Thursday, February 28, 2008

Horrifying student conversations II

"Regular feature" wasn't supposed to mean "only feature," but, as you can see, it's already Wednesday.

My students were doing a speaking test from the book:

A: How much can you tell about somebody from their appearance?
B: hmm... Thirty-five percent.
[At this point, I start laughing and cannot stop.]

A: [Student B], can you please give me an answer that involves some grammar?
[This only makes it worse]
C: Don't cry, Marin!

This was followed by Student B's explanation that he first wanted to say 45% but then decided that was too high, but he decided 10% was too low, so he chose something in the middle. To which I replied, "but...that would be 27.5%."

And yet I wonder why my students end up sounding like such nerds.

In other news, after a cold snap last week, the snow has begun the process of melting and refreezing and just being icky that heralds the arrival of spring. In a mere matter of weeks, I'll be able to wear non-boot shoes again (I love all my boots very much, but I get kind of tired of them around this time of year)!

If you break down the 35% further (how is it that I haven't already done that?), you'll find that "cute shoes" make up a substantial part of it.

1 comment:

vicmarcam said...

You talk about your boots the way I talk about my students. In about 6 more weeks, I'll be saying, "I love all my students very much, but I kind of get tired of them this time of year."
I think you may need to clarify your pie chart a bit. Is it use of apostrophes or lack of use of apostrophes? Here in America, people seem to think that they are the natural partner of any "s" that ends a word. Possessive or plural? It doesn't matter.
My feelings about the ending of AI make me an unsuitable mate for you. I'll just have to love you from afar.