Conversations with my Students (10)

BTW, this is not that group

Years ago, I had this group to whom I had to teach Basic English. One day I had prepared a multiple-choice quiz the day before and told my students to study hard. Most of them did, but one did not completely.
T: Ok class, please begin.
(after a little while...) 
R: Mister, excuse me.
T: Please R, don't call me mister. And what do you need?
R: Mister...eh...teacher. La número tres está difícil. (Number three is hard)
I took a look. In this exercise all they had to do was to respond to the phrase Thank you! and they were given three choices ... 
a. See you
b. You're welcome.
c. Fine, thanks.
d. Hello there.
As you can see it couldn´t be simpler.
T: But if it is the easiest in this quiz.
R: Mister, no sé, de veras, creo que tengo un bloqueo mental. (Mister, I don't know, really, I think I have a mental block).
T: I'm sorry, R. I cannot help you. It's a quiz and you should do it without my help.
R: Mister, it's the last...
T: No, sorry, no.
For a while R was silent. She looked at the question and then she looked anywhere else looking for the answer without being able to find it. Then all of a sudden, she smiled. She waited for me to be nearby and "accidentally" she dropped her pen. Since I am such a gentleman  I picked the pen and gave it back to her.  
R: Thank you, teacher!
T: You're welcome, R.
And she gave me the test with the right answer.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading...
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more