Job Discussion Forums

[JPM]

Hi all

I'm a teacher in Krakow involved in a one-off tv show on foreign-language teaching and foreign teachers working in Poland.

Does anyone have any funny, strange or just downright weird classroom experiences you could share? Anything you like eg. student comments, behaviour, use of language etc. Can be funny or otherwise notable.

Cheers in advance!

[JPM]

OK, I'll start us off.

A couple of weeks into my first semester here I was trying to teach the word flirt to an upper-intermediate class (7 women, no men). My first explanation was met with shakes of the head and general blank faces. Hmm. I tried again, moving to sit next to one of the students and, as in a nightclub for example, asked her what her name was, would she like to dance, she's looking nice etc etc. Eventually, after about 5 minutes of this, the rotten students all looked at each other, smiled, turned round to me and said, in unison 'Same in Polish' (flirtować).

They had some fun and I learned about the sometimes surprising similarity of English and Polish (especially '-owac' verbs).

Anyone else?

[Richfilth]

Generally recapping the idea of phrasal verbs with a group of FCE students, and ask for a quick round-the-class example. The usual suspects; turn on, pick up, set out, until the final student, Tomasz, in a typical Polish deadpan voice, murmurs:

"Is good to say... *beep* off?"

[the new guy]

the usual "sex" for "six" mistake gets ppl laughing,

[simon_porter00]

Gap fill exercise:
Jim was climbing a mountain, he was exhausted when he reached the ....
Of course the answer is 'peak', yesterday one of my students said 'climax' which had me in fits.

[Blasphemer]

comparatives and superlatives ...

masculine vs. feminine

first one represented by a picture of Oscar de la Hoya in the ring... second one was a picture of Peewee Herman...

Eliciting the first one was pretty difficult and it did take some time... the second one.. first guess - "pu**y"

[Toad]

Last week describing the word 'oar' ...

maybe i should not have started with "It's long, hard and it gets wet when you use it..."

[Tracer]

Two of my students (man and woman) in an in company business class have it out for each other. It's been getting really bad lately. Everybody was feeling the tension one day. The woman student asked me to explain the word "jump." She's a very nervous person and prone to outbursts. I don't know what made me say it, maybe it was the tension, but I said . . .

"Jump! . . . Like, I'm going to jump over this table and kill you."

I pantomimed myself jumping over the table with a knife.

There was an awkward pause of a few seconds. "Sorry," I said and then the whole class just burst into laughter.

"Don't worry, 's normal in Poland" said the male student who had it out for the nervous woman.

Everybody got a big kick out of it.

[JPM]

Thanks, Tracer - that's a classic!

I've now got this image of my head of David Brent (The Office tv show) showing trainee teachers how to teach new vocabulary.

[Glenlivet]

Director of marketing for a large food company came to class early for some advice. Would it be better to describe his firm's coffee as "stimulating" or "arousing"? My advice was that the latter could start a new trend in coffee commercials.

[the new guy]

i had some teenagers last night....and somehow the conversation brought up the word "podrywacze". i was quite surprised- stopped for a moment, then the room broke out in laughter.

Now if you don't know what "podrywacze" is about... google it

[scottie1113]

Upper-intermediate teens. My favorite class. Great kids. Reading exercise. Boring, so I have them read some sections aloud individually to work on pronunciation and vocabulary.

J had a paragraph which included the word shed. She pronounced it shit. I tried hard not to smile, but the rest of the class broke out in laughter. For the next five minutes, whenever I made eye contact with O, we just cracked up, and so did everyone else. J was as red as a beet, but she laughed along with us.

J didn't make the same mistake again.

Intermediate adults. M has been seeing a guy from London and they talk on Skype a lot. Recently the weather in London was better than in Gdansk, and she was complaining about it. She told me he said not to feel bad because we have beautiful beaches here. When she told the story beaches came out bitches. Hmmm. Who's right?

[Glenlivet]

[scottie1113]

Today we were reading aloud again about films. One was set in Phu Ket, and you know how that came out.

[Mojoski]

I once had a class of four students - all Agnieszkas.

Those wonderful Polish vowels: In a class we were talking about newspapers and tabloids. (Fakt is the 'top' Polish tabloid, if you don't know.) The student (male, thankfully) stated, "I never get Fakt." I knew what 'Fakt' was, but when he said it that way, I got hit with the choking giggles for a couple of minutes.