World View Magazine - Spring 2008 - (Page 32)

Letter from Jima FALSE COGNATES Teaching Practical English in Ecuador by Ellen Frierson n ursday mornings I have a double period (an hour and a half ) with the Terceros, otherwise known as the Sexto Curso, otherwise known in U.S. high school vernacular as the seniors. is is generally one of my favorite classes. ey don’t exactly listen when I talk (that would be waaaay too much to ask) but they’re fun and I have a good rapport with them, I think, as evidenced by the fact that one of them recently drew a hideous picture of me with devil horns. In his defense, I had been drawing caricatures of them on the board to use as markers for a Bingo game, because when playing Bingo in Jima you have to draw different pictures as markers for each round, because using actual physical beads or checkers as markers is the most ludicrous thing imaginable, because that would be voluntarily providing the students with projectiles, the very thought of which actually makes me cringe. Anyway, the picture he drew of me, helpfully labeled “Teacher,” is now hanging on my wall. You’re just going to have to trust me that this incident is flattering. So a couple weeks ago, the Terceros were once again engaged in their favorite activity, namely Doing ings in English Class at Have Nothing To Do With English. Some of them were doing math and chemistry homework, some of them were attempting to put glitter in each others’ hair, some of them were playing with their cell phones, cleverly hiding them in their bags on their desks, because despite repeated evidence to the contrary, they still seem to think that teachers cannot recognize the posture and shifty eyes of a student who is sending a text message as long as the phone itself is not actually visible. e usual. One of them O was reading an article in Spanish about how Pamela Anderson is apparently pregnant. I managed to be quick enough to swipe the article away from her, and just for fun, walked back to the front of the room reading it aloud in English, translating as I went along. When I got to the word embarazada, which, as you may know, means “pregnant” in Spanish, I figured this was a Teachable Moment (or “tangent”), and started explaining about false cognates. I wrote an example of an actual cognate, and then the words for “pregnant” and “embarrassed” in English and Spanish as an example of a false cognate, on the board, and then moved on with the lesson on telling time that no one was listening to anyway. A few minutes later, Diego, who secretly is very smart and speaks some English but is so dedicated to not fulfilling his potential that you almost have to admire him for it, complained for the bajillionth time that day that Claudina was bothering him. I jumped on this as another example of a false cognate--the verb for “to bother” in Spanish is molestar, and I figured it was useful for them to know that they should not translate this as “molest,” which I looked up in my pocket dictionary to find the Spanish definition. I wrote molestar=“to bother” and “to molest”=abusar sexualmente on the board, to the amusement of my students, who were suddenly paying attention. Go figure. Maybe 15 minutes later, there was a knock on the door. I opened it, and was quite surprised to see the guy who does the administrative work for the school standing there with two elderly, handicapped people, a man and a woman. I’d heard of this happening in some of the community colleges and universities my friends teach at, but I was taken aback that it would happen at a public high school. What happens is, handicapped people come into the classrooms, give a little speech about the tragedy of their predicament, and then the students give them money. e man was blind, and the woman had a cane and both of them could barely walk, and it was really disturbing, especially given the fact that as they were giving their speech they were standing directly under the place on the whiteboard where I had written, nice and big in black marker, the definitions of “pregnant” and “to molest” in Spanish and English. e students gave them money, and they left. “Okay, so false cognates…” I began, pointing at the board. Everyone laughed, and I continued with my lesson on telling time, which I am pleased to report that at least two of them can now kind of do. But you know, it wasn’t over yet. About ten minutes later, there was yet another knock on the door. is time I opened it to find the principal and some Random Guy. e Random Guy, it seems, was selling a product that magically removed any kind of marker from whiteboards, and they had for some reason chosen my classroom to demonstrate this. However, no one had actually brought a permanent marker (please don’t ask me to explain how this is possible), so the principal ran to get one, leaving the guy in my classroom for about two minutes, standing awkwardly at the front of the room really very close to my false cognates. e principal came back with the permanent marker and Random Guy helpfully erased my Bingo board (yes, I play a LOT of Bingo, which may seem weird, but I promise that if you 32 Spring 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of World View Magazine - Spring 2008

World View Magazine - Spring 2008
Contents
From the President
Lafayette Park
Your Turn
Gallery
Note to Readers
Introduction to the Issue
Engaging Masons
Commentary
Letter from Guatemala
Links of a Chain
Gallery
Science for Good
Letter from Jima
Another Country
Letter from Accra
Community News

World View Magazine - Spring 2008

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/fall09
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/summer09
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/spring08
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/winter07
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/fall07
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com