And speaking of WWII, let's not forget baseball's impact on history with Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947 and the start of the All American Girl's Professional Baseball League in 1943 (most notably portrayed in A League of Their Own, which we also watched in class.) For us, baseball became a jumping off point for us to talk about this history of discrimination in this country-and what people have done to prevent it. 

I'm actually sad that we've finished the movie and this topic in class-it led to some great discussions comparing discrimination and rights in the two countries and reminded me again why America still is a country that people want to come to to better their lives.  And learning baseball?  They'll get it-eventually.

The End of the Alphabet

Honestly, I think when people start these alphabet challenges they partly do it just to see what people do with the letters at the end, so here goes...

W

Washington DC-a place I love to visit.  My favorite is the Jefferson Memorial, but there are many museums that I need to visit: the Textile Museum, the National Museum of Crime & Punishment, and the National Museum of the American Indian to name but a few.

X

Xian, China-a place I want to visit, particularly since a former housemate is from there.

Y

Yellowstone National Park-another place I want to visit.  Yes, there are places in the US that I want to visit too!

Z

The Zoo!  I love to visit the zoo, no matter what city I'm visiting.  Here's picture or two from my last trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo:

Valais

The next time I go back to Switzerland, I want to go back for the cow-fighting season in Valais.  Yes, you read that right-the cow-fighting season.  Never heard of it before?  I hardly believed it myself when I first heard of it, but apparently it's a proud Swiss tradition, not to be missed:

United Kingdom

"The complexities of the English language are such that even native speakers cannot always communicate effectively, as almost every American learns on his first day in Britain."
~The Mother Tongue

Now that I've spent some time in London (and understand a bit more British English!), I want to go back and explore more of the United Kingdom. I'm fascinated by the country-not only from a sightseeing perspective, but also from a linguistic perspective.  As Bill Bryson writes in his book, The Mother Tongue:

"A paradox of accents is that in England where people from a common heritage have been living together in a small area for thousands of years, there is still a huge variety of accents, whereas in America, where people from a great mix of backgrounds have been living together in a vast area for a relatively short period, people speak with just a few voices." 

This linguistic variance is cleverly showcased in the play The 39 Steps (a tribute to the Alfred Hitchcock):

T is for....

T is another tough letter for me...but this time because there were too many options. 

For one, I should probably talk about Tunisia....or Tunis....and do some sort of summing up of my time there.  But I haven't yet reached any deep insights about my time there.  I can only suggest that people read my blog of my time there.

Or, I really should talk about Tamil Nadu...and the time I spent there and how it affected my life.  But, I did quite a bit of that on my original blog, so it seems kind of silly to repeat that here.

So, instead, I think I'll talk about Toronto.  This city was one of my favorite places to go to with Malinda.  We'd take off for a long weekend and wander around and do things that we couldn't do in Rochester.  Here are a few pictures of one of our trips there:

Chinatown

Gerrard Street-with all kinds of Indian shops!

I was so excited when I realized the place I ate chaat
was in the movie 'Bollywood/Hollywood'!

Malinda & I in our new purchases

South America

I'm starting to think that maybe my next continent to discover should be South America-but where should I go?  Which country?

Rochester

And of course I have to mention Rochester as part of my blog.  I lived in there for many, many years during my college and post-college life.  I have many good memories of the city-reenacting, Dorothy's Home for Young Adults, English tutoring and International Student Network events, Vineyard(s), the summer of Risk, Dharma & Greg, CSCH, Intervarsity, Indians, the zoo, High Falls, California Rollin', Great Northern Pizza, Thali, The King and I, Dinosaur BBQ-to name just a few.  Unfortunately, my opinion of Rochester is always shaded by memories like this: