I just finished up grading about 20 exams. Another 20 or so to go! It’s fun to be a teacher, but the not so fun part is the grading of tests, exams, and papers. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could sit down and take your time doing it, but usually you get all exams of all classes at the same time, due to school logistics and you have 10 days to grade them all. Add the fact that my school decided to make bigger classes last year, due to budget cuts, so that having to grade 2 classes of students equals to at least 40 tests instead of 30. That adds about 2 hours of grading, but it’s not like I actually got those hours to work on it. Grading however can be fun, as students come up with the most ingenious phrases.
Grading also becomes more bearable with tea & cookies!
Here are a few of the gems I have encountered so far:
(Note: the topics of the exam are making a promotional leaflet for War Child and a promotional text for a hotel’s website)
- children die an unnatural death
- with a beautiful vieuw overseas (includes the typo)
- a place where are no primair necessaries of life
- bring back the joyfulness in their lifes
- that question lies easy -> my favorite. Literal Dutch – English translations anyone?
- this will be in charge for us
- The bullets fly around their heads
- Movotel Brighton has a fantastic view over the Northsea -> Brighton is on the SOUTH coast of England facing the Channel… but that’s beside the point of course.
- Original is “Stel nou eens dat het jou overkomt?!” -> Now, represent it overcomes you?
- On the roof there is a beamer -> about facilities in conference rooms
- Secondly, you run the risk of winning a journey to Afghanistan
- The south coast of England is a very shaggy landscape
- You have it more than good in your life!
Some of these probably aren’t all that funny if you don’t understand Dutch, but you get the main idea.
4 responses to “The joy of being a teacher”
Mijn engels is ook vreselijk (vandaar dat ik stug in het nls blijf reageren ;)) maar ik vergeet nooit meer dat tijdens een proefwerk een vriendin haar proefwerk even aan mij gaf zodat ik het door kon lezen voor haar. Haar engels was heel slecht en ik zou even snel kijken of ik de ergste fouten eruit kon halen. Het moest gaan over je vakantie en de eerste zin die ik lees is: I are going to the bitch. Ze was hier al 18 jaar en ik denk niet dat ik ooit harder gelachen heb, hahaha!
OMG dies wel heel leuk! En in NL reageren mag hoor. Dat snap ik ook 😉
[…] A few months ago I posted on some of the wonderful English mistakes my students came up with during their exams. It’s that time again. Last week, my students had to sit another exam and here’s some of the wonderful language gems they came up with. Note: even I, a teacher, with every wish to understand them, sometimes don’t know what it is they’re trying to say. It’s okay if you don’t. […]
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