More Learning English from the News
Some of you must remember learning from the news story about solving traffic problems. That was a bit difficult because the real meaning of the story was not so obvious. Students had to really listen carefully to get the humor. Here is another news story, but this time the humor seems obvious, maybe TOO obvious. Still, for me this is quite funny. Your job as students is to try identify WHAT, specifically, is funny about what the people say. Click on the link below, watch the video, then come back here with your comments! Try to give specific sentences that you think are funny and explain why.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JUu8sHpH6Y
Nafis Said,
June 16, 2008 @ 7:31 pm
Dear teacher Joe,
I found two things funny. First of all, the customer does not have any plan to complain against that fast food restaurant because of convenience to his home. It shows that when people feel comfortable they do not want to take actions even though they have been in a really disgusting and strange situation.
Another subject is funny for me is the manager who says that they wanted people to give any information about the head or if someone lost his/her head. I think it is funny because officials always try to give stupid reasons for their irresponsibilities. I do not know why but they think people can not understand stupid reasons, which is not correct.
Regards,
em dinh Said,
June 16, 2008 @ 8:18 pm
A supprise to find a human head betwen the tomato and salas, and he still want to come back this story because it close to his house,
the manager still find out where the head come from.
teacherjoe Said,
June 17, 2008 @ 1:45 am
Nafis and Em Dinh,
I think you “hit the nail on the head” (you are exactly right) about the customer coming back because it is close to his house. Too often in today’s world we focus on convenience over quality. I think I do it too, although I hope I would not accept a horse’s head in my sandwich!
The manager, as Nafis pointed out, is quite funny too. But she made one other comment that really made me laugh. What do you think that is?
Nafis Said,
June 17, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
Dear teacher Joe,
I heard something else from the manager but it was not clear for me. I could not hear it very well but I thought that she said they were better than hotels. I guess she wanted to say that their foods are better than hotel’s food even though there were a head in a hamburger.
Regards,
teacherjoe Said,
June 17, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
Nafis,
Very good guess! Wrong, but good nonetheless!! (*_*)
She did not say “hotel food”. Actually, she said “No, it’s not bad at all, compared to…” and then there were THREE words. That’s one of the hard things about English, catching word combinations when spoken fast. Please try again. I’m pretty sure you can get it now.
david Said,
June 17, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
Hey Teacher Joe,
I love the way that you use fresh news article and video clips to teach the students “real” English. I bet they love it.
teacherjoe Said,
June 17, 2008 @ 2:21 pm
My students do seem to love it. Today I was showing my students The Terminal, where Tom Hanks gets stuck in an airport and has to try to live there even though he can’t speak English. My class could appreciate how he learned to say things like “wet floor”, or “sensible heels” just by reading signs around him. He also stood in the bookstore all day reading magazines and read guidebooks at night. He is now a great role model for my kids!
Unfortunately, I just found out that my boss does NOT appreciate my choice of “textbooks”. He has announced that we should use “real” textbooks in our classes instead of having “fun lessons that teach nothing”. He has never learned another language, so his idea of language acquisition is “study grammar from a textbook, take a test, repeat”. I want to go to sleep just thinking about it.