So sometimes it's not just a vocabulary or grammatical issue that makes communication difficult...
Today was the birthday of one of the teachers at my school. Being the narcissistic person that she is, she brought in cookies for everyone and left them in the teachers' lounge with a note declaring that it was her birthday and that she was kind enough to bring these in for everyone to share. (I'm not joking, that's the rough translation of the note.) Then at the break she insisted that everyone within about 30 meters of her give her the bisous (cheek kisses) and wish her a happy birthday. Then she wrote a note on the board in the teachers' lounge that she would be using the arts and crafts room from 1:30 - 2:15 (right before I teach her kids). She proceeded to elaborate that it was for une petite boum for her class. That's right, she was throwing herself a birthday party and invited her class to go. I wasn't the only one who thought this was odd, one of the other teachers made a comment, but I digress.
So when I arrived to the classroom they were all still off partying but they had drawn all over the board with birthday wishes. And "Happy 24th Birthday" was a popular phrase. Don't get me wrong, I knew this was a joke. If the woman is a minute under 38 I'll be shocked into oblivion. So at the end of the class, like always, I said "So I'll see you again what day?" and the students answered "Thursday". So I piped in "And actually Thursday is MY birthday." The teacher looked up and I decided to go for the joke so I said, "I'll be one year younger than you!" to the teacher. She looked confused so I abandoned the joke and went for clarification and said "I saw your Happy 24th Birthday wishes on the board..." to which she replies "That was a joke" and then gave me a look that said nothing less than "you are the dumbest person I've ever laid eyes on". I tried to salvage my pride and dignity, but it was too late.
Moral of the story? Unless you're REALLY confident in your language skills don't attempt jokes.
2 comments:
I'll make a full post about this soon, but to make you feel better:
Ben has discovered the "knock knock" joke. His most recent invention:
Knock knock
Who's there?
Robin.
Robin who?
Oh, so I see you are the king of stealers (prince of thieves).
Oie. It's a good thing he's so cute . . .
well i thought it was funny! :-) also, sorry i haven't written anything about lavender...but i will and soon.
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