I Couldn’t Have Said it Better Myself

This summer as I was anticipating what life was going to be like in the eighth-grade classroom, the biggest variable that made planning hard was that I didn’t know what my students’ English language proficiency was going to be.

I need not have worried. Almost without exception, my students speak beautiful, idiomatic English. In fact, when writing, some of them have a downright prodigious vocabulary.

We’ve been doing a lot of writing lately. The kids write well. But, once in a while some non-standard English does slip into their writing. I suspect this is a result of doing a more-or-less, direct translation from Cantonese. Or it could just be the result of a fourteen-year-old trying to express him or herself. Following are three of my favorite gems from some recent personal narratives.

“We went down the lift and were about to ride the bus while my sister was carrying an angry heart because of what I’d said.” From another student “She just said that she understood me, and now she goes wrongly with the facts.” And from one of the boys: “A few days later the Principal came looking very serious. He said to me ‘Come to my office and we’ll have a talk.’ It was silent in my head after that.”

Wow. I love that.

“Carrying an angry heart”

“Now she goes wrongly with the facts.

“It was silent in my head.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself

-Jack