After some basic fact-finding Q&As, the manager of the school and her sole foreign teacher handed me a pile of food and drink flashcards (ice cream cone, slice of pizza, glass of OJ and the like) and asked me to demonstrate how I would "teach the difference between like and want".
Now call me a slacker and inexperienced despite my years in the "profession", but I must admit that I was a bit stumped (then again, what can anyone expect given zero preparation time? It's not like I don't usually prepare for my lessons!).
My initial reaction as I heaved myself up to do "something" (anything!) was that want is the far less appropriate or polite (at least in its probable relation to foodstuffs!) than like (and after a bit more thought, I think our wants are much "deeper" and not as easily or openly expressed as our likes). Anyway, in this context, I reckon like was by far the better thing to teach, why introduce want at all?!
I am sure we are all familiar with the "host offering refreshments to visitors" script:
H: Do you want/Would you like anything to eat/drink? (I have OJ, coke...or do you want a beer? etc).
V: Can I have... (?I'd like...; *I want...)
So, ultimately, I thought the demonstration question was more revealing of how my potential boss would teach it than how I would (or wouldn't) go about things. I could envisage the kind of lesson they wanted: me maniacally waving flashcards and shouting "I'm hungry! I like bananas! I want a/the (?) banana! NOW, dammit!!!". I won't presume to bore you with how exactly I winged my way through it before crash-landing (besides, I can't really remember much).

What do you guys make of this? Are we raising a whole tribe of pushy, direct little brats who just know what they want (or perhaps like) and who get it? Have I been teaching adults for too long? (I actually like teaching kids, but I am of the opinion that ironically, even less thought goes into what kind of English they should learn than with adult learners (if such a thing were possible). They are either treated like little adults, or taught stuff that will not serve them well when they are adults! It's not often that they are taught as if they were, well, just kids! Am I just being an*l about the language? Do English teachers have to simply get over their respect for/neuroses about the language to "successfully" "teach" kids especially?).
Can you, off the top of your heads (without rushing off for hours to pore over dictionaries etc), think of a lesson that would fruitfully (and appropriately) combine the two of those items, or would you only teach one of them at a time (or perhaps even add phrases like "Can I have...")?
Am I totally useless for not having got this "chesnut" (if that is indeed what it is) "down pat" by now? Or should I just "forget it" (not the question items themselves, but the question as a whole and why it was asked)?
