This week I'm teaching my students American slang:
What up?
Just chillin'.
24/7
Sweet!
That sucks.
She's/He's hot!
Let's bounce.
And so on and so forth.
After the lesson I have them get into groups of 2-4 and use at least 5 of the new terms. It is hilarious to hear them speak informally, since they are taught a more formal way of speaking. This is one of my favorite dialogues that mixed the formal British English with American slang:
Jan: Hey girl, what's up?
Chocolate: Not much.
Jan: You look hot today.
Chocolate: Thank you.
Jan: Are you free this afternoon?
Chocolate: Yes, I am.
Jan: Shall we go to the zoo?
Chocolate: A'ight. Let's bounce.
I had the same lesson with the English Club on Tuesday. I hadn't ever showed them pictures of my family and since it was the last English Club meeting for the year I pulled them up on my computer. They Ooooh-ed and Ahhh-ed in their collective Chinese way. At the end, one of the girls said, "Your family is hot."
Yeah, they are.
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3 comments:
That's awesome and hilarious! I want to teach my students American slang, but I'm worried that right now it would just confuse them. It was hard enough trying to explain to them that when giving directions, "go down the street" basically means "go straight."
At least Spanish and English have lots of similarities, though. I would think it'd be more difficult to teach English to Chinese speakers.
HA! So I take it that the phrase "Make like a tree and get the fuck out" is more of an advanced slang level?
Man. Can I put my slang level as a language skill on my resume? :)
Megan -
I don't know if my students can give directions very well...maybe I'll do a lesson on that! Thanks Teacher Megan!
The Chinese have a really hard time with English because they don't conjugate verbs and don't have tenses. French to English and Spanish to English seem so much easier now!
Ruch-
Yeah, I wanted to teach them some gems from Boondock Saints, but then I'd have to teach them the F word and that is a very hard word to explain.
You should put that on your business card, not just your resume.
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