In The Same Boat
Jun 04, 2008 | Chinese life, teaching teenagersI gave one of my classes a lesson on idioms, as part of my ongoing guest to eliminate certain abused phrases (like overuse of what a pity or using not at all as a response to thank you) from my students’ English. I gave them a handout with a list of idioms and some example sentences using those idioms, and we talked about the literal meaning and the figurative meaning. Then I asked my students to write a short dialogue using one of the idioms we’d discussed.
Most of the students made minor changes to my example sentences, but one group of usually unmotivated boys really stood out from the crowd.
Tracy: Hello. Bill is the president and David is the mayor.
David: Hi Bill.
Bill: Hi David.
David: Haha! I have just embezzled 1 billion dollars!
Bill: Now I know your secret! You must give me half of the money!
David: You have stolen from the embezzler, we are in the same boat now.
This is exactly why I love teenage classes.
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June 5th, 2008 at 1:40 am
awesome!
June 5th, 2008 at 7:07 am
a bit disturbing that they know “embezzle” and not things like “hurry up”…
June 5th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Yeah, I also wondered why they knew words like embezzle. I know none of my students ever did. I think your students are corrupt. Heh.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:27 am
sounds like overuse of dictionaries to me, but a funny skit at the end
June 10th, 2008 at 5:18 am
At least they’re not cutting off their noses to spite their faces or barking up the wrong tree…
