I live a lego

Well its that time again.  English testing time!  Its my favorite time of each semester and not just because I get to scare little children.  Its the best time for a good laugh.  Chinese kids come up with the cutest/funniest things to say in English.  For example at the end of last semester my second graders had a written test in which they had to give me some basic information about themselves such as: What is your name?  How old are you? etc.  In answer to the question: Where do you live?  One little boy wrote: "I live a lego." I thought it was priceless and has now become a favorite saying of mine.

Although the written tests can be very amusing, I think that the oral tests are even better for a laugh. (The hard part is not busting up in front of the kid who is talking.)  Yesterday I finished the oral testing for my third graders.  They had to speak to me for one minute or more about one of three subjects.  They could choose to tell me about their favorite place, a person, or their daily routine.  A lot of kids who told me about a person would talk about their mom or dad but a couple of kids told me about a classmate.  I thought Harry's was pretty funny.  He told me about his classmate Andy.  Here is some of what he said:
"He is fat.  His eyes like noodle.  He like bread.  He sometimes is a little crazy and angry but he is good."

Another student, Simba, talked about his favorite place.  Here is some of what he said:
"My favorite place is beach.  He is nice and beautiful.  He is very hot.  I go swimming."

Eda also told me about her favorite place.  She said:
"My favorite place is school because I have beautiful teacher, nice chair, nice table, many friends."

Then there were a couple of students who really blew me away with their grammar and use of vocabulary.  I'm pretty sure their parents helped them out.  Here is some of what Mary said:
"My favorite place is Dubai.....It has many top grade hotels and it has the tallest building in the world...."

Testing day is so much fun!  I only wish I didn't have to grade them. :)

Words to remember:

kǎo­shì （考试）= test

nǐ zhù zài nǎ­li？ （你住在哪里？）= Where do you live? (literally: you live at where?)

wǒ zhù zài… （我住在….）=  I live at….

Winter already!

It the course of a few days the weather turned from nippy to chilly to downright cold and then it went back to chilly.  I can tell by the lack of leaves on the trees that winter is definitely here and I'm already counting the days until winter vacation.  The one thing that makes winter bearable is knowing that I will have more time to do things I like in January and February.  What do I like to do in winter?  Let's see.  I like to make soup, bake stuff, write my blog, and study Chinese!  Well maybe not that last one. :)

My street a month ago and now.  What a difference no leaves make!

In the meantime I'm enjoying teaching children.  I really do enjoy it, I just don't enjoy the commute and all the time it requires.  I still have a couple of kids that I teach one on one.  Lately I've noticed how much their ipads are involved in their lives and even thoughts.  In my last class with my nine year old student, Gita, she learned the word treasure. (财宝).  I asked her to use treasure in a sentence and she said "Ipad is my treasure."   A little later I asked her to use this sentence structure: (plural noun) don't belong in (place).  I gave her an example: Cell phones don't belong in movie theatres.  Then she said "Ipads don't belong in classroom".  On a different day I showed her a poem I thought would be a good teaching aid in writing her own.  We read it together, discussed the meaning, then I asked her to substitute some words and make it her own.  Here is the original poem:
Autobiographia Literaria
by Frank O'Hara

When I was a child I played by myself in a
corner of the schoolyard
all alone.
I hated dolls and I hated games, animals were
not friends and birds flew away.
If anyone was looking for me I hid behind a
tree and cried out "I am
an orphan/"
And here I am, the
center of all beauty
writing these poems!
Imagine!

Here is Gita's adaptation:

When I was a child I played
with my ipad, on my sofa
all alone.
I loved Minecraft and I loved
Muffin Knight, monsters were not
friendly and zombies made me
run away.
If any monster was looking for
me I killed it and screamed
out "Don't come back!"
And here I am, the monsters
all around me, I'm dead.
Play it again.

I think I almost like her version better.  It really does give you a peak into the mind of todays children, doesn't it?

Words to remember:

dōng­tiān （冬天）= winter

shī （诗）= poem

cái­bǎo （财宝）= treasure

ipad (ipad) = ipad (Hey, I bet you already knew that!)