"Teacherrrrrrrrrrrr"
“This is an apple tree, tree. Not a me, Tree, tree.”
At my desk, I have a bunch of pictures that students have given me over this year. One day, Tree came to see me in my office and while he was there, he was looking at and, asking me about all of the pictures on my desk. At the end of class, as I was leaving, Tree ran up to me and handed me a picture and said “This is an apple tree, tree. Not a me, Tree, tree.” Then as I was just about out the door, he yelled “for on your desk, teacher!”
“Namaste”
I have one student, Alex, who has started greeting me by putting his hands in prayer position, bowing his head and saying “Namaste, teacher” - no idea where he learned it.
“Mr. Bean! Mr. Bean! Mr. Bean!”
Because of some changes in schedules that have been happening lately, one of my classes was farther ahead than the rest of my classes, so, I told them that if they behaved really well through the last lesson we could watch some tv. They ended up doing super well (thank you, tv) so they got to watch an episode of Mr. Bean. They love Mr. Bean. The next Monday, when I walked into class, without missing a beat, the entire class started banging on their desks and chanting “Mr. Bean! Mr. Bean! Mr. Bean!”
"Weiguo Baby Laoshi Hao!"
(This one is from my kindergarteners.) They have zero English so most of our conversations consist of them intently saying the same thing over and over again in Chinese and me nodding, smiling and saying "I really have no idea what you're saying but you're very, very cute." However, one of the things I do understand is that they think my name is Baby. So, they call me "Baby Laoshi". They introduce me to their parents as "Baby" and when I walk into class they yell "Weiguo Baby Laoshi Hao." (Laoshi hao" is the greeting that students are supposed to give teachers when they see them) or "Hello foreign Baby teacher!" (Also, I don't want to toot my own horn but there are officially 45 Chinese 2 to 3 year olds living in Lin'an who can now sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes...but no big deal.)
Nexcuse me, may I come in?”
I was teaching my kids to say “excuse me, may I come in?” before they came into class or into the office and they all had some trouble making the right sounds to say “excuse me”. Most of them were saying things like “Exshuse me” or "Ecuse me” but one of my students kept saying “Nexcuse me.” The other mistakes were pretty easy to correct and after a few practices they were able to get it right but “Nexcuse me” has been a little bit harder to fix. No matter how many times he tries, it always comes out as "Nexcuxe me" but it's just so cute that I can't be mad when he sticks his head in the office window and yells “Nexcuse me, Baileya, may I come innnnnnn?”
“This is not blue. This is green. How do you say green in English?”
During our last testing, one of my questions was “is this blue?” The answer that they were supposed to give was “no, this is green.” The answer that one of my students gave me was “this is not blue. This is green” which would have been perfect except that he said it in Chinese and not English and followed his answer with “How do you say green in English, teacher?” (which was also in Chinese).
**In our Birthday Party unit, I made a birthday hat and a birthday present to use with our dialogues. I took one picture of some students at the "birthday party" and before I knew it they had all lined up to have their picture taken with the hat on and holding the present...."**
