Fun with English

A wet Tuesday morning...the last day of the school holiday for students...tomorrow they all come back & for those doing the last year the 'new maturita' awaits them...from my perspective it looks a bit of a nightmare. But I live in hope that something good will come out of it, and from my part, I will continue to do my best to provide fun & learning in my lessons :-)
It seems an age since the 'old' maturita exams back in May - but here's a selection of the more amusing moments which I collected from nearly 170 exams!

- "I like collecting hips in the summer" (she meant 'hops'!)
- "Olomouc is a hysterical city" (of course, she was looking for 'historical'...)
- "How is it, your passage?!" (the student was asking me a question about a trip that I'd had, but for an Englishman, such a phrase could be taken another way!! :D)
- "I like soup operas!" (I'm sure I don't need to explain that one!)
- "I like going to orphan festivals" (and maybe they play the 'organ' there ;-))
- I like beaucoup de things!" (this is one of the problems of doing a French exam just before!)
- "Brisbane is the captial of Australia & Quebec is in Australia too..." (thankfully, it was an English exam and NOT Geography!)
- "Muslims are south of the USA..." (yep, Geography was not strong with some of them!)
- "I went to the hospital and had 3 testys...!" (hmmmmm....)

And here is a selection of some of the deliberately amusing things that students said:
- (when talking about a band that she played in & whether she got nervous before a concert) "There are worse musicians than myself so I don't get stressed..."
- "British women are ugly" (a fairly forthright opinion freely expressed!)
- "A slap would work well at school!" (some of our students are NOT politically correct!)
- "Visiting in hospital is like going to a funeral..."
- "As Samuel Jackson said 'He who is tired of life is tired of London...'" (might have been great to hear Samuel Jackson say it...but it was Samuel Johnson ;-))
- "Floods...? They are a burning issue...." (perhaps not intended, but pretty cool!)

 I love my job!

The day of small beginnings...

Today is the day that I finally put finger to keyboard & decided to do something that I've been meaning to do for a long time...to begin a blog. Perhaps I'm way behind the times & such a thing is 'old hat' now...but here are my reasons for so doing:
- I love writing! It's something I need to work at & I hope that this blog will discipline me in being creative
- I love collecting & telling stories - I think most people like a good story, and I think I've got lots to tell
- I live in a wonderful country - Czech Republic - which has some interesting differences, which I hope to be able to relate
Time is short at this moment - I'm off to see 'Inception' for the 2nd time :-) A fascinating film with some deep themes...but this is the beginning - a small one, but like all ventures, we have to begin somewhere. This is the first footprint on the cybersand of an unknown beach I have found myself on...so, let's see where it goes ;-)

Clive