So, I was teaching this lesson about complaining, and had the students naming common nuisances and one said-
"My apartment is full of cocktails."
What? "Cocktails?" I asked.
"Yes. Cocktails. Many. My apartment has many cocktails."
"You mean drinks?" I mimed sipping a martini.
"No, no. Cocktails." He drew something on the paper in front of him: A six-legged creature with two large wings and a set of antenna.
"Ah," I said, "you mean cockroaches."
"Yes," he said. "Sorry. My apartment is full of cockroaches. It's filthy."
I mentioned that cocktails were nattily-colored alcohol-laden drinks, and cockroaches were filthy vermin. The class got a good laugh out of it.
But I wish my apartment was full of cocktails...
Jul 16, 2008
More Misadventures in Language Learning
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5 comments:
Thats...awesome...
DEATH TO SPAMBOTS! But at least that last comment was relevant spam about language software. Actually, that's sort of creepy how accurate it got.
Did I tell you, after we stayed at Chikako's place I sent here a little thank you and I wanted to say "sorry if Joe's hair fell out" because well... your chest hair sometimes looks like curlies and I thought and explaination would be best.
I wrote the note in Japanese and at first confused
futta (ふるーふった、降った）with fueta （ふえるーふえた、増えた）. The first one means to fall, like rain, the second one means to increase.
When I told my JET about my mistake she nearly pissed herself laughing.
In the end, though, the best word would have been ochiru, 落ちる。
One of my students made almost the same mistake but instead just kept saying, "I hate cock...???, mmmm cock....???"
Why don't you make your apartment full of cocktails? Surely this is an achievable goal?
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