English Class...

A funny thing happened in English class today...

Teaching conversational English is different from any teaching I've done. All other teaching involves explaining facts and concepts that the student has never before considered or heard. These people understand English grammer better than I do. How many of you remember what a past participle is? You are quite skilled at using it, and you do so all the time, but do you remember what it is?

The challenge of this class is not explaining the concepts. It's giving them an opportunity to use English in everyday conversation. Although they can read and right English very well, it seems to be a different area of the brain that carries on conversation. It is sometimes a struggle for them to pull the words out and express themselves. It's a little like me and clothes shopping. I see what other men wear and think, "I really like that combination." Then I go to the store and have no idea where to start.

Many times, it is difficult to understand each other even though we are both speaking English. This morning our lesson was on ordering food, and I was helping them pronounce "croissant". (No kidding Mama.) I helped them pronounce it correctly and then side tracked a bit explaining Crescent Rolls. I used crescent moon as an example and that's when one of the guys suddenly nodded happily. He tried to explain where he had read "crescent" before, but that's where communication broke down. The more he tried to say his English word the funnier it got. Finally, he just started singing, "duh duh...duh duh...duh duh duh duh...." I suddenly realized what it was and burst into laughter. He was doing the "Jaws" theme.

Music really is the universal language...