Wow. Last time I posted was Friday the 13th! I guess it's time to post something new. I don't have much to report. It's been crazy busy as usual.
Oh, I had a conversation with a student about euthanasia, and it really made me curious about just how much students (whose first language isn't English) actually absorb and understand when they are listening to people speaking English. I wanted to see just how much they actually comprehend.
We were discussing reasons why people would be either pro or anti euthanasia. I tried to be neutral and not divulge my own personal feelings on the topic. The student was really upset to hear that people would be against euthanasia and said, "I can't believe people are so racist!"
I was surprised and puzzled, so I asked, "What do you mean?". The student said, "Why don't people like young people from Asia?!?!?!"
I was a little confused and then realized the student misunderstood and thought it was 'youth in Asia' and not euthanasia. After explaining the definition, we both realized that the student didn't understand. It's interesting to see how much my students really understand though.
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Ahahaha! Students do say the darndest things.
I had a similar experience with my Spanish intern. (*Please note here that Spaniards do not normally pronounce the letter "J" as Americans do. E.g., 'Joaquin' is pronounced as 'wa-kin'; 'Jorge' is 'hor-hey'; 'jueves' is 'huwebes'; etc.)
So, we were walking in a busy mall when I started asking her about her daily routine. She told me, and then reciprocated by asking me what I do in the mornings before going to work. I said, "I do some jogging." She was super impressed, exclaiming "You do yogging?! All by yourself??" I thought, "Yogging?? Hell, she's impressed with my yogging?" So, we go back and forth on how impressed she was that I do my own yogging, and how she wants to learn yogging from me... Finally, finally, stupid stupid me figured it out. I mimed a jogger in action by JOGGING in place. And then it hit her, too. "Jogging" is quite different from "Yoga" which I understood to be "Yogging." Mierda.
HAHAHAHA! Kim, that's hilarious! When I was in Toronto, I had a lot of Spanish speaking students (from Mexico, Venezuela, etc). My mom's family speaks tagalog and Spanish, so I know about the "J" sounds. One day, I was on MSN Messenger with a Mexican student, and I think I said something funny. She typed: "JAJAJA!" and I was like, what the heck is JAJAJA? A few moments later, we were in hysterics...seriously, I was crying because it was so funny. JAJAJA is the same sound as HAHAHA! LOL! *sigh* Language and communication just amaze me sometimes!
oy Chrissy- your post brings so many memories back for me of times when my students or foreign friends misunderstood me...one time i asked a friend if she was "at his condo" and my FF thought i said "did you use a condom" which caused a huge fight between us...oh and that JAJAJA thing happened to me too!!
Oh, Dina!!! I REMEMBER that conversation you had about the condo/condom! LOL!!!! It's funny how we can take communication and language for granted sometimes! :) It makes for some funny stories later on though!