While I am enjoying teaching, I've found some difficulties in not being able to talk to many of the students directly. My co-teacher and translator is excellent, so I certainly trust the physics concepts are being communicated correctly. But, I can't tell jokes. Or at least, I am not being successful in telling jokes.
I know that the monks will laugh - Tsondue says things that make them laugh, and occasionally a student will ask a question that others will laugh at. I've attempted a few jokes, but they did not results in laughs. I don't know if Tsondue didn't realize that I was attempting a joke, and didn't translate it that way, or if it was just too subtle overall. For instance, I had a picture of a hanging chimpanzee and sketched out the forces by drawing a box, saying that it is as close as I can get to drawing a chimp. No laughs.
Today there were laughs, caused by me! Of course, it was primarily because my demonstration failed. I brought my parachute ball: a tennis ball with a small parachute tied on. I stood on a chair and dropped it at the same time as a normal tennis ball, explaining that the parachute ball has more air resistance so it would hit second. I have done this demo many times... and this time, they hit the ground at the same time. I tried again, and the parachute ball seemed to hit first. Laughs.
I told them that if they didn't trust me, they could borrow the parachute ball and drop it from much higher up - this got more laughs. So even if my jokes are quite making it through translation, at least "physics is hard" seems to be making it.
I know that the monks will laugh - Tsondue says things that make them laugh, and occasionally a student will ask a question that others will laugh at. I've attempted a few jokes, but they did not results in laughs. I don't know if Tsondue didn't realize that I was attempting a joke, and didn't translate it that way, or if it was just too subtle overall. For instance, I had a picture of a hanging chimpanzee and sketched out the forces by drawing a box, saying that it is as close as I can get to drawing a chimp. No laughs.
Today there were laughs, caused by me! Of course, it was primarily because my demonstration failed. I brought my parachute ball: a tennis ball with a small parachute tied on. I stood on a chair and dropped it at the same time as a normal tennis ball, explaining that the parachute ball has more air resistance so it would hit second. I have done this demo many times... and this time, they hit the ground at the same time. I tried again, and the parachute ball seemed to hit first. Laughs.
I told them that if they didn't trust me, they could borrow the parachute ball and drop it from much higher up - this got more laughs. So even if my jokes are quite making it through translation, at least "physics is hard" seems to be making it.
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