ADVENTURES IN LANGUAGE LEARNING.....AND TEACHING

This morning I was trying to help my students grasp that Zacharias and Sarah were quite mature when they were told they'd have a son so that they could understand why he didn't believe when the angel told him the good news.

The student sitting next to me is the one who used to leapfrog across the carpet and make noises. I was just telling his mum how much he's matured in just the past month in regards to not constantly having to be reminded not to distract others or pay more attention in class. Well.......he was paying attention today!

As I explained that Zacharias was old I said it in a feeble voice and shook my body a bit, trying to convey the concept to those English language learners. This student looked up at me and asked, "cold?" Almost as if he was thinking, "I know that story, I don't remember anyone being cold in that story." My helper was with me today and once again, we just started cracking up because clearly my voice and action also equally conveyed a person who is cold! So I had to backtrack and do more background to make sure everyone understood that I meant "old".

Moments later as I continued with the account I mentioned that the people outside the temple were scared, hugging my body and shaking. As an afterthought, I quickly looked at him and clearly enunciated, "Scared NOT cold". He smiled sheepishly. I think the kid's got a sense of humor too!

-------------------
On my way home on the bus today my principal sneezed. I'm always looking for opportunities to practice the local language so I remembered that I was to reply "very/much life" which is the local equivalent to the English "God Bless you" or Spanish "to your health" and pretty much means "may you live long".

Well, a few seconds after I said it she pointed out that I'd said "very slow" instead. We had a good laugh about it and after all, she knew what I meant, but I'm glad it was another Westerner I said it to. I'd have been somewhat embarrassed if it were a local......

--------------
During my language time tonight while we were eating dinner and talking about how to make some of the dishes my helper's husband walked in and I was trying to ask if he was a cook. She'd just used and taught me the word but I said it wrong and instead of asking if he was a cook I asked if he was a hot and annoying bother to her! They thought that was funny. The thing is the word cook (as a noun) is different from the word cook (as a verb) so even if I'd pronounced it properly I'd have been wrong anyway.