Twas the Night before Christmas vacation

SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH

         If you think you’re fluent in English, I’ve got some news for you: teaching grammar will humble you real fast. Since I started teaching private lessons, I’ve been discovering all sorts of fun questions that I don’t even come close to having answers to. Such as, “how come we can only abbreviate the word “have” when it is an auxiliary verb ?”

hmmm…just let me google search that one real quick…

EUPHEMI$M$

         My student Patricia says that French people excel at creating things (art, poetry etc) but they’re not blessed in the field of marketing. While America, on the other hand, is awesome at selling just about anything.

I don’t know that this is entirely true. America's strength in advertisement is undeniable. But Paris is the number one tourist destination in the world, so clearly they’re selling something right.

Then I remembered that my class of business students keeps referring to “American chemical food.” It took me a while to figure out what they were talking about. “Oh, additives! We don’t eat chemical food, we eat additives.” 

How are you going to get people to eat something called “chemical food”? Come on, folks. And these were business students! It’s true, they’re going nowhere in marketing if they don’t learn up on some euphemisms.

        Patricia likes blanket statements more than your average bear, but maybe she’s on to something. Maybe Paris’ tourist popularity is more about the quality of their product than their ability to market it? I don’t know that I buy into it, it’s an idea I’ll have to chew on for a bit.

JOLLY OLD SAINT CHRISTMAS DAD?

         Today in class we played holiday bingo. The vocabulary words that come with the American Christmas tradition are weirdly specific, so I have some flash cards to introduce the words they might not know. "Elf, Reindeer, Carolers, Wrapping paper, chimney." I do not expect them to know these words. "Then we have easy ones like snow, present, christmas tree, Santa Claus..." 

WHO?

"SAN-ta Claaws," I enunciate. 

This is greeted by blank stares. FOR REAL? You know the jolly dude in the red suit, big bearded fella? hangs out with elves?

Ooooh, you mean Père Noël. We thought you called him... Christmas Dad or something.

Um. No. Sometimes he's called "Father Christmas", but that's like how you can call Michael Jackson "The King of Pop." His name is Santa. 

Amelia, proud soldier against the War on Christmas.

If all goes well, I'll be back in the Minnie-apple in 24 hours! Can't wait!