Recording

Once again I have been involved with teaching English to junior high school students.  But this time I did not stand in front of the room and give a lecture.  Remember when I told the story about my “Guanxi” experience when I first arrived in Beibei?  Well because of that little adventure, I was given the opportunity to do some voice recording.  Students at a junior high school in the Beibei will be learning English in their classrooms to Diana’s (another English teacher from CSBSJU) voice and my voice.  The recording took about five hours total and we were able to record forty lessons in total (five tapes worth).

When we arrived at the studio on a Saturday and we pretty much immediately got to work.  I grabbed a cup of hot green tea to keep my mouth from drying out and then sat down in the recording room right in front of a microphone.  Reading in front of the microphone was very easy; I just had to speak slowly, clearly, and with emotion (try to make it sound more natural).  I did make a few mistakes every once and a while but overall I did a pretty good job I think.  At the end of the first day of recording we had finished twenty five of the lessons.  The next day we finished up the recording and experienced nothing new. 

When we finished the recording, I was finally able to listen to my voice; I don’t think anybody likes the sound of their own voice.  My voice sounds completely different when I am listening to it than when I am speaking.  But if the teachers at the junior high school thought that the sound of my voice was good enough that means my voice must be just fine.  Overall I had a very fun time and I was told that I might have the opportunity to do some more recording in future.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed.