Raoul's China Saloon (V5.0) Beta
The Teachers' Lounge => Teacher's Tips (ON-TOPIC) => Topic started by: kitano on December 22, 2012, 03:18:11 AM
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So that thread about the guns inspired this one. I very rarely use props, I did today because the lesson was about 'Tourism' so I brought in a load of postcards and pictures from my travels and got students to describe them
It worked a treat, they recognised some of the places and didn't recognise some of the other ones, it set off a few discussions about cities, art etc. And this is a class with 4 12 year old girls who tend to play with their phones and can't normally do without speaking Chinese for more than 2 minutes...
I have a really good idea for a lesson where I bring in some weird objects and get students to work out what they are for, it would be a good vocabulary lesson or probability (or just conversation...) but I've so far been too lazy to find mysterious objects
I tried a lesson once where I had a menu from a Chinese restaurant which had been badly translated into English and the students had to correct it. I thought it was a great idea but they didn't go for it
Of course the problem is that I didn't bring a load of stuff to China and I could buy it from Taobao but that would be a bit lame to me...
Any other ideas/suggestions etc
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You know, I really think the Internet has reduced the value of a lot of this realia stuff now, I mean, it's still cool, but before it would have been amazing for a lot of these kids...
...Anyway, I remember a a whole series of lessons based on postcards from doing my Trinity Cert - you could use the pics or jokes on the front for discussion, cultural differences etc, and then the actual messages written on the back for writing classes etc. Again, back in the day pretty much any EFL teacher would have had a ton of postcards to hand, maybe not so much anymore (printing out emails isn't quite the same)...
I also had a lesson plan based around foreign currency, you were supposed to use real notes and coins, but I've since lost it. I thought it was great but most Chinese students were pretty 'meh' about it.
Anything touristy you can use for this sort of lesson - pictorial maps, brief guides, pamphlets etc.
I tried a lesson once where I had a menu from a Chinese restaurant which had been badly translated into English and the students had to correct it. I thought it was a great idea but they didn't go for it
Chinglish is one of those weird cultural buttons you can push where one minute it's a fun and interesting language point and the next you suddenly feel like you are accused of criticizing the motherland...maybe that's what happened here?
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I'm not sure that I agree about the internet. Of course this stuff is not as impressive as it would have been but it's still cool. Postcards are still better than jpegs and I think it's the same for most things, something real you can touch has a value
Plus, I didn't do this today but especially with postcards, in Europe, and I'd guess that it's the same in America, you get all those free postcards with bits of art on them in 'cool' bars which is a bit of culture that doesn't exist over here....
With the menu thing I remember getting the impression that they just found it really boring translating a menu. I only tried it on two classes and both times they just didn't get anything out of it.
I suppose it would be advanced level English to find bad translations etc funny...
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- you could use the pics or jokes on the front for discussion, cultural differences etc,
One of my observations about other cultures is that they often do NOT understand our sense of humour. I have told funny or rude jokes and received blank looks. I don't think I have ever heard or seen a Chinese joke. Does anyone have one to share? I think it would be very useful to discuss this aspect with students especially those going to another Country.
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- you could use the pics or jokes on the front for discussion, cultural differences etc,
One of my observations about other cultures is that they often do NOT understand our sense of humour. I have told funny or rude jokes and received blank looks. I don't think I have ever heard or seen a Chinese joke. Does anyone have one to share? I think it would be very useful to discuss this aspect with students especially those going to another Country.
I love this subject, totally off what I think is quite a useful teacher topic but I've often found that it's not really possible to classify sense of humour by 'culture' in such a broad sense
I have a very sardonic sense of humour (I think that's the word)and I'm not a 'funny' teacher but I do sometimes make jokes in class. Usually just tried and tested things that will make people laugh because of the situation but sometimes I make very English jokes and one or two people appreciate it. That even happens when I make jokes on here lol
I think a lot of humour is just about your personality and transcend's culture, I mean there is yet another discussion about the relationship between culture and personality, but having met so many hundreds of students (and people) I really think that you find the same personalities in every culture
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kitano, I agree that a lot of humour is about your personality; I am often told that I am funny (Ha Ha, not peculiar). What I was wondering about was if a Chinese joke was translated into English, would I see the humour in it? If you showed the students some of our "Jokes from the trashbin", I am wondering if they would see the humour in many of them?
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I know of at least one western joke that exists in Chinese. Only the locations and denominations are changed.
Two very stupid counterfeiters printed up some 18 RMB notes. After making them and trying to spend one, they finally figured out that they'd made a mistake. After careful contemplation, they decided the only way to overcome their own stupidity was to go some place where people were even more stupid, so they went to (fill in name of your least favorite city or province). Once there, they went into a shop and one asked, "Do you have change for an 18?"
"Sure," replied the clerk, pulling out a handful of cash. "Would you like three 6's or two 9's?"
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Thanks EL! I don't know anything about Chinese money, so it is lost on me. Am I correct in assuming that they don't make RMB notes in any of those denominations?
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RMB pretty much mirror US denominations. The current series has 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100. The previous series had a 2, but no 20.
I've told the US version of the joke a few times and on 2 separate occasions had a Chinese person tell me that the same joke exists in Chinese.
Here's one my wife translated from a magazine. Man #1 stepped into a stall of a restroom. A few minutes later, Man #2 starts speaking. The conversation went something like this:
Man 2: What are you doing?
Man 1: Using the toilet.
Man 2: Will you be done soon?
Man 1: Um... I think so.
Man 2: Can I come over and see you now?
Man 1: No! What kind of sick person are you?
Man 2: I'll call you later. There's some crazy guy in the next stall.
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Thanks EL! I probably sounded a bit obtuse with my response, but the Chinese here really appear to love the number eight and even the concept of any Chinese person making a mistake like that,would be impossible to picture . I have heard the second joke before. Thank your darling for me and tell her that it gives me a much better idea about Chinese humour. bfbfbfbfbf You should hear the women at the Casino talking on mobiles whilst sitting on the toilet. bibibibibi
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Mrs. Casey translated the "I'm here to feed the alligator" joke and I demonstrated "Proper use of toilet paper in the field" to her brother. I never seen a guy laugh so hard in his life. Now he tells those jokes to his friends. If I happen to be there, I'm always asked for new jokes for Mrs. Casey to translate and add to their repitoir.
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Did a really cool class at uni last week
I just grabbed a load of products from my house (coffee, mr muscle, shampoo etc) and put the students in groups. Each group was given a product and a list of adjectives and they had to make a TV advert for their product featuring those adjectives, make a slogan, and perform it in front of the class.
They really enjoyed it, so did I lol. Even the quieter students got involved ababababab
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bfbfbfbfbf
I wonder how they would go if you had taken condoms.
agagagagag
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not a joke as such, but when discussing chinese quality made products, one student said its a joke in china that when the briefcase bomb went off that nearly killed hitler, if the table had been chinese made, he would of indeed been killed!
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Hate to throw a bucket of cold water, but hate this more!......
he would of indeed been killed!
Any TRUE English Gent would know......he would HAVE been killed.
I made Bingo cards from my own photos and played them in class. The kid who won would have to do the reading for the next game. It was popular.
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not a joke as such, but when discussing chinese quality made products, one student said its a joke in china that when the briefcase bomb went off that nearly killed hitler, if the table had been chinese made, he would of indeed been killed!
But not had the bomb been Chinese made as well. The thing would have exploded with minimal effects around 1957