This is rather a silly little blog post, but I wanted to share it with you all the same. One of my tasks as an ELA is correcting the student's essays. As I'm sure any teacher will tell you, this is often a very dull and tedious experience, but once in a while you get something that really amuses you. Today, whilst correcting my Year 10's class tests on global warming and the environment, I came across some rather funny sentences, so I thought I'd write a mini post about them (plus some others I have experienced in the last few months) in hope that they make you smile as much as they did me!
So, here we go:
1. "Why did you decide to come on our school?"
When I first started here, I got some of the students to write me letters. This is one of the more unfortunate mistakes made by using the wrong preposition!
2. Me: "Anybody know what Po is in English?"
(Po translates as bum or bottom)
Innocent 10 year old girl: "ANUS!!!!!!!"
Body parts lesson are always a source of amusement but at least she knows the scientific term!
3. "Miss Forster is sadding in the classroom!"
This was during a lesson on the present progressive with the Year 6's. I was miming crying, but I think sadding sounds better, actually.
4. "When I got home, I ate someone."
This appeared in one of my Year 10's diary about her carbon footprint. I like to think that she got "someone" and "something" confused, but you never know. Some of the kids are off their rockers!
5. "The police use guns to catch rubbers."
Oh, how a simple spelling mistake can alter the meaning of a sentence. This mistake is particularly poignant if you think of it from an American point of view, where "rubber" actually means "condom"!
6. "I grow bones in my back garden."
This really made me chuckle! I assume she meant beans (because beans translate as "bohnen"), but it still didn't stop me imagining a garden full of bones sticking out from the ground!
7. "We water the plants with water from our little sea."
This is so adorable and I think he meant pond, seeing as lake is "see". I think I shall call ponds "little seas" from now on.
8. "We could also buy a solar system!"
He meant solar panels, but who wouldn't want to own a solar system?
9. "Food is transported by train, plane and on chips."
Germans pronounce the "ch" sound how we would pronounce "sh", so it's understandable why she wrote this. It doesn't stop it being funny though!
10. "I don't eat much organic foot."
Nor do I.
11. "Pineapples fly from Brazil to Germany."
He was trying to say that they are transported to Germany by plane, but all I could think of was this ridiculous image of migrating pineapples...
Now, before you accuse me of being unfair and tell me that my German isn't perfect, here is a silly mistake that I made yesterday when talking to Steffi:
We were listening to the Les Miserables soundtrack and I wanted to say that when I hear Colm Wilkinson sing, it gives me goosebumps. In German, goosebumps are called "Gänsehaut" (goose skin) but instead of saying that, I said that I had "Gänsefleisch" which translates as "goose meat". Steffi just looked at me as if I was mental for a few seconds before realising what I meant. So you see, nobody is perfect!
Thank you, as ever, for taking the time to read and I hope that this made you smile!
Bis Bald,
Bel xxx
P.S. A new phrase that I have just learnt and find particularly useful: "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof!" which literally translates as "I only understand station!" but actually means "It's all Greek to me!" I feel that I will be using this phrase a lot in future.
[A flying pineapple. Just because.]
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