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Bizarro Moments In TEFL Situations
Do you ever have a moment where you just have to shake your head and wonder how you got there? Here are two of mine…
- Being asked by a Franciscan brother if I had a boyfriend
I taught multi-lingual groups in Chicago for a bit, and one of them included a very charismatic European student who introduced himself as a Franciscan brother. I don’t know much about Franciscan brothers, but he sure didn’t look like I expected one to look. He didn’t wear robes, and he had long hair which he wore in dreadlocks. In fact though, he was asking jokingly on behalf of another student, who actually already had a future wife arranged. - Going to a Korean factory in rural Eastern Europe
A boss gave me about 24 hours notice that I would be accompanying him there to make an offer to teach some classes. Whether or not I was actually bound by my contract to go was hazy, but he was my boss and I went. There was a massive room of local workers at desks which looked like something out of “1984”, and a great company portrait with a team of Korean employers…and a few token locals in very traditional (ie from the middle ages) local dress. Our bags were searched on the way out, to make sure we were not walking away with company secrets or something.
So these were weird when they happened, and I do have one more up my sleeve on the way. But have you got any that can beat this?
By Katie | Permalink |
4 comments | September 4th, 2007 | Trackback
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Ha, crazy students! I had a guy ask for the meaning of “skinny dipping” in the very first class.
I once had a Russian student who asked for an explanation of the difference between “male”, “female” and “email”…
Another good one…maybe we can get a list together after a few more!
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I think the questions are the weirdest. I certainly fielded a lot of odd comments from children like this one:
“Miss T. you look a lot like my mother.”
I responded, “Really? How so?”
His answer, “You’re both fat.” Humphf.
Another serious adult student in Madrid who thought much more of British English than American would watch films and ask me for translations. “What does ‘wan-kerrr’ mean?”
I gave him the denotative and connotative definitions.