Saturday, November 19, 2011

EFL Gone Wild…

Today, I had the students talk about hobbies. I started by having them brainstorm what activities they enjoyed, and wrote their answers up on the board so everyone could see. Most of them were normal – swimming, biking, dancing, etc. A lot of students said “sleeping,” which apparently is a luxury in the high-pressure student world. One guy in the back even yelled out “kissing,” which I decided to ignore.

After that, the students were supposed to get into groups of 4-6 and talk about their favorite hobbies. I put up some questions on the board to keep the conversations going: Is your hobby difficult? Is it expensive? Why do you like it? Is it a group activity or something you do alone? Would you recommend it to others? etc. I could tell by the buzz in the room that the conversations were going well.

At the end of their small group discussions, I called on students representing different groups to share what they had talked about with everyone else. Again, most of the answers were nothing to write home about. “I like listening to music because it makes me feel relaxed. And I think Lady Gaga is the best!” “I like sleeping because then I don’t have to sleep in class.” But then we got to a small, quiet guy in the back of the class. This is what he said (other than correcting the grammar, I promise I am not making this up!)

“I like kissing. Maybe for some people it is difficult, but for me it is not. I am good at it! It is not an individual hobby; it is something I do with someone else” [to which the class responded – “Who? Who?” and he just smiled] “It is not an expensive hobby, but it is a nice hobby. It gives me energy. I recommend it to others!”

No comments: