I would like to share with you my two favorite stories from a recent homework assignment I gave my class. They were supposed to write about the worst thing they ever did as a child, but some of them got confused and wrote about bad things that happened to them. I did not correct spelling or grammar mistakes for this exhibition of raw, English as a foreign language talent:

My number one favorite, for purely humor reasons:

�Toilet was very herry up�

When I was 7 years old. I and my friends. At the school. Wer we was hungry because we played game but we don�t have lunch. When we have a class room. We was hungry after we went to eat a some food with hous�s a friend. When we arrived there it was don�t food but it has only fermented vegetable as so as we ate very fast. It�s very sour and hot. Then we have a class again. How about 2 hours we was stomach ache finally we run away to the toilet was very herry up.

And the runner up:

�Fly�

This story took place at Luang prabang, my hometown. As far as I remember, that time I was ten years old. That day the weather was very hot and I was thirsty. As soon as I arrived at school, I quickly went to buy a bottle of water. After I drank a half of water, I felt something stuck in my tooth. Slowly I spit it out. Oh my goodness. It was a dead fly. Suddenly, my breakfast came out from my stomach and I started crying loudly and loudly. Few minutes later, teachers and some students ran to see me. They thought that someone hit me, but when I told them all detail they laugh at me. I was really embarrassed.

Note the creative use of descriptive language to fill in specific words they don�t know. Words that you don�t really learn in school, like �diarrhea� and �vomit�. It is almost poetic how they do that.

I must be the best teacher ever.

ckb

Sunday, Nov. 30, 2003 at 10:11 PM