After the day’s grammar lesson, our adult students have the opportunity to tell us a brief story, so that we can check their grammar. Part of the reason our students come to our school is for hardcore corrections, the reasoning being that without the correction, they could just crack open an English textbook with their friends.
“What did you do today?”
“I go to shopping …”
“Went shopping.”
“I went to shopping.”
“Went shopping. You go to places but you go action … ing. Go to Japan. Go to the store. Go swimming. Go fishing.”
“I went … shopping.”
“Cool. What did you buy?”
“I buy one D-bwee-D.”
“Bought a DVD. V. V. Watch me. Lips on teeth. Vvvvvvv.”
“Bbbbb … vvvvvvvv.”
“Excellent. DVD.”
“D…. Vui D.”
“Better. What did you do next?”
“I meet friend to restaurant so eat lunch.”
“Met a friend at a restaurant for lunch.”
“Met a friend at restaurant for lunch.”
“At a restaurant for lunch.”
“At a restaurant for lunch.”
“What did you have for lunch?”
“Japanese food.”
“What kind of Japanese food?”
“Traditional Japanese food.”
“Okay … what kind of traditional Japanese food?”
“We ate sushi.”
“Awesome! I love sushi. It’s my favorite.”
“Ehhhhh? You can eat sushi?”
“… Yeah.”
“Ehhhh!”
“So what did you do after lunch?”
“We go to buy movie chicket.”
“Went to buy movie tickets.”
“Went to buy chicket.”
“Tickets.”
“Chicket.”
“Watch my mouth. T. T. Teeth together. No tongue. Tickets. Tickets – more than one.”
“Tickets.”
“Great. So … today you bought a DVD, met a friend at a sushi restaurant for lunch and then went to buy movie tickets?”
“… Yes?”
Sometimes I don’t know who’s telling the story – them or me.
Love these last two entries, Liv. The little girl makes me thing of this little kid on youtube whose dad is american and her mom is japanese. She says, “This is da chicken!” and there’s also a really funny and sweet video where she cried cause she didn’t like water getting on her face after playing in the mud at school. http://youtube.com/watch?v=zxF3GbfDQ1Q