Tuesday, April 11, 2006

For the Chinese speakers all two of you

So one of my students rather than writing a 50 word composition about a bad day instead put it through an online translator. Here are a couple of my favorite gems
Early morning studies by oneself 早上自習
to forget the belt! 忘記帶

Also I've been having a long term discussion with Nien about whether or not the Chinese language allows for sarcasm. Anyway, my new class clowns are two 8th grade boys called Ken and Jerry. Ken's speaking is a bit better, and he has a real gift for idiom. However, Jerry is just as smart. His speaking is not as good as his writing, but he works a lot harder and is much more careful.

One time Ken was trying to tell me something. But he couldn't think of how to say it. 然後他跟Jerry說: "什麽什麽英文怎麽講?”Jerry 回答“不知道。教我。” At that point, Ken hit Jerry.

Some of the greatest hits of Ken and Jerry also include the time that Jerry came to class and kept saying "Shift!" when he meant something else.

The day when I was teaching the phrase "I see." which I explained by saying, "When you say, I know, you mean, I see." at which point Jerry said, "Oh, I know."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

they sound like good kids.

-Michelle

Amy said...

hee, first thing to cross my mind was ben & jerry's ice cream when you mentioned these 2 students of yours