Die Punishment

I thought a title like that would catch some eyes!!

I have been tutoring a student who has one semester left here at UNSIS, but has finished English Level 7, which is apparently the highest level we offer. Most students enter Level 1 their first semester here (having ZERO English exposure), and then progress thru the levels, with no English their final semester. This guy was one of the few who tested out of the 1st Level. So he started with Level 2, and quickly became one of the top English students thru all the levels (despite not doing homework). He purposely failed the final for Level 6 so that he could continue studying English an extra semester. Now that he's finally finished the last official course we offer, he came to our office to see if anyone had time to help him work on conversation and writing skills. Little did he know just how much time I have!! So I've been tutoring him every day this week for an hour, and we'll continue until I start teaching classes.

He's a really smart guy, and is quite motivated. He's even doing homework for me! I gave him a writing topic the first day as homework (write a letter to a friend from another country telling them about Miahuatlán), and then we went over it the next day. He told me he wanted to write another assignment for me as homework, but he said he didn't need a topic. So today he came in with his essay titled "Die Punishment." You know, where people die as punishment for their crimes. He was very surprised to learn that this is called the death penalty, even though it's a literal translation from Spanish...

One of the joys of teaching English is the (sometimes smile-worthy) mistakes that students make, not surprising considering what a crazy language English is!!

(Like my dear friend Ruby who told me the story of working at McDonald's and ordering the "Big & Nasty" for weeks before a co-worker told her it was called the "Big & Tasty"!!)

I'm sure this is just a small slice of many more student quips in the coming months...