ESL Reverie

Random Observations & Nonsense Musings of Some Old ESL Lady.

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

Ummm...

When you thought it was just a regular ass exercise you assigned, but now one student is crying and another student is pissed and doesn’t want to work with their group.  So an activity that was supposed to be one day, is now stretched to two.

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

👏👏👏

I teach an advanced communication skills course at my school in Koreatown.  The level of work from my students is so impressive!  Every time they do presentations I eat it up!  It’s so awesome to see students really take pride in their work.

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

When your students are bored... but you are too

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

We’re doing a unit in one of my masters ESL classes, that introduces political science, great speeches, debates etc.  The unit started out talking about power, influence, foreign policy and international cooperation.  They mentioned USA for Africa’s “We are the World.”  I asked the students if they knew the song and they were like, “The one with Fergie?”  So I decided to show the original video.  

I have never felt so old in my life!  LMAO  The only person they knew was Michael Jackson.  They were like “Who are all those people?”  SMH

Side Note:  I genuinely got choked up when Michael’s part came on.  I know we hear his songs everywhere, but I hadn’t watched footage of Michael from that era in quite some time.  RIP

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

Me:  Ok guys, get out your readers, let’s go over the chapters we read for homework.

Student:  Teacher, why you choose this book? It is very boring!  I only read 2 pages.

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

Classroom Gems

Me:  What makes you happy?

Student: “Food.  Always food teacher.  All food.  Big food, little food, all is delicious.  I cannot believe how much food is delicious, I dream food every day, this is why I fat, but life is good"

Couldn’t have said it better my self homie. 😍

[theyuniversity]

🔖 Source: Your Dictionary

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

English Language Phrases

I’ve become pretty good friends with one of my students.  She’s older, and a mum, and the same age as me.  We were hanging out the other day, and I used the phrase “Excuse my French,” right before I swore, as I was complaining about something that really annoys me.  She’s from France, and totes had the same look on her face that Busy has above. She was like “What the hell does that have to do with the French langauge?!” 😂

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

Air Quotes & ELLs

I have a 10 year old student, who frequently uses air quotes, when he’s telling me stories about what happened at school.  It’s the cutest thing ever.  I was really surprised that he knew how to use them correctly.  I asked him who taught him how to use them, and he just rolled his eyes like it was a regular ass thing.  😂 

[buzzfeed]

21 People Who Forgot A Word And Just Made Some Shit Up

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

It’s always so interesting to see what your brain comes up with when you forget the word for something!

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

Retronyms

Retronyms describe an original after a new version has shown up.  

coffee – regular, decaf, specialty? mail – email or snail? mother – biological, adoptive, or surrogate? oven – microwave, conventional, convection? restaurant – sit-down, take-out, fast-food? soap – bar, liquid, body wash, soft, gel? telephone – landline, cell, wireless? television – analog, digital, or HD? 

Taken from Daily Writing Tips

[teachinginreallife]

When a struggling student goes above and beyond expectations

I’m like:

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

Same

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

Stumped

I have a student right now who asks really good questions.  Questions that I totally don’t know the answer to, and have to research for our next lesson because no one has ever asked me that before.  She’s lovely and doesn’t seem to think it’s weird that I consistently make this face in response to her questions...

I guess we’re both learning new shit.  😂

[psych2go]

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

Great detail I would have loved to share with my kiddos when they just stare at you after you ask them questions.  

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

Why Are You Saying So Many Words?

So I’m back in America now.  It’s been a week.  I’ve conquered my jet lag and am attempting to unpack, but really don’t want to cuz it’s a tedious task. Unpacking is actually 10 times worse than packing.

The oddest thing about being back is noticing that  I really spent 2 years not engaging in that much day to day conversation.  Mostly because I didn’t speak the language.  This will seem like a lie to the people that actually know me, since I never shut up, but I’m not talking about having conversations with friends.  

I didn’t speak Japanese, so the regular day-to-day conversations that you would have walking down the street, cashing out at the supermarket, transactions at the bank, getting on the bus etc. never transpired.  Also, lets be honest, there weren’t that many people just dying to talk to this loudmouth foreigner. 😂

Of course I spoke at work all the time, but I’m currently noticing how much extra conversation I’m engaging in now that I get to speak a language I know.  It keeps catching me off guard when someone says something random to me. I’ve been trying to hide my look of suspicion, but I know my face betrays me. 😏

It’s definitely taking some getting used to after not having done it for so long.

Anyway, it’s nice to be home.

[willthatfitinmysuitcase]

I lied.

One more entry.

This pic was too cute not to post. 💕💕💕