NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Every year my school’s first grade curriculum reads an article about life in Iceland. This scenic, yet lonely Northern European island boasts some of the hardest working Europeans and some of the most expensive goods, as so much is imported. As for exports, Iceland sends fish and aluminum to other EU countries and the United States; however, before the pandemic tourism made up to 10% of Iceland’s GDP. As for cultural exports, we get the word geyser from Icelandic. The country harnesses its geysers and volcanos to power the country with what they call geothermic power. Aside from some beautiful scenes in movies like 2014’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty much of Iceland isn’t common knowledge to most Americans. Some music fans will remember avant-garde singer-songwriter Björk from the ‘90s or post-rock band Sigur Rós . In 2011, Of Monsters and Men did it for Iceland and became the nation’s highest charting hit with the song “ Little Talks .” YOU'VE BECOME A TEMPO THAT MY HEART

This is one of the most cringe-worthy stories from my teaching experience. And of course all names have been changed. Five years ago the first grade middle school students put on a program. In Korea, first grade middle school equates to seventh grade. The show consisted of presentations for special English classes the student did that semester. Then the English singing class came to stage. A student started playing some stiff piano music and five students started singing in unison. The song was "Love Me Like You Do." Two girls took turns singing the verses and three boys awkwardly joined in the chorus. When they all sang, it reminded me of when the Peanuts kids sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing!" at the end of Charlie Brown Christmas  and of Cartman, Kyle, and Kenny putting on a highly inappropriate South Park style musical. As Tina* (not real English name or Korean name) sang "I'll let you set the pace, 'cause I'm not thinking straight" my for