So one of my duties since the end of summer programs has been to teach English classes for several hours a day. Me and another western staff member teamed up and created a list of topics to cover and made lessons and materials to teach them with. We split the group of students into three classes: beginner, intermediate, and advanced (don't laugh, but I brilliantly named them red, yellow, and green for easy reference). We tried to cover topics that would be beneficial to them; things that would help them to do their job better and words they could use in day-to-day life.
One day, we were teaching them English names of different tools and construction materials. One of the service projects that is common among all of our programs worldwide is building homes, schools, and community meeting places. Being able to use construction terminology with the students is crucial, especially for safety reasons. So we took this class for a walk and visited a construction site that happened to be on Rustic property, and talked about the different words for things. The guys were excited to be able to say "hammer" and "saw" and "shovel". They were picking these words up quickly, so as their teachers, we were equally excited!
The next day as a review, we pulled up pictures on Google Images of the same tools and materials we had seen on site the previous day. They remembered almost all of the names! And then we got to "cement".
(A little side note here: Even the local guys who have been speaking English for a while still have a pretty strong accent. In their languages, they tend to not stress or just drop the consonant at the end of the word. This is something we have been fighting them on from day one. "No, not hou....houSe." Pronunciation has been a HUGE part of our lessons. We try to make sure they not only know the word, but say it correctly. But that part of their first language is so deeply ingrained.)
I clicked the mouse, and the picture of cement was projected on the wall. In unison all of the Thai, Lao, and Cambodian guys yell out "cemen!". I immediately giggle. All of the students also giggle. They have no idea why I am laughing, but they join in anyway. My fellow teacher goes around and says "cemenT" and has each of them repeat it. But they keep saying "cemen". So of course my inner 12 year old wins out over 25 year old professional, and by the third student I'm hanging off of my chair, tears in my eyes, laughing hysterically. (To keep things at least PG13, I'm not going to explain this one...hopefully by now the adults have caught on.) The other teacher finally stops and looks at me questioningly. So between laughs I manage to get out, "William, really? CEMEN?!?!" He just stares for a minute, and I watch as understanding slowly changes his expression. His hands immediately go to rest against his forehead as he says, "Oh." I'm still cracking up, which in turn is making the students crack up. So being the top-notch teachers that we are, we had to stop the lesson and explain the difference between "cement" and "semen".
Long story short, the remainder of class entailed William explaining in Thai the difference between the two words, the students realizing why I had been laughing so hard (and then them laughing for a good 5 minutes, because they too had inner 12 year olds), and William acting out "semen" charades style. If I could have caught that on video, it would have billions of views. Oh, the things we do in the name of education!
We've had some fun classes, but I will remember that class until the day I die!
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