Jubilant English with Julie Stolyarchuk

Thank you to each and every one of you who attended my workshop on Working with people you don't like. We don't always get to choose whom to work with. And even if we get off to a good start with a student or colleague, some of their behaviours may stress us out. If the behaviour is disruptive (e.g. they are consistently late or frequently shoot down other students' ideas in a conversation), it may be worth talking to the person in private. But even then, they might not change. Maybe being super busy (and therefore late) or pushy (and therefore argumentative) is part of who they are at that moment in their life. What then? Realistically, we do not have a surefire way of making someone change. They are their own person. But there is one thing that we do have control over — the way we respond. The feelings and emotions that we experience are not just something that happens to us. They are something that we actively do with our body. When we see the dreaded person, we might clench our jaw and stop breathing for a few moments. The good news is that we can help ourselves undo the emotion by undoing the action. So, when you think about that unpleasant person, notice what you do in your body — your eyes, your breathing, any movement, the tension in your shoulders, your chest, your belly, your hands. And then try something called ABC centring: ⏺A — awareness (Look around and see where you are in the room, how far away the walls are, where the door is, etc.) ⏺B — balance (Shift your weight forwards and back, left and right, to check that you are not leaning too much in one direction.) ⏺C — core relaxation (Imagine a line going down the middle of your body, from the top of your head. Move your attention down that line, relaxing the forehead, the eyes, the tongue, the shoulders, the chest, the belly, and the genitals.) See if this changes anything for you. Please let me know in the comments. Personally, it helps me feel more spacious and responsive, rather than reactive. This is something you can practise with your eyes open! Because eyes open is exactly how we go through life. Do this a few times a day (you might set an alarm or do it each time you go get a drink or open your laptop) and this skill will become a very accessible tool in your toolkit! ❤️

Hey! How are you doing? I thought I’d give you an update on the stuff that I’m doing this summer. You and I might have a reason to meet up.

Learning lines vs learning language As I was getting ready for rehearsals, I had to memorise several songs. My process was simple: 1) Listen to the song while following the lyrics 2) Try to sing on top of the existing vocals 3) Try to sing to the backing track This worked and I felt pretty confident in my memorisation. Until a friend offered to listen to me. As I was standing in front of her, I kept mixing up words and forgetting my lines. She coached me for a full hour until I could recite the songs to her like poetry. Success! But when I arrived at rehearsals the following day and walked onto the stage, my mind went blank again. Luckily, when the music came on, I could still retrieve most of what I'd learnt. Then a couple of hours before the show the director asked us to put on the clothes we would be performing in. Believe it or not, that also very nearly threw me off-kilter. Wearing these clothes felt different. The final challenge was performing in front of an audience, knowing that this was the real deal. I managed to remember... most of my lines. 😁 Why did I keep forgetting everything as soon as something in my environment changed? There's something called transfer-appropriate processing. I'll quote How Languages are Learned: when we learn something new, we also internalize some aspects of the circumstances and thinking processes that were present when we learned it. The TAP hypothesis is that knowledge is easier to retrieve if we return to or can recreate those circumstances and thinking processes. Like song lyrics, language may be easy to retrieve in the context in which it was practised but much harder to access in a new situation. In other words, this hypothesis backs up what teachers have been saying for years: you can't learn to have conversations in a new language if the only thing you do is memorise word lists. And this is also why you often hear teachers say that the only way to learn to speak a language... is to speak it. :) And if you want a skill to stick and to be able to use it in a variety of situations, switch up where and when you are studying it. Don't always sit at your desk. Practise when out in the park or lying on the sofa or enjoying a coffee in a cafe. That way you can develop greater flexibility in retrieving whatever you are learning. When was the last time you had a study session somewhere other than your desk?

So, last week I took part in a week-long laboratory by the @raptheatre. Last Sunday, as I was leaving the house to go what I thought was a freestyle rap workshop, I jokingly said: "Hey, I should probably learn a fable on my way there in case I have to audition today!" As soon as I arrived, @levrepac, the art director of the Rap Theatre, announced: "OK, you can make a line over here. Go up on stage and recite a poem or fable. And sing a song." My heart dropped. My instinct was to turn around and go home. Especially since the first two people to go up on stage were trained actors. Thankfully, some of the auditions were pretty bad 🤣 so I decided I would go for it. What did I have to lose? The Rap Theatre kindly got an audience for me (this was part of Театральный Бульвар, so there were many onlookers) and this was an opportunity to practise being on stage. You know who got in? Everyone who auditioned. Because stepping up is a big deal. Stepping up means you actually want this experience. The next day we had another round of auditions for the rap itself. I didn't have time to learn any lines, so I chickened out. But then I learned my lines and went up to David Sahakyan, the director, on day 3 and said: "I'm so sorry, I got nervous yesterday. Could you give me a chance today?" And he did. And I got a role. And then 10 minutes later the same director announced that my track had been cut from the play! It was quite the emotional roller-coaster. 🤣 Spoiler alert: I did eventually get a role. But this time I held this promise very lightly, given the newly acquired knowledge that in theatre, things can change very quickly. From day 1 David told us that he makes his decisions not based on the audition, but based on the work and dedication of the actor during rehearsals. I got my role on day 4 of 6. Of the 40 people who showed up for the first audition, 20 brave souls stayed for the entire week. It was such a fun experience! Here are some pictures. Are any of you here have any connections to theatre?