Welcome to
ESL Printables,
the website where English Language teachers exchange resources:
worksheets, lesson plans, activities, etc.
Our collection is growing every day with the help of many teachers. If
you want to download you have to send your own contributions.
Many times I �ll be holding the flashcard and going "How do you say, for example, car in English"? My students just laugh when I do that and unfortunately (or not.. the kids seem to get a kick out of it!!) it happens way too often! lol
I think it �s because we are bilingual and sometimes you don �t even know what language you are speaking!
Once I wanted my students to get in line. They were very talkative that day so I raised my voice and instead of saying "Go get in line", I said "Go take a bath". I still wonder why I said that. Anyway.. they all burst out laughing at me.
One of my favorite films is Monsters Inc. It �s an animated film by Pixar, so, of course, there are no bloopers - but for fun, they added bloopers at the end of the film as if it were a real film with live actors!!
When telling the little girl at the end to go into her bedroom, Billy Crystal �s figure says: Go on, go on and throw up. of course he was meant to say - Go on, go on and grow up!!
Liberty and Zora, I�m in the same boat. Hebrew has picked up a lot of English words, I often get caught saying how do you say ..... in English.
In Hebrew, verbs change according male and female and to make things worse, a lot of first names are unisex. Thinking a girl was a boy, I addressed her as such. I realized my mistake when the other kids started teasing her. It took a lot of talking to get her to forgive me. I felt terrible. 12-15 year olds are especially sensitive.
So here it goes mine (a fresh one, from today �s class). I was to ask one of the students (Piotr) what "cushion" means. And out of the sudden I adressed him: Pietruszka, tell me ... All students burst out laughing and I didn �t even notice.
(cushion is "poduszka" in Polish and "pietruszka" means parsley). I hope you understand :)
winky2, I understand, because in Russian these words are almost the same. When I studied in Germany one of my neighbours in hostel was a Polish guy. when we were out of german or english words, he spoke Polish, and I - Russian and Ukrainian. It was so funny because some words have absolutely opposite meaning but sound in the same way. several times i was even embarrassed...
Hi, by
reading your mistakes I feel awful since most of they are related to words... I
think mine was really bad. I had this 20 kids class and there was a boy who I
always named "Andres" and he answered whenever I asked him something.
When I was grading the exams I read "Hector" and I asked aloud,
"Who is Hector? I don �t know anyone name Hector in this class" So
everyone started to laugh while he said, "I �m Hector, but you always call
me Andres". I was so embarrassed and to tell you the truth I couldn �t stop
laughing by my mistake that I had to step out and relax... I still feel ashamed
and now I learn all the names the first class.
Julianbr - that �s just brilliant! I was telling my husband about your story and could barely stop laughing to tell it.
Here �s another story but it wasn �t in the classroom. A friend was in Sweden with colleagues. They �d just watched a band play and the lead singer was this gorgeous girl. After they stopped playing one of his colleagues in an attempt to start up a conversation with the girl asked her "Are you finished? " (he meant: finished playing) She turned round and said "No, I �m Swedish". And that was that!!! Should have studied his present perfect better!
Oh, and one day one of my students told me they were "constipated". I thought mm, thanks for sharing but that �s just a bit too information for me.
Turned out "estoy constipado" means I have a cold in Spanish!
Hi! I read all your stories and I �m afraid I have a really embarrassing one. Years ago I taught a class in which there was a boy with only one hand (he had an accident). So, I was asking questions and he was supposed to say something like "I wash my hands". Instead he said "I wash my hand". I immediately tried to correct him - without thinking at all - People have two hands... You can imagine how we both felt. Of course I apologised and tried to explain to him that I responded without thinking and that I had told him what I would have said to any other pupil. I was still an inexperienced teacher - and very young back then, but when I remember it I always feel awful.
Oh, Vicky, I can just imagine how you feel... when we have those bad experiences, it hurts just remembering them. I hate it when I make a similar mistake with kids when we talk about their families and it turns out they come from a broken home, really broken, or their father died or sth, so I �m really extra careful with that, too. But your heart is in the right place and I guess kids feel that more than words.
Btw, people, I love these bilingual mistakes - they can be made into a great classroom activity, too. Saskush, the names thing happened to me this autumn - I have 2 new sts in my class who look almost like twins, but aren �t related at all, and I keep mixing their names up, and it �s been about a month and a half, and I did it again yesterday, but they only laughed and said �We can forgive you anything!!! � (not sure their parents would, though)
My students just laugh when I do that and unfortunately (or not.. the kids seem to get a kick out of it!!) it happens way too often! lol 
