Job Discussion Forums

[soapdodger]

As the holiday season approaches ( except for those unlucky enough to be going to a language stalag in the UK!!) perhaps there's room for a bit of a giggle at some of the problems and mistakes our students and friends have had when dealing with real English.

One of my all-time favourites is a student of mine who was also a state-school teacher of English and could see the funny side of her error. A few years before telling me this one she had been in the US as an au pair, and at one point was employed by a family with a farm. One day they went somewhere, leaving her and the dog, and instructions that if the dog was any trouble she should put it in the pickup. After the family had got back, the father asked where the dog was, and my student said it had been barking alot, so she'd put it in the pickup as instructed. A few minutes later the father came back in from outside and said that the dog wan't in the pickup. My student insisted that it was, and after a few minutes of argument took him out to show him that it was, in fact ,exactly where she had been told to put it ....in the mailbox. Well, it's where I pick the mail up from.........!!!!!

A few weeks ago we took the kids to the local McDonalds ( not a regular event as you'll soon see). They had Happy (?) Meals with cheeseburgers and cola, I had a burger and my wife didn't have anything but ended up finishing off the kids' meals as they played with their toys. Having taken a bite out of one of the burgers, she looked at it kind of perplexed and said "There's meat in this..." "Er, what did you expect?" I asked warily. "Well, it's a cheeseburger" she replied...

Someone must have better ones than that !!!!