Sun 3 Dec 2006
Here is a song by an American who spent four years in Russia. He was impressed by the variety of ways in which places—shops, offices, and so on—could be closed in the middle of the day. So he wrote this song. Listen and read the text. One Russian word is missing at the end of each stanza.
You go to some café
you’ve been to many times before,
but it’s mysteriously empty and dark
You see bricks and dust on the floor
and a sign on the door.
It’s clear you won’t get the meal you want
That’s …You go to a store –
you just want some кагор
But they’ve locked the door
You see the clerks inside;
they don’t even try to hide
because on the window is written
a simple note:
That says…You got to the library and find
it’s not open at this time
But if they unlocked the doors,
people would track mud across the floors.
You see, it’s keeping us out that
keeps the place clean.
That’s what you call… You go to some office
to get a document signed.
Everyone’s eating cake and drinking wine.
One thing is for sure:
you won’t get your signature
Especially when it’s…You go to a shop
Guess what? The door is locked
You can’t see anyone inside
Are they doing important repairs?
How long will they be?
No idea, so you decide to leave
Because it’s…
Activities after you’ve listened to the song:
Group Questions
Work in groups of 3 or 4. Elect a secretary. That person will record key notes for each of the nine questions below. These key notes are the main responses by various members of the group to the questions. These notes will help in summarizing the discussion to the entire class later.
Take your time with these questions. They may offer lots to talk about.
1. What is your reaction to “The Closed Song?†Do you find it more or less true, or a very foreign view? Is it funny or offensive? Describe your feelings.
2. Do you think Americans care too much about business, about “making a buck?†Why or why not?
3. Do you think shop employees should stock and take inventory during business hours or when the shop is normally closed? Why? If you owned the shop, would you be worried about losing business by closing during the day?
4. How important do you think customer loyalty is to a business? Explain why or why not.
5. Should employees be loyal to their employers? For example, if you worked in a shop and there were no customers, what would you do? Read? Sleep? Sweep? Stock? What?
