A Week in Misunderstandings: The Highlights

I had a really good week at work.  Let's say it was because I saw almost all of my favorite classes and they actually participated.  Let's pretend that it's not also because I only worked two and a half days.  In any case, as always my students entertained and surprised me with their "English."  Here are a few of my favorites from this week:

- SEVERAL students said that a woman in their text "fell pregnant" instead of "got pregnant"
- one student created the expression "to fall into tears" instead of "to cry"
- one student correctly used the word "flabbergasted" in a sentence, much to my delight
- one student used the term "fight to the bitter end" no less than four times during one single conversation, which was in fact about the woman who had "fallen pregnant"
- when I didn't understand the movie title "Stuart Little" through my students' strong French accents, an entire class of seventeen year olds pretended to be mice until I figured it out
- while playing Hangman, one student's accent made him say what sounded like "Hey!" instead of "A!" and "Hi!" instead of "I!" so every time he guessed a letter it sounded like he was just greeting someone enthusiastically
- several students referred to quotation marks as "inverted commas," which leads me to believe that teachers actually tell them that's what they're called
- one student dropped his pen and reacted by saying "Oh, SUGAR!"
- one student beatboxed for nearly a full minute without provocation, for absolutely no apparent reason at all

Like I said, a really good week at work.