Thursday, March 05, 2009

Thursday Blog Game: Translations from Last Week

OK, here are your translations. Remember, I showed them a string of pictures of and about Seattle to spark their creativity. Maybe I should have you guess what they are saying again...? Nah, OK, here you go:

Alex- easy to understand. Alex is a genius. He is one of those kids who might solve a major mathematical equation for the good of society someday.

Michael - "When I come to Seattle, a fish will be playing with my head." (I showed them a picture of the fish throwing at Pike Place. Michael spent his childhood in Russia...that's why he sounds so different than the others.)

Tommy - "I heard that if I come to Seattle, that salmon could eat our head." (In response to a picture of a 5 ft. salmon catch.)

Annie- she speaks the truth!

Mindy-Well, most of the time it is, except for January, February, March and April...

Sam - What the heck is he saying? It sounds like "I hear that Seattle people put their hair like chickens." What do you think he's saying?

Tom - "I heard that the Seattle Troll eats Hondas for breakfast, Mitsubishis for lunch and ....Hondas for dinner (I think he messed up on that one, but it is in reference to the picture of the Fremont Troll holding the Volkswagen.)

Lisa- "I hear that the Seattle Troll finds cars delicious."

Ami - Where did she hear that?

Lucky - Sorry that my student is so offensive!

After we filmed Part 2 (just yesterday), the whole class insisted, "It sounds more funny in Vietnamese!" And just to let you know, the word for "enormous" in Vietnamese is an "especially funny" word.

Right after filming these, we went back to the book about the Holocaust. It's a good book for 6th grade because it is about how the Danish Resistance was able to smuggle the majority of Jews to safety in Sweden; it's perhaps one of the most positive stories to come out of the Holocaust, and being only 6th graders, they don't need to know all of the horrors just yet. But this class...you wouldn't believe their questions: Why did Hitler do this? Why did Germany allow it? Wasn't Germany Christian? How could they call themselves Christians and do this? What is the difference between Catholic and Protestant? Why were so many people against the Jews?

Sometimes this class gets way behind because of their question - asking, and they wear me out trying to think of appropriate answers. They are pure energy...they make everything I plan turn to gold; they cheer when we start a new book. They are so competitive that I had to get rid of the point system that works for my other four classes, so now we have "no point parties."

I have mentioned this before, but it sounds like a Twilight Zone class, doesn't it?

10 comments:

Dad said...

Neat kids, Marjie. Thanks for the translations.

Anonymous said...

Lucky has given me quite a complex.

Anonymous said...

So, did anyone win the contest?

Marjie said...

Mungo, I have changed Thursdays to "Thursday Blog Game." You see, my contestents were not really reading the directions very well, and it was causing me a lot of stress. So I went with a more gentle word: "game" is so much better. Dontcha think?

By the way, your John Denver DVD/Karaoke video is on its way!!

Anonymous said...

What? People weren't reading the directions very well??? Wow, that's strange... I don't know who would have been doing that.

Looking forward to the big JD!

By the way, is Lucky a big Sir-Mix-A-Lot fan?

Anonymous said...

They were right; funnier in Vietnamese. Funnier yet is the Seattle you presented to them: trolls, fish, and Bill Gates.

Now, a moment to clarify: as soon as I win a contest, you cancel prizes?

Yah, well, that's how my week is going.

Brian Bowker said...

Oh my gosh I killed the Blog Contest Thursdays because I didn't carefully read the directions...!

I think you've spent too much time teaching abroad and now expect too much from us Americans.

Marjie said...

Amy, you get a prize for just being in the band. What do you want?

Brian, that will teach you!

Anonymous said...

The most wonderful class, and it is so great how American some of their accents sound!

Michelle said...

I really had hoped to meet your students while I was there. Now I'm really sorry I didn't make time for that!! what great kids, they are lucky to have you as their teacher and it seems you're lucky to have them!!