June 10, 2005
Because of the dreadful weather, when I showed up to teach my step-and-sculpt class, there was no one there. Delighted that I might have the hour free, I decided nevertheless to wait fifteen minutes before going home. I was about to turn the lights off and leave when a woman came in to do the class. She had a foreign accent and turned out to be from Paris. She was very considerate; she said there was no point in doing the class with one student, as it would be just as easy for her to go and lift on the machines outside. But, full of bitterness, I told her that if she'd come for the class we should do the class.
And it was a total blast. First, because it was great to be able to focus my teaching on one person's specific needs, and second, because I did the class in French.
Actually, that's not completely accurate, as my French wasn't quite up to translating sentences like "give me some hip!" and "I know you've got more attitude in you than that!" idiomatically on the fly as I danced around a plastic platform.
But when it came to shouting "répétez trois fois!" and "magnifique, vraiment magnifique!" I was smoother than Maurice Chevalier.
Posted by Faustus, MD at 08:56 PM
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Comments
1) Groomzilla said (on 06/10/05 at 11:38 PM):
So what you're really saying is, Deepak Chopra is a fraud?
2) f-i-n said (on 06/11/05 at 12:14 AM):
hilarious stuff!
3) Lauren said (on 06/11/05 at 01:26 AM):
...it's La gymnastique!
Sort of.
Eeek.
4) Stairs said (on 06/11/05 at 07:23 AM):
It was probably her best-ever class; your effort to communicate in French must have been delightful.
5) Stairs said (on 06/11/05 at 07:23 AM):
And if you can learn to do it in Malay, I'd be delighted too.
6) Hanuman said (on 06/11/05 at 09:03 AM):
Tres Bien!!!!!
7) tim said (on 06/11/05 at 09:39 AM):
You, my friend, are a big nerd. But that could be why I love you.
8) anapestic said (on 06/11/05 at 03:17 PM):
Clearly, your New York employers should be sending you to Paris for some additional training in the language of aerobics. You should explain to them how much additional business that would bring in.
9) Mike said (on 06/11/05 at 03:29 PM):
Does E.S. attend your classes?
10) logan said (on 06/11/05 at 06:41 PM):
But Maurice Chevalier's voice is horridly old.
11) Andy said (on 06/11/05 at 08:25 PM):
Wenn Du einen Deutschen Studenten hättest, könntest du mich anrufen, und ich für Dich gern übersetzen werde. Aber, ich tanze nicht mit, und meine Gage ist $35 pro Stunde.
12) Mushlette said (on 06/11/05 at 11:19 PM):
You are so cute.
13) zenchick said (on 06/12/05 at 07:22 PM):
you have got to be making this shit up.
You should write a book.
{oh, yeah...}
14) Book Worm said (on 06/12/05 at 10:11 PM):
Vas-y mon ami!
A friend from San Francisco moved to Paris, where he makes a good living as an English teacher. To "simplify" (if that is the word) the move, he married a French lesbian who wanted to stay in SF, and they supported each other's petition for legal residence in the other's country.
So far, so good but both my friend and his legally wedded wife are tiring of their present arrangement and yearning to return to the status quo ante.
15) campbell said (on 06/13/05 at 05:54 AM):
To be honest I think that Chevalier would have eaten Hermione Gingold raw, rather than give a step-class.
Still it must have been worth seeing.
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