Today some of the students in my public speaking course made presentations. They’re technically “extended presentations” which means they ran from 7-10 minutes each. 4 people presented and we only managed 4 speeches plus some announcements by me at the beginning of class. (We’re supposed to fit in 11 more next class, plus a short Powerpoint Presentation… I’m dubious, but luckily, many other profs will be canceling class on Wednesday.)

Anyway, the funniest line of any speech was as follows:

“Guys, a blind date is like a war: it’s a kind of battlefield, I mean.”

I had an interesting time trying to explain to the student afterwards that while I wasn’t calling him a liar, that I did think his advice did imply that a certain degree of dishonesty is useful in snagging a girlfriend; a sample of said advice which particularly surprised me was, “When the woman asks what your hobbies are, don’t tell her your real hobbies, tell her things that women are interested in, like snowboarding or going for a drive.” He was, at least, forthcoming about the fact that his advice isn’t the best if you’re searching for love; for that, he said, following his advice doesn’t help much at all. But in case of emergency… Anyway, it was amusing.

Other presentations included a fan’s discussion of his favorite Korean pop star (Uhm Jung Hwa), and in-depth looks at Korean traditional percussion and ham radio operation. I have no idea about what other students will be presenting about on Wednesday: it’s all going to come as one big surprise.