2006-02-15

Amusing TV ad for Berlitz language schools.

One of my favourite language classroom stories is David Sedaris' "Jesus Shaves" from his essay collection Me Talk Pretty One Day.

In this essay Sedaris describes his beginner French class trying to explain the idea of Easter to a Muslim fellow student. The result is scarily similar to the conversations I hear, oh, pretty much every day from my students.

Excerpt:

The Poles led the charge to the best of their ability. "It is," said one, "a party for the little boy of God who call his self Jesus and . . . oh, shit."

She faltered, and her fellow countryman came to her aid.

"He call his self Jesus, and then he be die one day on two . . . morsels of . . . lumber."

The rest of the class jumped in, offering bits of information that would have given the pope an aneurysm.

"He die one day, and then he go above of my head to live with your father."

"He weared the long hair, and after he died, the first day he come back here for to say hello to the peoples."

"He nice, the Jesus."

"He make the good things, and on the Easter we be sad because somebody makes him dead today."

Part of the problem had to do with grammar. Simple nouns such as cross and resurrection were beyond our grasp, let alone such complicated reflexive phrases as "To give of yourself your only begotten son."

Posted by polarcanuck at 6:32 p.m.

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