Job Discussion Forums

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

I bumped into an old student last night-from about 4 years ago. He started talking about old classmates and one particular lesson. What I call the F*** lesson. A bit of background. I`had been teaching the class for about 6 months four times a week. There were ten lads in the class all in their 20s and we had a good rapport talking about laddish things- football and women. Anyway one day I decided to do a vocab lesson around the word F*** and various idioms and phrasal verbs containing it. Obviously they had all heard the word before but they couldn't use it. What do reckon. What is your opinion of swearing in the classroom. I think swearing is an integral part of language and if the students want to learn it we should teach it.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

When you say religion, what do you mean? Do you mean things like 'oh my God'? If so is that really swearing. Dave doesn't beep it.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Doesn't Dave supercede Swan

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

The last post was courtesy of the one and only Entrailicus Wink

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

I think swearing is integral to English. Perhaps it isn't neccessary for them to produce it, but if they want to understand us in everyday conversation, they need to know the patterns of swearing in our speech (like you can say abso--f**ing--lutely but not ab--f**ing--solutely) and what the words mean (like b*tch in English has more of a meaning of shrewish woman than wh*re). In America I had the pleasure of teaching a 'American Slang and Swearing' elective to pre-MA Japanese and Koreans, and it was hilarious. There's nothing like a timid Japanese girl raising her hand to offer 'I gotta git with my homies and score some f***in' scrill before I get down and nasty with my boo.'

Also, the more comfortable I get with my students, the harder it is for me not to swear. I say 'Jesus Christ' a lot in class when I'm mad and frustrated, and I can't find a really good alternative to bullsh*t that means both sa�ma and 'you're trying to tell me a really stupid lie about why you didn't do your homework' or 'you're trying to act smart to seem better than you are'... Proud to say most my students could use bullsh*t properly in a variety of contexts by the end of the year, though I had a hard time trying to make them stop using it in their papers...

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

I think that is one of the problems with swear words. Once they learn them they tend to overuse them. It's a bit like elem. students when they come across the present perfect for the first time. The simple past goes out the window.(or is that just my students?)

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

Nope, they all do that, especially when they're nervous. Maybe they think it's like an extra-super nice for formal situations tense. It's like when every personal pronoun becomes 'she' and 'her' when they're nervous. How about teaching passive in pre-int, and simple past becomes 'was go' and 'was went'?

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

I had to make a ban on bigotry during a unit about conspiracy theories, and they wouldn't shut up about the Jewish Conspiracy in 9/11...

Some students were visibly surprised when I told them Jews are just normal people who don't have tails or horns...

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

There were articles in the Arab press that the Tsunami was caused by Jews and Americans.

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

Yes, well, we do have amazing superpowers. The lamer of the 2 Wonder Twins gets out of her cage sometimes.

Isn't overestimating your enemy as bad as underestimating him? I saw that in a Jet Li film.

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

calsimsek · Joined: 15 Jul 2004 Posts: 775 Location: Ist Turkey

I don't let any student get away with racist comments. Mad

The problem is that alot of the young guys think its ok to say ni**g*r, I have to tell what it means, its the same with Gauvr, this really gets my back up. They don't know what the word means and they don't even know that it is a sin to call anyone a gauvr. Evil or Very Mad

In general most Turks are better than most of my best friends back home.

One mate who came down to the city ( I'm really from a small town not Melb) said ' God look at all the wogs around the place' when I told him to remember that I was no w.a.s.p and just as much a wog my friend said I was one of then. Embarassed

I never felt like belonging again.

Otterman Ollie · Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 1:26 pm Post subject:

Well heres something worth resonding to ,makes a nice change from the football and eastenders,Swearing in class, to my eternal shame, is something I have done in the past . It usually happens when I'm pretty angry,frustrated,hot and tired,or a combination of all three. After a little outburst I have total silence and the poor suffering kids think I have just grown another head . Now why on earth should I teach them to use that kind of language ?
No doubt the op thought because they are more than likely to use it anyway lets show them how to cuss correctly,sorry mate ,that doesn't really follow your job description does it ?
The kids will at some point pass on a little gem of information to a parent or a supervisor where you work that you give lessons on how to use the F word ,thats gonna look good on the old cv I think not, at my place you would very soon find yourself out of a job .
At the very least you diminish yourself as a teacher and tar the rest of us as well in a negative light,we all fell the need to do at some time or another ,bringing it into the classroom is a mistake .