Obviously ritual was an important teaching method.
She demonstrated a burp, explaining that it was what one often did after eating a satisfying meal.
Tables under umbrellas were set on a patio between the new building and the old brown wooden buildings that used to be Betsy Ross High School for girls.
We were a few minutes late to her class, having stopped to pay our respects to Harlan Barbanell, the principal. From him I learned that Evans is the largest community adult school in the United States; it holds classes from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; its students come from 80 countries; 60% are Hispanic, 33% Asian; 80% have been here less than two years; 2,000 are in the high school diploma program.
A Korean student answered, Yes.
One young man admitted that he whistled at women. But its like a joke, he explained.
Everyone coughed, most covering their mouths with a hand. Planaria explained that it was proper to cover the mouth when coughing.
Women and men? Or just men? If I burped would it be good?
I sat at the back of a class the other day at Evans Community Adult School, where 8,000 students--mostly from Asia and the Latin countries--are learnevans schooladulting English.
You mention Evans to most people in L.A., he said, they havent heard of it. In Shanghai, theyve heard of Evans. People get off the plane at LAX and come here with their suitcases to enroll even before theyve found a place to live.
Planaria said she thought that was hardly equality of the es.
Snoring, everyone agreed, was OK, because you couldnt help it.
Planarias students were waiting for her--more than 40 of them. They seemed full of youthful high spirits, but polite and eager to begin.
Yesterday after Planaria gave some new students welcome to class, we had an interesting test which resulted in drawing a pretty hat.
In English we have a nice little conversation when you go to parties. I sneeze and I say Excuse me, and he says \o7 Gesundheit\f7 , and I say, Thank you, anSchool days at Evans Community Adult School, where one learns to cough in American English evans schooladultd he says, Youre welcome. She wrote \o7 Gesundheit\f7 on her blackboard, explaining that it was a German word brought to this country by German immigrants.
Good morning! Planaria said.
Planaria said he ought not to whistle at women.
A huge mural in the lobby of the new building shows young people in the native dress of every nation dancing arm in arm. It was painted by Wei Li Wang, Barbanell said. He turned out to be the Norman Rockwell of China. He worked 900 hours on that, and I finally got him $900 for it.
Then Planaria Price invited me to attend her class. Planaria is the young woman who lives in a Victorian house on Carroll Avenue and owns the nearby Eastlake Inn, a Victorian bed-and-breakst house at 1442 Kellam Avenue.
A young man who had been named secretary for the previous days class read his minutes:
All the time?
School days at Evans Community Adult School, where one learns to cough in American English evans schooladult,For years I had driven past the school at Figueroa Street and Sunset Boulevard, seen the crowds of young people on the sidewalks waiting to cross the street, and sensed that something important was happening there.
No. Bad.
She went through clapping, stomach growls, spitting, snapping ones fingers at waitresses, snoring and whistling at women.
In some countries its considered good to burp, she said. In Korea is it all right to burp?
Today, Planaria said, they were going to do some more body language.
Everyone seemed to be having fun. They were attentive, responsive, cheerful and bright. They seemed to be opening, like flowers.
I had seen the new three-story building erected at the corner--white with bright red trim, modern, blocky, with long bay windows on the upper floors.
With eating.
Everyone sneezed. Planaria explained that it was polite to cover ones mouth when sneezing, and to excuse oneself.
I had also had tea with Planaria at Eastlake Inn, a charming old house she has restored to its quaint Victorian elegance.
Will everyone cough for me in American English?
Good morning, class. My name is Harold Gale and I come from Nicaragua.
Its impolite, Planaria said, only when you snore in my class.
Then we kept on talking about body language, which is gestures and noises we do with our hands, eyes, ces and our whole body to communicate our feelings depending on each circumstance and culture.
Planarias classroom was on the third floor of the new building. One of the floors picture windows looked out on the downtown skyline. The other looked out on the crowded hills above Chinatown.
How are you today?
Finally, we were matching the body language with the vocabulary words, like cough, yawn and sneeze.
In some countries, she explained, burping means you have enjoyed your meal. In some countries its considered rude. In the United States it is considered very impolite to burp.
She sneezed. Everyone sneeze, she said. One, two, three--go!
Fine!
Good morning! the class responded.
Planarias daughter, Euphronia, was the subject of one of the two most mous sentences I have ever written. Euphronias leg was in a cast at the time I visited their house, and I described her as an 8-year-old girl with a broken leg named Euphronia.
Now if I go to a party and sneeze and some young Korean says \o7 Gesundheit\f7 , Im going to know hes in Planarias class.
When the class ended everybody left yawning over and over and over. . . .