Die – uh – re – uh

Just a quick clip from the classroom:

This week were talking about “body” and specifically sicknesses. Describing what the words are in English to express, “upset stomach” or “nauseous” or “sore throat” and even things like “hangover” and “twisted ankle.” All important phrases they needs to know when they “go to the doctor” instead of “go to the hospital.”

I had the joy of introducing them to a few words that they use all of the time or need to use but won’t find in a book anywhere. From the title of this blog you can guess it “diarrhea” was one of them. “Snot” was another one as we discussed having a cold.

Last but not least led my male classmates to plug their ears and two of my teammates to show up 10 minutes before my class to “observe” what I was teaching them after I told them the story the night before

Is it slightly awkward for me to teach to my 27 girls and 1 guy in this class? Yes. But if I don’t teach them how to say it… who will? It’s one of those things they have to talk about (even if it’s with other girls, but it’s not going to be in any book or translate very well.)

So I briefly stated, “Girls… once a month there is something that happens only for girls…” I paused to let that translate. “Oh!” The students who had better English turned red first and laughed the hardest. Others slowly caught on and decided to look down at their paper as they couldn’t control their laughter. I explained “’it’s that time of the month’ means that same thing. This is the best way to describe it. If you say this, everyone will know what you’re talking about.”

The first class did well…except for Bonnie.  Bonnie’s English is pretty low and she often forgets to speak in English in class, so when she got it she jumped with excitement then yells it in Chinese over the class… well, there goes saving face. 

Another adventure in China…

After seeing this picture, I realized I need to clean up my handwriting on the board.
It's not usually this bad, I promise.
Plus "have a rest" and "take a rest" are Chinglish phrases we were about to talk about.
I'm not intentionally teaching Chinglish. :)