There’s nothing like a world tour to bring the best of “lost in translation” stories to life. We’ve talked our way into many laughs over the past 6 months…like the time I asked the ice cream lady to spoon with me in Spanish back during month 1… With inspiration like that this blog was bound to make its posting debut at some point this year. So with our first month of teaching English down, it’s my pleasure to present to you a list of our funniest quotes and happenings from our month in Cambodia:
While playing the “race to slap the picture drawn on the board that matches the word I say” game I, “One… Two… Three…” But before I could say go or get the word out they needed to slap, both students took off running and slapped the…TREE I’d drawn on the board. Touché students. Touché.
My first night of class our translator, Pektra was asking my teammate Sara about something and I came in midway through the conversation hearing:
Pektra: “…ty foo…”
Me: “oh I love Thai food!”
Pektra: “No no no typhoon! The one in the Philippines!”
Me: “Oh… Typhoons. I don’t like typhoons.”
Girl in class: “My name is brother!” No it’s not!
Student: “C-R-Y”
Me: “Good! What does that spell?”
Student: “Scared!”
Me: ….
” ‘I’ is for ice cream.” Point to “I” kid says “I” point to ice cream cone, kid says “cream” I-cream
While playing hangman:
L-I-__-N is filled in
What’s the last letter? We learned it earlier today!
Student: “P!”
Teacher: “No.” Wrote the word octopus on the board and underlined the first letter and pointed to it. “What’s this letter?”
Student: “Octopus!”
L-I-Octopus-N
Teacher: “Is this a ball?”
Student: “Yes. I am a ball.”
Student: “Hello! What is your name?”
Teacher: “My name is Kate. What is your name?”
Student: “My name is Kate. What is your name?”
Teacher: “Spell month.”
Student: “H-A-V-E”
Teacher: “No. mmmmmmooooonnnnnttttth.”
Student: “H-O-V-E-R”
While playing hangman:
Teacher calls on student to guess letter.
Student shouts out: “NINE!”
