Singh Song! Starter (5/10 mins) Write a list of words associated with each item you see. Starter (5/10 mins) Write a list of words associated with each item you see. Challenge What or who the poem might be about, and where it might be set. Write 2/3 sentences. Learning objective: to explore the context of a poem.

Corner shop Task You have two minutes to create a spider diagram of all the associations you bring to the term corner shop - all ideas and thoughts are interesting. Challenge Now write 2/3 sentences on your ideas and emotions if asked to ‘imagine working in a corner shop’.

baby bananas bars beaches bread bride brightey cat chapatti charge cheese chocolate chutney colours concrete-cool cost crew cut cry cum daddy daddy’s dat date dem den di dirty dis donkey-jacket down drunk effing eyes fun girls ground gun half- price head heel hour Indian late lemons limes lover luv meat midnight milk moon mop mouse mum night ov pinching pinnie plantain playing point precinct price priceless pumps punjabi putney red return road rowing run sari share shop shoppers shops signs Sikh silver Singh squeak stairs stale stare stock stumble sweeties tap tartan teddy tickle tings tiny tummy UK ven vid vife wear web whispering wid window worst yoo yor Word sort: ‘Singh Song!’ This is a ‘collapsed’ version of the poem. These words provide the meaning of the poem. Task (10/15 mins) Sort the words into categories – words that relate to each other in some way, through meaning. Invent your own groupings and categories and find your own associations: for example, colour or movement words. (You don’t have to use all of the words – aim to have at least 6 in each of your columns.) Task (10/15 mins) Sort the words into categories – words that relate to each other in some way, through meaning. Invent your own groupings and categories and find your own associations: for example, colour or movement words. (You don’t have to use all of the words – aim to have at least 6 in each of your columns.) Challenge Make a list of the slang/dialect words. Which of these are important, in your opinion? Challenge Make a list of the slang/dialect words. Which of these are important, in your opinion?

This foregrounding of unheard or rarely heard voices is one of Nagra’s key ambitions, and he often uses a hybrid, accented language which imitates the English spoken by Indian immigrants whose first language is Punjabi, sometimes called ‘Punglish’. ‘Singh Song!’ is, like many of his monologues, concerned with the themes of racism, belonging, alienation and assimilation, but in some ways it is also a romantic urban love poem. Nagra’s humorous verse plots the passionate sensuality of the shopkeeper and his wife against the ‘concrete-cool’ precinct setting, where they ‘stare past di half-price window signs’ and look at the moon. Context: Daljit Nagra and ‘Singh Song!’ The bittersweet story of the carefree, careless shopkeeper in ‘Singh Song!’ is told in the first person through a carefully crafted idiolect. At first glance, the voice appears almost comically imitative, like a Goodness Gracious Me parody, but closer reading reveals its subtlety – more of a celebration of this distinctive speech, than a simple stereotype.

baby bananas bars beaches bread bride brightey cat chapatti charge cheese chocolate chutney colours concrete-cool cost crew cut cry cum daddy daddy’s dat date dem den di dirty dis donkey-jacket down drunk effing eyes fun girls ground gun half- price head heel hour Indian late lemons limes lover luv meat midnight milk moon mop mouse mum night ov pinching pinnie plantain playing point precinct price priceless pumps punjabi putney red return road rowing run sari share shop shoppers shops signs Sikh silver Singh squeak stairs stale stare stock stumble sweeties tap tartan teddy tickle tings tiny tummy UK ven vid vife wear web whispering wid window worst yoo yor Word sort: ‘Singh Song!’ This is a ‘collapsed’ version of the poem. These words provide the meaning of the poem. Task (10/15 mins) Sort the words into categories – words that relate to each other in some way, through meaning. Invent your own groupings and categories and find your own associations: for example, colour or movement words. Task (10/15 mins) Sort the words into categories – words that relate to each other in some way, through meaning. Invent your own groupings and categories and find your own associations: for example, colour or movement words.

Task (5/10 mins) In ‘Singh Song!’, the speaker mentions nine things about his bride. Rank her features 1– 9, where the most unorthodox characteristic is 1 and the least unorthodox is 9. Orthodox: Following or conforming to the traditional or generally accepted rules or beliefs.

‘Singh Song!’ would work well as a performed poem. Task (10/15) mins Get into pairs and work on performing the events in one of the stanzas aim devise the scene and emphasise interesting ideas. Listen to Daljit Nagra reading the poem