Friday, January 29, 2010
Laughter Games Workshop - Israel, cont'd
Last year in Israel, I had several opportunities to experience the energy and enthusiasm of Israeli "laughter leaders." It was a very powerful experience for all of us, laughter being so much needed in this country. (For more about what I learned and taught last year, see this.)
This year, in a session organized by Yehudit Kotler and Bat-Shachar Weinfeld, I led two more sessions for laughter leaders form all over Israel. It seemed even more successful this time, as I was more aware of what kinds of games they were looking for. (Here's the complete list of the games I had prepared - we managed to play about 20% of them.) This time, part of both sessions was captured on tape by Gidon Sheran (discs showing highlights of both sessions are available for $10 each).
The first of the three games he captured was A What. Playing it in Hebrew, the word for "what" is "mah" and the word for "who" is "me", providing more than ample cause for much bilingual chaos. And then, when we added the next object, for some reason it became "moo," which, though completely nonsensical, added just enough to the linguistic confusion to tip us over into sheer hilarity.
When we tried to play the next game, Estray Bonajour, since this was largely a Hebrew-speaking group, and a very silly one, instead of trying to sing what I was singing (an almost impossible task, since I was singing nonsense words), they all decided to create their own gibberish. The game turned out to be very similar to a game they already knew, which we played immediately after. This was a wonderful moment for all of us, as is any opportunity that comes along when the students can teach the teacher. (We made the balls out of plastic grocery bags - a ubiquitous resource in Israel - following the traditional bag ball construction method.)
The third came shortly after we had all learned how to do the Frog of Enlightenupment and decided to try playing the theater game Three-Headed Oracle. In case you don't know Hebrew, when the three wise frogs answered the questions, the first said "I", the second "think" and the third had to decide how to actually answer the question.
from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith
This year, in a session organized by Yehudit Kotler and Bat-Shachar Weinfeld, I led two more sessions for laughter leaders form all over Israel. It seemed even more successful this time, as I was more aware of what kinds of games they were looking for. (Here's the complete list of the games I had prepared - we managed to play about 20% of them.) This time, part of both sessions was captured on tape by Gidon Sheran (discs showing highlights of both sessions are available for $10 each).
The first of the three games he captured was A What. Playing it in Hebrew, the word for "what" is "mah" and the word for "who" is "me", providing more than ample cause for much bilingual chaos. And then, when we added the next object, for some reason it became "moo," which, though completely nonsensical, added just enough to the linguistic confusion to tip us over into sheer hilarity.
When we tried to play the next game, Estray Bonajour, since this was largely a Hebrew-speaking group, and a very silly one, instead of trying to sing what I was singing (an almost impossible task, since I was singing nonsense words), they all decided to create their own gibberish. The game turned out to be very similar to a game they already knew, which we played immediately after. This was a wonderful moment for all of us, as is any opportunity that comes along when the students can teach the teacher. (We made the balls out of plastic grocery bags - a ubiquitous resource in Israel - following the traditional bag ball construction method.)
The third came shortly after we had all learned how to do the Frog of Enlightenupment and decided to try playing the theater game Three-Headed Oracle. In case you don't know Hebrew, when the three wise frogs answered the questions, the first said "I", the second "think" and the third had to decide how to actually answer the question.
from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith
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