WHAT'S A VARDAR?

i had my only class of freshmen today. i love 'em. unlike my sophomores, their English learning experience has yet to be tainted by an entire year of teachers droning on and on about something many of them couldn't care less about (due to the fact that in China, your parents determine your major, not not you. so, many students not only not care, but hate English.)

nope, my freshmen are just what the name implies: fresh. they come to class every week, all smiles, eager to learn, easy to teach, and open and ready to participate. they're like little tabula rasa's just waiting to be formatted!

this week we talked about jobs. and one of the first exercises i had them do was to name off all the jobs they could think of. after about 3 or 4 minutes, most of the job names they knew in English were exausted, so they turned to their books and dictionaries.

students once again bagan shouting differing occupations at me which i would then write on the board.

one of girl students, a small and shy girl of about 5'1" (with shoes), with a sweet and diminutive disposition to match, half shouted and half spoke and occupation from the back of the room. since she doesn't really talk much, i decided hearing and writing her job idea on the board would be a great opportunity for her to see how much she could contribute to the class if she wanted to.

so with that in mind, i steped off the platform in the front of the classroom (which makes me look like a basketball player, especially contrasted to my already small students) and walked back to her desk to have her say the word again to me, only a little louder this time.

again she spoke almost in wispers and i had to ask her a third time to say the word.

she said it again, and it sounded like she was saying 'vardar.'

well, as we all know, other than a random river in Europe, 'vardar,' ain't a word.

so, i asked her again what she said. 'vardar,' she replied once again.

many times, when i have students who have a fairly low speaking level, i have them spell the word they are trying to say for me... or sometimes i just smile, agree and move on... but this time, since i needed to write the word on the board, i didn't really have the smile jovially option.

so, i had her spell it. 'w-a-r-d-e-r,' she said, and then looked at me again desperately hoping that i finally understood her.

'warder?' i asked. 'is that a job?'

'of course mr. Jev,' she replied.

finally i couldn't take it anymore and looked at her English book to see exactly what was going on. and guess what, there it was in plain print: 'warder: the chief administrative officer in charge of a prison.'

WARDER!


...


FREAKIN' WARDER!


'oh! warden? oh! no, no, no, sorry, this is spelled wrong! it's W-A-R-D-E-N!'

needless to say, she felt silly for not knowing, which she shouldn't, and i felt silly because some moron in the States can't spell 'warden' correctly.


if i ever find that guy, i'm givin' him a knuckle sandwitch for China, me, and my sweet, confused student...







...







warder... idiot.