I may have mentioned in other posts somewhere that my wife (let's refer to her here as just Mrs. Raven) is attending a free English program for migrants here in Australia. It gives me two days a week to mind the kids and play Mr. Mum, but it also gives me some additional fascinating insights into what it's like to be a language learner again and attend classes in an ESL context.
My wife's conversational English is actually very good (we've been together more than 9 years now), though I have to admit she tends to communicate much more effectively these days (with me personally) through particular kinds of "wifely looks and glances" that can speak volumes... Anyway, she's more up for and into these classes for the social side of things, getting to know other migrants in similar (and also vastly different) circumstances to her.
She does show me her work a lot of the time, and this most recent one gave me a bit of a chuckle! She was asked to write a paragraph and re-work one part of the Cinderella story. She gave me permission to re-print it here (so long as I made some corrections).
The prince and his retainers brought a crystal shoe to Cinderella's house. Cinderella's step-sisters tried to put the shoe on, but it obviously didn't belong to them. After that, Cinderella's step-mum tried it on - and oh my goodness, it was the right fit! Even the step-mother couldn't believe it.
The prince looked suddenly confused.
"Sorry," he said. "I think I brought my sister's shoe by mistake. I'll be back..."
Then the prince ran away as fast as he could.
Cinderella called after him "Hey you! I haven't even tried it on yet!"
My wife has a sensational sense of humour, and a fair chunk of it has emerged here. She was telling me, however, that when it came time to read out their quick story adaptations in front of the class, it became apparent that she was the only one who had attempted a comical adaptation. Apparently only she and one other student in the class found her adaptation funny - even the teacher didn't quite seem to grasp it. That of course led to one of those "right, mmm - yes, okay, well I thought it was funny when I was writing it..." moments.
Don't worry darling, I thought it was funny. And I'm sure my blog readers will think it worth a quick chuckle as well.
:-)
TOTALLY funny! Classmates' lack of laughter speaks more about their lack of comprehension than about your sweetie's sense of humor.
Posted by: Shelley | December 03, 2009 at 11:01 AM
Hello Mrs. Raven!
I thought it was cleverly hilarious! Why the teacher didn't praise it is beyond me.
Posted by: ShellTerrell | December 03, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Yeah... I liked it too. What's up with these people!
Posted by: Darren Elliott | December 03, 2009 at 02:39 PM
Wish my students were that funny!
Does that make my wife Mrs Tastic then? Not sure how that will go down. And how about Mrs Livesof for Darren's?
Posted by: Alex Case | December 03, 2009 at 04:23 PM
Yes, I think it was a really great adaptation of the tale ! very funny ! the reaction of your wife's class illustrates the fact that sometimes our activities don't work for lack of humour and imagination from the students' part, regardless of their language level (I teach French to foreigners).
Posted by: Alice M | December 03, 2009 at 04:39 PM
Thank you for reading my story.
I'm Mrs Renshaw!
Posted by: Mrs. Raven | December 04, 2009 at 12:52 AM
Great story. I was once asked to write a story back when I was first learning Turkish and I was in love with these little oatmeal cookies, so I wrote a story about how the oatmeal cookie man became king of the world. I was proud of it and showed it to a number of people and just got blank stares, so I know exactly how your wife feels. Her story is funnier though :)
Posted by: Nick Jaworski | December 04, 2009 at 01:53 AM
Thanks Nick - you just reminded me of a similar situation when I was a 1st-year uni student learning Swedish. I wrote a simple story version in Swedish of the Middle English 'Sir Orfeo' - which I happened to be studying at the time in my other major (English Literature). It came out pretty mangled, and very child-like, and I can recall the "okay..." look from my Swedish teacher as she read it.
Posted by: Jason Renshaw | December 04, 2009 at 01:58 AM
Alex - I think my wife tolerates my teaching related internet "hobby" as long as it doesn't cost her any money or prevent me taking out the rubbish. But she'd draw the line at renaming herself Mrs. dotcom.
Posted by: Darren Elliott | December 04, 2009 at 10:54 AM
Hehehe, very nice twist, and nice lesson idea, too.
Posted by: Anne | December 05, 2009 at 06:47 AM