Funny Classroom Moments

Teaching English can be a fun and hilarious adventure. I often have moments in the classroom where I am laughing too hard to teach the students anything, but that is when the best learning happens because the students let their guard down and just speak.

What are you saying??
One day I was teaching verbs. Verbs can be fun because there are a lot of actions you can do with them. Plus some of them are the words the students want to learn so they can say more then the ABCs and count to you as you walk home. Anyway, some of the students will pronounce the English words with Hungarian pronunciation so that they can spell them correctly. I usually do not say anything about this because when it comes time to say them they pronounce it somewhat correctly.
Well we got to the word sit. The students were in pairs and they were using the verbs in several forms and tenses. The assignment was to come up with some sentences about their partners. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Hungarian language, the s in Hungarian is pronounced sh. So when Zoli stood up and stated rather confidently Zsofi is shitting on the chair, I had to laugh. I calmly stated Zoli it is sitting on the chair in my best English teacher pronunciation. We get to the next pair of students and Lina says Atilla loves shitting in sports cars. I had to stop the class and explain to them at that point what they were saying, they were a little embarrassed, but I have not heard that mistake again.

Morning Introductions
This one didn't happen in the classroom, but rather on my way home on day. I was walking my route to my flat and I can hear the pounding of shoes on the pavement behind me. I turn, because by now I know that it is a student who is hurrying to me probably to just say Good morning a dozen times even though it is not morning anymore. The student, who is not in my class, looks at me and states, Take your seats, and smiles. I ask tessek? What? And he boldly states Take your seats. I say OK, and give him a high five, to which he is satisfied and walks home. The next day I ask his English teacher why he would say this and she says Every morning when I walk in his classroom all the students are running around so I say Take your seats. I laugh and realize that this student must think this is the mornings greeting.