The Joys of Teaching English

This post brought to you by Hipster Ariel.

          Not only do my students continue to name obscure American presidents while we play Jeopardy, having them write their own romantically-themed conversations continues to be my favorite lesson ever. There have been conversations ripe with homo-erotic sexual tension ("Loic, you make my heart beat"), a girlfriend walking in on her boyfriend with her mom ("Zees eeez disgoosteeng!"), and some cruel break ups:

          "Yes? Well I like these appetizers better than I like you."

          "Yes? Well I like your grandfather's balls!"

          Thus inciting my lecture on how we don't say "balls" in class, something I've had to repeat with a lot of my classes, as a matter of fact. Hopefully they can't tell that I'm trying not to laugh at the same time.

          But my favorite incident so far has been when I asked "How do we say 'pom-pom girls' in America?" with the correct answer being  "cheerleaders." First, one student hesitantly volunteered "Cougars? No.... wait. That's something else," before another shouted out "Bitches!!!!"

          I was tempted to give him half credit.