Contents
=> “Excuses” - writing activity
=> “Kevin at Age 4″ - vocabulary development exercise
=> Find the Russian Stuff - a fun little game
=> In the Next Issue

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Excuses - writing activity
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Everybody makes excuses, especially when we are late to class or haven’t done our homework. Here are some quotations about the idea of excuses from famous people:

* “An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded.” –Alexander Pope, English Poet

* “Bad excuses are worse than none.” –Thomas Fuller, English Churchman and historian.

* “We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.” –Rudyard Kipling, English writer.

* “The only excuse that really works is, ‘Gosh, I’m sorry, but I fell in love and had to get married.’” –I.M. Poosheesty, international troublemaker.

Perhaps you might read or dictate these sayings to students and discuss them. Then ask students why they don’t do homework sometimes or are late to class.

Excuses - Writing Activity
Here’s a really simple writing game. Why did you miss class? On a small scrap of people each student should write an excuse for missing class. These excuses must be original, and, creative. They don’t have to be true. Creativity, originality, and entertainment value will be the criteria on which the excuses are judged.

When students have written their funny excuses, a student or the teacher will read them out loud. Students will nominate the “best” (funniest) excuses.

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“Kevin at Age 4″ - a vocabulary development exercise
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In 1966 my father wrote a letter to his parents. Really. This is true. In it, he described Kevin this way:

“Kevin is (1)__________, (2)___________, (3)___________, (4)___________, and (5)____________, yet is completely (6)_____________.”

Naturally, I have removed the 6 adjectives. Look at the list below, and see if you can supply the adjectives that my dad used to describe me. The order of adjectives 1-5 is interchangeable.

1. devilish = resembling, or characteristic of a devil. (дьявольский)
2. docile = easily taught or managed. (послушный)
3. exasperating = making someone angry, impatient; irritating (раздражающий)
4. harmless = incapable of causing harm. (безвредный)
5. humane = characterized by kindness, mercy, or compassion (человечный?)
6. ornery having a difficult or contrary disposition (злобный, раздражительный, вспыльчивый)
7. recalcitrant = marked by stubborn resistance to and defiant of authority or guidance (непокорный)
8. sacrosanct = sacred and invioable. (священный)
9. truculent = inclined to fight; expressing bitter opposition. (свирепый)
10. winning = attractive, charming

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Find the Russian Stuff
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Kevin’s back in California after two years in Vladik. Here’s a photo of his work station where he writes and records music. Click here and look carefully at the photo. There are 10 Russian things in the picture. One of them is that red table cloth; that’s a Soviet Flag, but you would never know that. Can you find the other 9 Russian things?

Answers follow “Answers to ‘Kevin at Age 4.’”

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Answers to “Kevin at Age 4″
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Here is the complete passage:

“Kevin is recalcritrant, truculent, ornery, devilish, and exasperating, yet is completely winning. He was has gorgeous smile which he turns on and off like a faucet when he wants something.”

(My father has since changed his mind).

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Answers to “Find the Russian Stuff”
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1. Soviet flag (under notebook computer)

2. Bayan (Russian accordion, in rear), purchased in Samara

3. Khakasia T-shirt (center, rear), gift from the lovely people in Abakan

4. “60 Let Pobedy” poster celebrating WWII victory (left, rear). Appropriated from the halls of Northern International University in my beloved Magadan

5. Traditsiya CD (left, on recording machine). CD of tradional Russian music from Vladivostok, featuring FENU student Anna Kasyanova who sang with me at the American Corner once

6. 500 rouble note (left, behind Traditsiya CD). Nobody gave it to me. I earned that thing.

7. Matryoshka: sometimes called, in English, a Russian nesting doll (center, behind the pink rabbit). I bought that (actually bought a matryoshka!) in Kavelerovo, Primorsky Krai.

8. Painted wooden spoon (held by pink rabbit). A gift from Yulia Markushina from Samara.

9. Russian Woman Doll (in front of Bayan). Someone gave it to me, Volga Region. I forgot. I’m so sorry.

10. Three-legged wooden khomys cup (right, front). This cup comes from the Sakha Republic, a gift from Larisa Zolotoreva and the good folk at Yakutzk TESOL.

If anyone thought that the pink rabbit was Russian, well, he was born in China, but he was given to me by Ksenia in the village of Atlasovo, Kamchatka. Here’s a pic of Ksusha and her sister.

I love traveling in Russia.

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In the next issue
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August 20 (if possible, not making any excuses, but I might fall in love and get married): Jury Duty — a text on law

Copyright Kevin McCaughey & I.M. Poosheesty, 2005