That punk student sure can dance

Word plays.

Ahhh the joys of teaching in your second language. I had my first unfortunate encounter with a student last week. For the most part, the kids are adorable. They come up to me in the hall with these wide eyes and I know that they are contemplating if they should speak to me in English or in Slovene. I've gotten quite a few timid 'Hello's, and a couple of 'How are you?'s. I've also gotten my fair share of 'A bo?' Which literally means 'Will it?'.
'Ja, mislim, da bo'.

One little punk, however, decided to talk back to me. The teacher that I work with left the room during a pretest and the students immediately started talking. I, not wanting to reveal my growing knowledge of Slovene grammar, told the students that I expected them to be quiet during the test. In English. This kid looks right at me, and then repeats, also in English, exactly what I said. Then they continued talking.

After a few seconds of my death stare, I cleared my throat and said again, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthis time in Slovene: Students, listen up. It is necessary that everyone is quiet until the tests are finished. Do you understand?

Silence. It was beautiful. Thank you Marta Greenberg for being the best darn lektorica in the world. I will forever cherish that moment in my mind.


You may wonder what happened in the end: I had a conversation in the hall with the student (whom I actually like very much and think is very delightful), told my co-teacher about it, and then heard a little more about this student. Apparently he's famous... I guess Slovenia does have Talent, and I guess KCK is not the only place where I can pick up a few moves.