Kelley
So as I was job hunting, both this year and last year, I noticed that most international or bilingual schools require their employees to be native English speakers, or at least have that level of fluency. At the particular school I am at, this is not the case. It has definitely made for some interesting encounters with coworkers who speak zero English. Even among the ones who do speak English, few speak it well. Unfortunately, the English teachers are among these. So these kids are learning English from someone who speaks really awful English.

This causes problems when a student says something incorrectly and I correct them. Because they have been taught (sometimes for years already) that the way they are saying it is correct. And whenever I correct them, they act like I am trying to trick them...like "hahaha, I taught these kids how to sound stupid!" or something. So it is generally a fight to convince students that I know my language a little better than them, and I really want to help them at least sound intelligent. For example, you don't ask "When we are going to recess?"...you ask "When are we going to recess?" That took a good month before they finally believed me.

This morning, the biology teacher came in to talk to Gabrielle and I. He was talking about lizards with webbed necks, and that kind of transitioned into Turner syndrome (one of the manifestations of this disease is a webbed neck). He kept referring to the webbed neck as an enlarged cervical membrane. And he wouldn't believe Gabrielle or I when we said that the cervical membrane does not refer to extra skin on your neck. It literally took 15 minutes and the help of Google before he believed that the cervical membrane refers to special lady parts.

sucker. I can't believe he fell for that...
3 Responses

  1. Sarah D Says:

    For the record, that is my FAVORITE quote from that movie! :)


  2. Kelley Says:

    heehee. shara, that is my favorite line, too!! also the part about stress...eet's a keeler.


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