The Proposal Disposal Theorem

Not everything goes according to plan. That has been man’s biggest problem since his inception. You plan one thing and then it metamorphoses into a completely different situation. I’m starting with such an immensely deep thought to just share a few of the lighter moments of our classes These are instances from our various classes which have made us pull our hair/laugh/bang our heads/ and share it with everyone immediately after the class with everyone else. The students have also done the same and then some. I think regular followers of our blog have read Ian’s Experience a few years ago. For those who haven’t. I think you all should.

Instance 1

– CSWC 47 – “They are making use of the adjectives in the class for other times. It was good to see them putting them into practice, for instance, while we were in the metro train during the metro visit a male passenger stood half asleep and the look was such that his eyes appeared bulging out. Pooja saw this and could not help but laugh and from this the sentence “He is scary” came out. The only problem here being, he wasn’t really sleeping and then actually gave us all a “scary” look

Instance 2

– CSWC 45 – “I was really upset that one of the trainees wasn’t regular to class. And was on one of the ‘You need to be more regular’ lectures. Having finished the adverbs class just before this session, one of the friends of this student piped up “Ma’am, don’t scold him. He works hardly”. 

I tried to correct him saying “not 'hardly', he works 'hard'” 

He – “No ma’am, he works hardly. He hardly works sincerely. aap bina jane bol rahe ho” 

Me (in utter confusion)- but I agree with you, I know he is a hard worker. “No ma’am, he has got so many gold coins. He hardly deserves them.” 

The whole class supported him because he hardly works… 

Hardly a day where I would have won the argument.

Instance 3 

Listening skills – We were playing Chinese whispers and I gave the sentence “the saxophone sounds beautiful” Student – “ma’am yeh sab baatein aise nahi bolte. Shadi hone ke baad bolte hain.” (Ma’am these are not things that you should say before marriage)

Instance 4

Listening skills – in a rather peaceful discussion, suddenly I heard a commotion on the other side of the room. One of the guys just got up… and the next thing I know there are punches flying around. The lesson was crafty, and I was new, and the group dynamics were such that the whole situation promptly turned into a great fight. I was so shocked. I went in to separate them and tell them to quiet and calm down, which only happened after I pretended to get punched in my eye…in a purely Hindi film way… with my “ouch” there was a deathly silence, and me taking the Mickey out of them and scaring them was, well, a great way to just make everyone back to being friends.

Instance 5

– Certificate ceremony – we had asked a couple of students to share their learning with the crowd. All the students were talking about their English, Confidence, and their friendships, and learning experience. The last one to speak however decided that he wants to be different “I learnt how to talk to good looking girls, without being nervous”. When he saw the look on everybody’s faces, he said “whether people agree or not, I know that’s a secret wish every boy of my age has”

Aparna

(*not ALL these experiences are mine. other facilitators have contributed too)