Silly Stories

I wanted to take an opportunity to share some silly stories from school with you. Not all of them are stories, but instead just funny sentences that the students have come up with or whatnot. There are so many things that these kids come up with that are hysterical that I decided that I would write them down so that I will always remember them.
Please don't get the wrong idea from this, though. The students really do have excellent English and are capable of very intelligent thoughts and conversations. But, it's still their second language and some interesting things can come from that.

Frequently, the students write or draw on the covers of their exercise books. One of my students wrote on the top: "Don't steal. Jesus see you."

A student was asked: "What does a butcher do?" The student knew what he was talking about, but he was not 100% sure how to express it using English. Thus, he came up with this: "A butcher sells cows which are dead."

A question on a quiz asked the students to describe a stimulus. One student wrote this: "A stimulus is something that you can see in your nose."

Another question asked the students to give examples of involuntary actions. One student wrote this: "Tree, House, Stones".

People in Tanzania frequently confuse the "L" sound with the "R" sound because in Swahili they're pronounced so similarly. Also, to complicate things further, some tribal languages only have the "R" sound and some only have the "L" sound. The students were asked to give reasons why they like coming to school. One student wrote: "I like coming to school because I want to have no rage." What she meant was: "I like coming to school because I want to have knowledge."


Here are some fun journal entries that students have come up with. I always make them write 13-14 lines, but I'll just share the funny/cute parts:

Journal Topic: If you could be any animal, which would you be and why?
Student Response:  "I want to be a cow because I want to be eaten. I think they will enjoy eating me. I think that I will taste very good..."
At least she understood the fact that cows do indeed get eaten!

Journal Topic: If you could be any animal, which would you be and why?
Student Response: "My name is ____ . I want to be a lion of God..."

Journal Topic: Describe a problem that you see and come up with a solution for that problem.
Student Response: "I don't like to play with a lion..."
Well, I hope that's not a problem that he faces on a regular basis! LOL!


For Class V, I give the students a new English word every day to help them increase their vocabulary. For Classes VI and VII, they get a list of 5 words every Monday and have a quiz on them at the end of the week. For each word, I give the definition, the part of speech, and a sentence. Then, I make the students write their own sentence using the word. This helps me know if they actually understand the word or not. Here is a list of sentences that students have come up with for various words of the day:

Word: fatal
Sentence: The water was fatal.

Word: Vivid
Sentence: The boys in Class four they are vivid.

Word: Perpetual
Sentence: Education is perpetual.

Word: Unbecoming
Sentence: It is unbecoming for a beautiful girl to fall down.


I don't quite remember the context for these sentences, but they're still pretty funny:

"If in the aeroplane, fly the aeroplane."  

"Do not play with the fire, but it is also fun."


I hope that this has given you something to smile about today!! I love my students very much and I'm so proud of what they have accomplished over the past year with me (and of course what they accomplished before me as well). Learning a second language is difficult and learning all subjects IN the second language is even more difficult.

I know that I make mistakes in Swahili all the time!! One time, I intended to tell our friendly neighbor at the duka that Kjirstin had gone to Europe to meet her mother. But, what I actually said was "KJ went to Europe to meet YOUR mother." Needless to say, we made a small joke of it for a while. Another time, I was intending to greet someone who was older than me by saying "shikamo" (which means "respectful greetings"). However, what I actually said was "Marahaba" which is what the older person is supposed to say in response to "shikamo". I certainly gave her something to laugh over! And I'll never forget the time at language school when I meant to say "Kuna nymba kubwa." which means "There is a big house." I accidentally said "Kula nyumba kubwa." which is an order to "Eat the big house!"

All of this is part of the process. Honestly, it's amazing how well some students are able to express themselves in their journals and other writings. I am so incredibly blessed by God to get to teach them and help them fix their mistakes.

I hope that you're all have had a wonderful weekend. I know that mine was very busy as I was in Dodoma (the political capital of Tanzania) this weekend. It was a very exciting trip and I was very happy to visit the United Methodist Church there and share and exchange information with them. I also got to practice a LOT of Swahili since the pastor and most of the members of their church do not speak English. Of course, I hope to be able to post an entry about that a little bit later this week!

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine