Names have been changed to protect the innocent youngsters.
Scene: I am counting down from 10 to 1 while the kids are cleaning up.
Jenny: Count in Spanish Mr. Cheeseboy.
[I don't know Spanish, but they like me to count in Spanish for some reason and although I have to really think hard to count backwards from 10 in Spanish, I do my best. Somehow I succeed.]
Samantha: I can count backward from 10 in Vietnamese.
[Samantha is Vietnamese, so much to her delight, I allow her.]
Billy: Calvin is from China. Have him count in China-ese.
Mr. Cheeseboy: You mean Chinese?
Billy: Yeah.
[Much to Calvin's delight, he counts in Chinese.]
Samantha: What about Amanda? She is from Switzerland. She can count in Switzernese.
Mr. Cheeseboy: You mean German?
Samantha: No. That's what they speak in Germany.
Mr. Cheeseboy: Well, they speak it in Switzerland too.
Samantha: They speak two languages there?
Mr. Cheeseboy: No... I mean yes. I mean, they mostly speak German. There is no such thing as Switzernese.
[Amanda proudly counts backward from ten in German.]
Alexia: MY FAMILY IS FROM NORWEGIA!
Samantha: Do you know Nor-GIAN?
Alexia: No, it's like my Great, Great Grandpa was from there or something.
Samantha: Where is Norwegia?
Alexia: I think it's like where it is cold all the time or something.
Samantha: Where the Polar Bears live?
Alexia: Maybe. The pilgrims came from there, I think.
Mr. Cheeseboy: Pilgrims?
Alexia: Yeah, the guys that had the big boats.
Mr. Cheeseboy: You mean Vikings?
Alexia: No, pilgrims.
Billy: Where is your family from Mr. Cheeseboy?
Mr. Cheeseboy: Some of them are from Russia.
Billy: Are your sons from Russia?
Mr. Cheeseboy: No, they are from here.
Billy: Do they speak Rush-ANIAN there?
Mr. Cheeseboy: No Billy.
60 comments:
i love randomly inserting spanish words into everyday conversation.
it makes me feel well rounded.
Lol! You've got a regular mini-United Nations thing happening there! And they are SMART too!
My school is over 50% bilingual, but the second language is Spanish. I'm hopeless when it comes to foreign languages, though.
Latin in high school did help my SAT scores, though.
P.S. Did I dream about an Elton John post over here? I've seen him in concert more than 3 times, so it's not unimaginable that I have random day-blog-dreams about him. Especially since I imagine opposite day posts too.
Rush-Anian ~ you have to love it! Thanks for the post ~ now I can get back to being OCD about packing.
I know I should not use this space to promote something, but I will. Your post reminds me of a new line of cultural kids books I've been freelancing for... They're called Alphabet Kids and they're for small children, maybe you should check them out for your class. I may do some promo with bloggers, if I do, I'll be sure to include you (like send you a copy). The site is AlphabetKids.com check it out if you get a minute.
I could so relate to this. Loved it. Cute kids you got there. :)Adult Americans have actually asked me some of these questions. I am not kidding. :) Peace/ Jo.
ROFL aren't kids amazing and these ones certainly are as well as being pretty sharp in their own way. I love the bit about the Pilgrims best.
We have a large hispanic population at our school, and thus about 1/3 of my class speaks spanish. I will once in awhile speak a sentence or two of my very limited spanish into their conversations, and the looks on their little faces are so funny when they think I have really been understanding what they've been talking about!
lol that's funny!!! my son is in 1st grade sounds like things he would be asking :) hehhehe
This is very cute and funny. Perhaps you should tell the kids you speak Cheeseboyian.
Cheers,
Robyn
My family speaks Kentuckynese and I had a really hard time understanding them.
Hahaha. Love kids. I could listen to the ramble prattle on for hours and hours.
These kids are so funny. China-ese... LOL. That's a fun class you teach, Cheeseboy.
Funny post. Toodles!:)
You know what? I think if the pilgrims were vikings, history might be a fair bit different.
Or maybe not.
I failed history.
Which ones were the pilgrims again?
Maybe it's just the OCD mother in me but this post made me keep wondering if they'd ever get the classroom cleaned up with all this talk talk.
Alexia will be very disappointed about those pilgrims during a history class one day...
YOU WON!!! YOU WON!!! The competition was fierce, but you prevail. Send me your mailing info to janjanmomatgmail.com and an autism CD will be on its way to your door. I hope you and your sis-in-law learn boatloads from it. ( :
I love how kids cannot stand to be left out. You have a very diverse group. :)
Very diverse group you got there! For the longest time my daughter spoke Bri-neese, where everything had her own name in it..Bri-cited, Bri-lax, Bri-tired.
That is so cute and endearing. I'll bet there is never a dull moment in your classroom.
We speak Pennysltuckian in my parts! Hickville all the way.
Love it! I'm always happy to hear a constructive conversation that doesn't involve tattling or fighting!
Brilliant!
My favorite: Switzernese.
Great teaching, great post, thanks Mr. Cheeseboy!
How funny. I love the way kids think...I wish I could think that way. Your days sound delightfulesque!
Thanks for the grin.
Mary
What a blessing it would have been to have you as my teacher. Maybe you would have made me feel better about the lack of "r's" in my vocabulary!!
Hey, what happened to the i-pod post? I was going to leave a witty comment. Well...maybe it would have been witty...
I love when you post first grade stories!!!
Geez, you've got more diversity in your classroom than I have in my whole town.
Seriously they new how to count backward in Chinese? Sheesh. I feel stupid now.
I only speak English-ese and blogger-ese. :D
The logic is there. It makes sense to me.
It's like my kid...he says "five-teen" instead of "fifteen" because it's following a pattern.
This is so funny, I was laughing throughout, it's just like the absurd conversations I often overhear. Hilarious! :D
So amongst all the funny comments about their heritage did anyone ever reach ONE while counting??? haha, oh I would love your job somedays.
PS - good to see you guys the other night while we were putting that stupid swing set together.
Based on that conversation, MY knowledge of geography & languages is approximately at a Grade 2 level.
OH, and I also meant to ask if you had a "Yo-Yo master" in your classroom. Now THAT would be diverse.
(laughed so freaking hard at that clip by the way)
hahaha how entertaining, i love the innocent minds of children. you lucky man
sara
I officially miss first grade now. I want to go to Norwegia someday. The bilingual-ness of this generation officially surpasses me and threatens my authority and domination. Frightening.
Boy do I feel uneducated now!
Loving it! you have one of the best grades to teach... still wanting to learn & are interested too!
But I wonder too...
do your sons speak
Americancheese-glish?
I love the cute stuff kids come up with!!! Bella has had her fair share of zingers too and it's very entertaining!
God bless you for putting up with those little ones all day long...they are a riot!
HAHAHA too cute!!
Loved the Norwegian Pilgrims in particular! :) That was cute, Abe! Thanks!
kids say the darndest things...about different languages.
You know who can count in Spanish really well? Okay, I'll tell you. Bono. Have you heard him? He's a great random Spanish counter.
My grandmother, in her old age, decided she would no longer converse in English. She came over from Ireland as a young girl. So, for the last 5 years of her life, I had no idea what she was saying to me because she only spoke Irishese. Or more commonly known as Gaelic.
If you really wanted to, you could blow their minds with some of the combinations of locations and languages!
That is so adorable!! We (hubby, 6 y/o and I)do this alphabet country-city-continent-state game where you take turns naming one of the above places in alpha order. We get some good ones out of our son when he gets stuck (Mew Zealand, Zafghanistan, etc.). Maybe you should try this with your kids :-)
What no Yiddish or Navajo?
Another dear blog friend, Jason of the Jason show of www.thejasonshow.blogspot.com is a first grade teacher and also has these incredibly funny kid insights.
Thanks, you're a real Cheez Wiz.
Your kids needed to be at Nathan's school today. They had a Europe fair!
And I just read the comment that said you won a free autism CD that could benefit your sis-in-law. I hope that's me!
Ah, thanks for the giggles. Love me some children-ese!
Very cute. Sounds like you really teach a fun class. Thanks for swinging by and posting.
Have a wonderful day.
I bet every hour you could blog about a conversation like that in your classroom. So cute.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in your classroom, Cheese! I bet it's a riot!
Thanks so much for sharing this!
Little minds at work...I just love it. Sounds like you have a great class and they have a very patient teacher.
I love those cute little minds! I used to substitute teach and I just loved all the funny things they would say. You got one of the best jobs in the world! I have a nephew who said he could whistle in Spanish - now THAT takes talent!
Kids say the darndest things. I was at a magic show at a fair the other day and a 4 year old boy was asked by the magician what he would want as a present. The kid said a girlfriend. So cute and funny.
That is rad.
All of a sudden I want to be a teacher.
Have you ever read the Hank the Cowdog series by John R. Erickson?
That was truly a Hank and Drover conversation.
Oh, I remember that age so
well. How fun is your job that you get to listen to this random greatness all day, everyday? :)
Gotta love those odd, little conversations...
This just made my night.
I can't believe I haven't been following you!
I am now.
fromlazytolady.blogspot.com
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