Friday, February 02, 2007

Is it wrong for me to want to strangle a nun? Yes. Maybe. Well, I probably wouldn't feel this way if she'd use her divine knowledge to remember for once that you use the verb 'To Do' in the simple tense with negatives and interrogatives. It's been five classes now, we've used up all the extra material working on this, and I still can't manage to bang it into her head. I think her habit sometimes blocks what I'm saying, good Lord. Okay, no no, she's a lovely student, but we all know sometimes you have a student that you wish for the love of lemon merangue pie would get the freakin' concept.

Italians are funny with the expressions they choose to use in class. "In fact" is a very popular one. For example, "He went to the store, in fact, and then to the cinema." "In fact." Well, it is a fact that he went to the store and then the cinema, but we're not in a courtroom here, let's just cut that one right on outta there. Or sometimes they'll respond to a question with "in fact."
ME: Did he and his father get along well?
STUDENT: In fact.
Since when did in fact become a part of the 'yes/no' response?? Maybe we should change it to 'yes/no/in fact.' The Italians would love it.

Another popular phrase is "particular(ly)" for example:
ME: Tell me what you think about this story.
STUDENT: This story is very particular.
ME: Uh-huh...good, how is it particular?
I'm actually starting to ask students to explain particular, because I hear it so often I don't register the fact that this isn't really an appropriate response.
-OR-
ME: Why didn't he contact his parents?
STUDENT: He didn't contact his parents particularly because he didn't like them.
Yup...we need to work on this, I think...

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