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leeroy
Joined: 30 Jan 2003
Posts: 777
Location: London UK
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 Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 2:42 pm Post subject: Beer English |
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| dmb (in another thread about how to learn English) wrote: |
| i recommend going to a local pub. after a couple of beers inhibitions are gone and you don't care about making mistakes |
Exactly.
My business plan:
Open a "beer English" school. It's an open-plan type environment, where classes are areas of a bar - and the teacher is both a barman and a "language learning facilitator". (S)he stands behind the bar, and periodically serves drinks in-between preparing activities and/or demonstrating grammar, vocabulary, and the like...
Students lose their inhibitions after a couple of drinks and happily practise and experiment in English - this works in tandem with Krashen's affective filter.
The school can (perhaps) offer a deal whereby per class students get x number of free drinks, but after that they pay. It goes along with the Thornbury "dogme" way of thinking, and definitely falls under the CLT category. Additionally, you can have "word of the day" beer-mats and ash-trays with English idioms printed on the bottom. Most people would happily choose a gin and tonic over "Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate Unit 3" - and there's no reason why we can't make the exchange while realistically achieving our pedagogical objectives.
Most of my foreign language expertise (I know how to say "you are beautiful so will you sleep with me?" in several different languages) comes from an alcohol-assisted learning environment - and I would hazard a guess that this is true for many of us.
Naturally this wouldn't work in the Middle East as well as, say, London, but I think enough students worldwide would be up for it. And the teachers? Man, I'd do it for free. (It sometimes feels like I do already...) So why not - who's up for setting up a "beer-English" school? |
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leeroy
Joined: 30 Jan 2003
Posts: 777
Location: London UK
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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(Oh, and by the way, this was meant as a joke. Don't get all serious on me now, will you?  ) |
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biffinbridge
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 701
Location: Frank's Wild Years
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 3:03 pm Post subject: wow |
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| Great idea this beer English....when can I sign up?I'll pm dmb and tell him all about it. |
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shenyanggerry
Joined: 02 Nov 2003
Posts: 619
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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I do remember an American in Shenyang who at one time used to spend a couple of hours every Sunday afternoon in a bar teaching English conversation. He received 100 RMB plus all the beer he could drink.
All he was expected to do was participate in the conversation. No planning, texts, etc. Sounds like a dream job. |
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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My business plan for the future is to set up a school with a bar on the top floor. That way I can pay the teachers'salaries and after they can give me the money back in exchange for beer  |
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Shonai Ben
Joined: 15 Feb 2003
Posts: 617
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Teaching =beer money |
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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| So, how many beer tokens a month do you earn? |
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Lynn
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 696
Location: in between
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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When I was a student in Denmark, I suddenly became fluent when I was drunk. (I really did)
But when I got drunk in Japan, my Japanese totally went downhill...  |
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BethMac
Joined: 23 Dec 2003
Posts: 79
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Alcohol-assisted learning? I wonder if that would be more effective than a CALL class. |
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shmooj
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Lynn wrote: |
But when I got drunk in Japan, my Japanese totally went downhill... |
No Lynn... I would say that was a mark of fluency. All my students' Japanese goes totally downhill when they are drunk. |
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lajzar
Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Posts: 647
Location: Saitama-ken, Japan
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 3:59 am Post subject: |
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| Funny thing is, there is at least one bar in Nagoya that does actually provide English lessons. I agree it is a generally untapped (ahem) market though. |
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Roger
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Posts: 9138
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:43 am Post subject: |
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Odd as it sounds, this idea sounds terrific. I do thake this joke seriously - though I don't know what administrative hurdles a foreigner in China has to overcome to realise a project like this!
Maybe if you serve nonalcoholic beer you would get a licence as a school, but if you intend serving booze you would have to have extremely good connections to the boys at the PSB!
Otherwise you might be infringing on TSingtao's territory! |
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struelle
Joined: 16 May 2003
Posts: 2372
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:55 am Post subject: Re: wow |
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A great idea! Even talking about beer can help improve English! During the breaks of one of my classes today, a group of guys and myself spent a few minutes discussing various beer brands, flavors, and prices. As we were doing this, it just occured to me - what a great idea for a lesson plan!
Steve |
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Laura C
Joined: 14 Oct 2003
Posts: 211
Location: Saitama
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:58 am Post subject: |
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Absolutely right.
My French is still at 'beginner cr*p' level, but I find that after a bottle or two of that lovely Breton cider, I can parley voo the lingo rightly...
(and yes, I do know the correct spelling!)
L |
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schwa
Joined: 12 Oct 2003
Posts: 164
Location: yap
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| Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2004 12:09 am Post subject: |
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December meant end-of-semester pub trips with my adult classes, showed the truth of what youre saying. One-word whisperers in the classroom turned into chatterboxes.
Heres a fun quiz we did together beforehand: beer words in the US http://a4esl.org/q/h/9901/nr-beer.html |
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