English language

English language / teaching — 2 Comments
30
May 07

I am not candy!

I have been teaching a small, first level course at the language school. There are only four students, all young men, and sometimes they are a bit rowdy and joke around, which makes the course fun. There is a Korean named Joo Sung and he goes by Julius; however, the three other guys have conspired to call him Ju Ju. This nickname reminds me of JuJubes, one of those soft, chewy candies I enjoyed as a kid. I told the class about this, and I think this only encouraged them more. They’ve done it so many times that I have occasionally (and unintentionally) called the poor guy Ju Ju. I suspect this is a case of the students training the teacher to do something.

I do try to call him Julius as much as possible.

English language / teaching — No Comments
4
May 07

Teaching Moments

I just got a gig with a local language school. I officially start next week, but I filled in for somone today. Most of these students are young international students from Europe or Asia, so teaching them English is both fun and challenging. When I was going over some activity in class, a young man wandering around peered into the classroom at the woman teaching across the hall from mine. I asked the students if any of them knew him, and one student told me he thought the wanderer this felt this way (making kissing gestures) for the teacher. I then took the opportunity to teach them an idiomatic expression: “to have a crush on.” Once I explained it was synonymous with infatuation, many of them got it.

When I taught English at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, my classroom had a view of the Washington Mutual/SBC tower in Downtown San Diego. One day, there was a truck, parked in front of the bank, decorated with homophobic Bible verses, anti-gay slogans, and homoerotic images with red circle slashes over them. I took a moment to point out the
truck and had a critical discussion on homophobia and my students’ points of view on the subject.

When teaching, distractions are bound to happen, but I always enjoy it when the opportunity to make them into teaching moments arises.

English language / teaching / writing — No Comments
12
Aug 06

Eggcorns: Mute point vs. moot point

Here is my latests find from the Chronicle of Higher Education: “Like A Bowl In A China Shop” by Mark Peters.

Notice the title? If you said cliche, then you’re warm. If you notice a word isn’t quite right, then you’re on to something. The bowl, instead of bull, is what Mark Peters describes in his article as an eggcorn. While he can’t be credited with coining the term, he describes what eggcorns are. Prior to reading this article, I thought malapropism was the appropriate word, but eggcorn is much catchier. The mute point vs. moot point is one of his best examples of how a student’s ear will interpret a term they’ve heard, but have never seen (or bothered to look up) the spelling. I suppose duck tape fts in this category. How many times in creative writing classes have I seen classmates mention “duck” tape instead of duct tape?

Since I’ve taught English for a year and a half, I’m sure I’ve seen some examples of eggcorns, but I can’t remember them. Maybe I just don’t want to remember right now.
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It’s nice to know that graduate programs have become crasser than ever. At least, I have experienced a great deal of unprofessionalism from certain individuals in my MFA program (with names to protect the guilty in the “If You Want To Go To Graduate School” series). One latest example of appropriate behavior from universities is the trend towards rejection by e-mail. Here is “The Etitquette of E-Rejection” by Mitch Frye for your reading pleasure.

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