Today has been a bit of a long day. I marked some papers from a lesson on travelling. The task was to fill in the blanks of a model dialogue I had written where two people are debating where to go this summer (surreptitiously attempting to get the kids to express their own opinion), so each says a reason why their destination should be chosen and a reason why their partners shouldn't.
"I would like to go to Brazil because I want to buy coffee beans."
"I would like to go to France because I like eating pasta."
"New Zealand is too far, let's go to the USA."
"England is too cold, let's go to New Zealand. We can watch rugby matches."
"How about Mongolia? The culture is amazing and we can see the stars."
There were, of course, some wonderful answers, but the stranger ones have naturally made it to this blog.
After school I held my weekly English club with the students I adore. Next week is the exam so they wanted to study, choosing the past tense with such structures as 'I have already finished.'
A technique that seems to have worked for me in the past is to use crazy examples that will stick their heads so they can recall them in the exam for comparison. Another one is to get them to write their own sentences so they can memorise the rules for forming them.
We came to the grammar aspect 'have you ever ...?' so I tested them with my own questions to get them practising. 'Have you ever seen a Harry Potter film?' I asked. 'Yes, I have seen five Harry Potter films' they chirruped. 'Have you ever been abroad? Have you ever eaten horse steak?' and so on and so forth. Then I asked them to each think of a question to ask me.
Two minutes later:
Students 'Have you ever eaten natto?'
Me - 'Yes, I have eaten natto! But only once!'
'Have you ever been to Kyoto?'
- 'Yes, I have been to Kyoto many times.'
'Have you ever dated an American?'
- Huh?! 'No, I have never dated an American...'
'Have you ever said 'I love you' to a boyfriend?'
- 'Ok! So, we've covered this grammar point, moving on..'
'Sensei!!'
I think they're going to do just fine.
