Pages

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Word up

Being an ESL teacher, one hears all kinds of interesting interpretations of the English language. Thankfully my students are adults, so correcting misinformation is a little easier most of the time. But I do hear some funny things!

On a test: the correct answer to the question was: Being a police officer is more dangerous than being a teacher.

The most common answer given by students: A police officer is more dangerous than a teacher.

(Which may or may not be true, depending on who has the Taser, but that's another story!)

In class: "Teacher, why did my friend tell me it isn't correct to say 'I knocked up your door'?" (Well, there is the problem of splinters!)

During a shopping role play exercise, practicing expressions for refunds and exchanges: two students (women) have chosen to use a pet store for their practice. They have gone through meerkats, puppies, cats, and birds, when I overhear this exchange: "I'd like to exchange my beaver. It isn't friendly."

When I discreetly explained the idiomatic use of that particular word, they blushed beet red...and went back to the same example, giggling madly while the rest of the class kept asking "What? What?!"

I told them to ask the students in question, after class.

8 comments:

Sarah, Grand-Dutchess of Serendipity said...

So glad you are being so thourough in your educating practices....

Sarah, Grand-Dutchess of Serendipity said...

and yes I know I spelled that wrongly...

Sarah, Grand-Dutchess of Serendipity said...

and gramaticized that errorifically....

(formerly) no-blog-rachel said...

oh DAMN that's funny. I'm still cackling!

Jelaina said...

I've got some beaver here to exchange.. uh.. it's *very* friendly... heh heh heh..

Barb Matijevich said...

"Don't Tase me, Bro!"

I waited a long time to be able to sue that line.

How sad is my life.

Barb Matijevich said...

Um, I meant USE that line.

So, how did you get the FSM icon on your blog?

And you actually DID know I had two orange beasts, because you've commented on it before. You just forgot. Gosh, I love those cats. I'm never getting another color of cat again.

Anonymous said...

that's awesome!! I wish some would knock up my door!