Balancing in the land of bouncing Czechs

Friday, December 19, 2014

The best vase to have a sheet on the beach...

Learning English is made difficult for Czechs because we don't have those little accents & funny little shapes above our letters to emphasize, or at least give a clue, that the word should sound a certain way. An amusing example of this was provided recently in one of my seminars.

One young man was telling us a story about an accident he had at work. He was a waiter, and he was laying a table...
'And I put a ways on the sh*t...'
'You did what?!!'
'I put a ways on the...'
'Ways?'
Yes, you know, for flowers.'
'Ah ha! A vase!' (I quickly scribbled it on the blackboard...oh, the perils of American English!)
'So, I put the vase on the sh*t...'
(Cue uncontrolled laughter from his classmates.)
'Sheet! I think you mean 'sheet'!'
'...and I accidentally pulled the sheeeet and the ways fell on the floor...' Remembering this video -

I quickly added that I'm glad it didn't happen on a beach :-)

A first, for me, in Czech Republic!

Well, it's been a while since I wrote something - there have been stories, for sure, and I hope that I can remember them all, but in truth it has been a VERY busy term - planning lessons, preparing tests, marking tests & essays, also some other teaching that I'm involved in...oh yes, and I have actually got a life outside of school too :-) And that has also been interesting, as well as busy!

A few weeks ago, I met an old friend for a drink. We wanted to go to 'The Pub With No Name' - sounds a bit like the kind of pub that Clint Eastwood (famous in his Spaghetti Westerns as 'The Man With No Name') would hang out in.

It's just off Kateřinská, not far from the Market...a little side street, on the way to the Court Offices...and there it is, on the corner. Just a sign for beer, but - no name!

It's a very small pokey pub, as we say in England - but the beer is very good!

So, in we went, and my friend ordered 2 beers...
'We have no beer?'
'I'm sorry...did you say you have NO beer?'
'Yes. No beer. I can offer you wine or non-alcoholic beer.'
'Are you serious? This is a pub in Czech Republic, and you have NO beer?'
'Yes, I'm sorry, but the beer will not be delivered until 5.00pm.' (It was 3.30pm)
'I think we'll go somewhere else, thanks.'

And so we went to find another pub, where sanity reigned and beer was on tap!
A Czech pub without beer?

It's a bit like:
England without tea
France without croissants
Germany without sausages
A chip shop without chips!

This is certainly a first for me, and for my friend too...has anyone else ever experienced this?! :-)

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Ya canna change the laws of physics...!!!

One of my ex-students popped into English Club last week. It was good to catch up, and he is sure to have a funny true-life story to tell, and I was not disappointed. I have his permission to relate the following story in his own words...

"On my way back to Olomouc, I was waiting for the n. 17 bus to take me from the university campus to the main station in Pardubice. There were a lot of students at the bus station. It was Thursday and many students, like me, were headed home. When the bus finally arrived, the driver did not open the front door. Why? I don´t know. Everybody pushed inside, trying to get a seat. I was, as usual, late, so the only place left in that bus was behind the middle door. I did not have my ticket and there was no way of getting to the driver because of the crowd of people in my way. The driver closed the door and rolled out.

Suddenly, the woman next to me, asked me for my ticket. She looked like an ordinary passenger, so I asked her why. She replied that she was an inspector, and again she asked me to show her my ticket. I tried to explain my situation to her, but her only answer was "I don't care. Show me your identity card then." I took a deep breath and tried it again. "Madam, how am I supposed to get to the driver when there are so many people in my way and the front door remains closed?" Again, the same answer. All right you dumb lady, I thought, one more time: "Madam, do you understand the basics of physics? People are like liquid, you know, they are incompressible." But the lady was like a robot, and again she gave the same apathetic answer, The only change was that she asked me whether she should call the police or not.

I exploded like Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 a.d., bringing down inferno on the city of Pompeii, in this case on the traffic inspector. "Do you know the difference between people who understand physics and those who don´t? No? Well I will tell you. The first ones are engineers, the others are inspectors in public transport!" She turned red almost immediately. "Young man, do you think you are funny? Well, that´s 800 crowns for not having a ticket and another 400 for insulting a public official!" After that I concluded that only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. I took my identity card and with an expression on my face of "We will meet again!", went into the hall of the main station."

I was relating this story to family in Nymburk on Saturday, and one of them told me another story...
A friend of his boarded a tram in Prague. He was accosted by a ticket inspector, so he pulled out his ticket...but it was an old one, used and out of date. The inspector then threw the ticket out of the window and said, 'That ticket was invalid, it's of no more use!' The friend then asked the inspector for their pass, to prove that they were an inspector. The inspector produced it from his pocket, whereon the friend snatched it from his hand and and threw it out of the window and said, "And you are no longer an inspector!"

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Tales from the classroom...

Here is a selection of some of the more amusing & interesting stories that I hear during my lessons...

Ricardo and his amazing jackets:
Whilst discussing fashion, Ricardo enlightened us as to why he began to wear jackets to school a few years ago. Indeed, he is quite noticeable because he's one of the few students, if not the only one, who can ever be seen in a jacket outside of going to the Ball or a Maturita Exam ;-) The reason is...pockets! Ricardo seems to have a pocket for everything he will need during the course of a regular school day, and the more pockets there are, the better. His collection of jackets has stopped at 2, and he seems satisfied with that. And the morning he told us this story, he really did have something in every pocket - I almost expected him to pull a rabbit or a dove out at some point...or even one of those never-ending scarfs!! :-)

I've rather do Russian... :
Another student told me that because of their aversion to a certain English teacher & their particular style of teaching, they are seriously considering taking Russian in the Maturita Exam!! :-O I am still trying to persuade them out of this madness - there is time, so there is hope.

Meanwhile in Dagestan... :
Another student, when discussing his future hopes for a family, told us that he is thinking about going to Dagestan, because not only can you find a wife fairly easily there...you can find two...maybe more?! :-) Dagestan is a far off place, just west of Georgia...quite remote. Some students felt that one wife was quite enough...

Collective Passivity:
"Our obligation is to give meaning to life, and in doing so, to overcome the passive and indifferent life." So said Elie Wiesel (a Jew who lived through the concentration camps)... And clearly this statement applies to one class (who shall remain nameless ;-) ) - for they are surely the MOST passive class I have ever met in my 8 years at this school. Collective passiveness is stifling, suffocating...it is a challenge which I have accepted. In the words of the B52's - we 'have to dance this mess around' ;-)

Food, glorious food! :
This week with one class, we will be taking the subject of Cooking and Eating to a new level - it will be a practical lesson & each student will bake or cook something & bring it to share to the lesson. The idea is that they will describe how they made their food (ingredients etc), and of course, then we will fill our faces with all sorts of goodies :-)

The Shepherd who came back from the war...:
So the story goes, as one student related the life he would like to have lived, if he had been born in another country, perhaps at another time. A soldier, tired of all the killing and bloodshed, drops out of society and goes to a land far away and begins another life as a simple shepherd. He finds a wife, who interestingly has no tongue, and he lives an idyllic life for the rest of his days - tending his sheep in the silence and solitude of the mountain pastures... (This was an excellent example of story-telling in English - fun, and creative!)

I find over the years that the more open I am with my own stories, the more I get back from the students :-)

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Class names of 2014 - 2015...with some images :-)

Here are the names for this year's classes, and as you can see, there are some interesting choices :-) And I also managed to find some suitable images too :-) Hope you enjoy them!

CRAZY BANANAS - 3rd year seminar