Today I told my students that due to interpreter cost-cutting measures at the European Union, the French language would be abolished and all French speakers would be forced to learn Chinese or English.  The reactions of my first two classes was predictable: "Would I have to retake my language credit?" and "Dang miss you gon' be outta job!!"  But the kids in my 8th period were actually excited.  "Ooooooh snaps!  I'ma do Chinese!!"

Of course it was "poisson d'avril", or April Fool's Day, but the reactions were strong.

Which makes me think that our language program of simply French and Spanish is definitely under-serving the curiosity of our students.  In related news, we are getting a new faculty member soon because of the number of students coming from our feeder schools expanding (almost doubling).  Can you speak Spanish as a native and at least one other language, preferably Chinese or Latin, and do you have your certification in Pedagogy in Texas?  No?  Neither does anyone else.  I hope we get someone at least close to able to meet our needs and who wont run screaming from our disrespectful kids. 



In other news, two days ago I went through about 20 minutes of an exam in one period without realizing that there was a small boy (a student at the school but not in any of my classes) crouching underneath a table where his friends were sitting.  I'm sure he thought he could talk and joke around, but during tests the room is completely silent, so he was just sitting there.  Eventually I saw a kid looking under the table quite a bit and finally saw the little twerp.  Sigh.

And as far as stories of my naivete go:  We are studying reflexive verbs in spanish, one of which is "peinarse," to comb one's hair.  Well we were working with the negative commands (aka, "don't comb your hair") and the form that this specific verb takes is:
No te peines.

Every time I went over this the class would burst out laughing.  Unfortunately, it was not until the very last period that I realized this phrase sounds vaguely like "No the penis."  I didn't laugh in class but had quite a chuckle after the students left.  Can't believe it took me that long.