Under The Sea

Today when I listened to my iPod, I heard a song that brought up my memory when I was a teacher in Malaysia. Never thought of I could be a teacher someday, although when I was little I always played the role as teacher when played with my little cousins. Before I came to US, I was a teacher for couple months. Since I was leaving soon, I did not want to stay too far away from home and therefore found a job close to my home and that job happened to be a teacher in a tutor center.

I remembered the owner of the center liked me very much and after a month working there, she asked me to have my own class. I was hesitating, knowing that I won't stay there for long. Then a friend of mine, Kian How, told me, "Don't think you are as important. After you gone, there surely will be somebody take over the class. So just go ahead and open the classes." Because of his words, I decided to open the classes and that decision became one of my sweetest memories. When I listened to this song "Under The Sea" today, I can't stop smiling because the happy faces of my ex students appeared in my mind.

My classes were not the ordinary tuition classes like elsewhere. In the two hours of English class, I utilized the first hour for the boring grammar and writing session while the second hour is the time to sing and play some games, like treasure hunt that they loved. My main intention is to encourage them to speak English in an interesting learning environment. I remembered I spent a whole week to stay up late just to find the lyrics of Disney cartoons' songs' lyrics. The hardest part is not finding the lyrics but the cartoon pictures that related to the songs. And I was very choosy. For example, I weren't choose the below picture because when I photocopy it to them, it would appear ugly black or gray picture.

I have to find the coloring version of the picture so that when I photocopy it to them, they can color it if they want to. Even if they leave it as it is, it would not turn out to be greyish ugly picture.

You can tell, I really loved what I did. And today, this cute song sang by "Sebastian" really stirred up the memory. Those students were aged between 7 and 12. Some of them are already in secondary school. I am not sure whether they still remember their "Teacher Teo", but I am quite sure they would remember this song. We were singing happily and they enjoyed the songs as much as I did. I just hope one day when they happened to listen to any of the songs we used to sing together, there would be a little smile appear on their cute, innocent faces. And I hope, you would enjoy this song as we do :)

P/S: The below lyrics in red color is the fastest and hardest part to sing. Guess what, my cute little students were all able to sing this part PERFECTLY! So, why not you give a shot and see whether you can do as good.

Under The Sea

The seaweed is always greener
In somebody else's lake
You dream about going up there
But that is a big mistake
Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?

Under the sea
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'
Under the sea

Down here all the fish is happy
As off through the waves they roll
The fish on the land ain't happy
They sad 'cause they in their bowl
But fish in the bowl is lucky
They in for a worser fate
One day when the boss get hungry
Guess who's gon' be on the plate

Under the sea
Under the sea
Nobody beat us
Fry us and eat us
In fricassee
We what the land folks loves to cook
Under the sea we off the hook
We got no troubles
Life is the bubbles

Under the sea
Under the sea
Since life is sweet here
We got the beat here
Naturally
Even the sturgeon an' the ray
They get the urge 'n' start to play
We got the spirit
You got to hear it
Under the sea

The newt play the flute
The carp play the harp
The plaice play the bass
And they soundin' sharp
The bass play the brass
The chub play the tub
The fluke is the duke of soul
(Yeah)
The ray he can play
The lings on the strings
The trout rockin' out
The blackfish she sings
The smelt and the sprat
They know where it's at
An' oh that blowfish blow

Under the sea
Under the sea
When the sardine
Begin the beguine
It's music to me
What do they got?
A lot of sand
We got a hot crustacean band
Each little clam here
know how to jam here
Under the sea
Each little slug here
Cuttin' a rug here
Under the sea
Each little snail here
Know how to wail here
That's why it's hotter
Under the water
Ya we in luck here
Down in the muck here
Under the sea