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.
:-)
