students say funny things, so i think i'm going to start posting more of their malapropisms and their funny language-learning mistakes.
Today we were learning comparative phrases (he's nicer than she is; she is better than them, etc.)
Just like in English, you can't say "more good" (mais bom), instead saying a different word like better (melhor). I told my students that they should NEVER say "mais bom" because it was ugly. So one student took the "more" ending -er and added it to "bom" that's said like [bõ]--a really nasal vowel [o]. So what did he say? "Ele é bom-er de seu amigo." It sounded really bad, especially with the nasalized vowel: ele é bõ-er de seu amigo.
My back was to my students, as I was writing on the whiteboard. I lost it and started to laugh. I felt bad but it was funny.
Lesson #1, do not add English word endings to foreign words.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
students funnies
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4 comments:
But WHY?? It's so easy that way!
I admit that I started cracking up when all my students started asking how many "anos" people had (they didn't nasalize the n). Then of course they had to know what the problem is...
Or there's the guy in 101 who suddenly blurted out "oh, that's why you don't say me gusto" when we were talking about reflexive verbs. Then he turned red. Only at BYU.
Sometimes it is fun to mix English with other languages. I mean look at the menu at Taco bell. Grilled stuffed burrito....for instance... Ok. I guess they aren't really mixing endings though.
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