Teaching English in a Globalized World

What's fascinating about teaching English as a foreign language is that you're asked to carefully examine your native language every day. You think you know your native language until people ask you to explain it. Like, why is it correct to say, "I live in a beautiful little old white house" but a native speaker would never say - although the words are identical in both sentences - "I live in a white beautiful old little house?" It’s because in English grammar there are rules about adjective order. It's grammatically correct to first list quality/opinion (“beautiful”), then size (“little”), then age (“old”), then color (“white”). Native speakers adopt and apply this rule intuitively; if you're learning English as a foreign language, you’ll need an explicit explanation.

One of my roles as an English teacher is to serve as a "walking English dictionary." Students, friends, and other teachers frequently ask me to define words (“What does X mean?”) or differentiate between two words (“What’s the difference between X and Y?”). They’ll also frequently give me the definition and ask me for the corresponding word (“What’s a word that means...?”) Teaching English as a foreign language is like a never-ending game of 20 Questions, Taboo, or Catch Phrase.

If I say a word that my students don’t know, I have quite a few ways to try to help them understand the word’s meaning. If the word is an object that’s physically present at the time of the conversation, I’ll point to it. Sometimes it’s a game of Charades and I’ll act out the meaning of the word. In select circumstances, I’ll draw it (although 98% of the time my terrible drawings lead to confusion and laughter, not understanding – this is not a method I resort to unless I’m very, very confident in my ability to draw a decent picture of the word). With very abstract or very advanced vocabulary, it’s often necessary to consult a Polish-English dictionary.

90% of the time, I try to explain the unknown word with other words I think the students know. Sometimes it’s surprisingly challenging to convey the meaning of a new word to students. But what’s amazing is that when two or more people are committed to having a conversation, both parties will work very hard to communicate and will happily work through any difficulties or language roadblocks.

Over the past two years, I've developed into quite a good "walking English dictionary." But there are days when I'm waiting for someone to jump out from behind a tree and snatch away my “native speaker” status because I'm having a difficult time describing a word to my students. Yesterday was one of those days.

It’s my last week teaching and I’m having lots of parties with my classes. Every class voted on the activity/theme of their party. My 8^th grade girls voted for a Mexican cooking party and everyone offered to contribute one ingredient we’d need to make tacos, guacamole, pico de gallo, and Shirley Temples. (Yes, I know Shirley Temples are not a Mexican drink, but I’ve always ordered them at Mexican restaurants and I love them.) I said I’d buy the ground beef for the tacos and the grenadine and maraschino cherries for the Shirley Temples. We’d also need lemon-lime soda for the Shirley Temples and I decided to ask one of the students to buy a couple liters. And here’s where the game of 20 Questions / Taboo started.

Me: "Can someone bring lemon-lime soda?"

(No volunteers.)

Me: "You know, like lemon-lime soda pop?" (I know "soda" and "pop" are American-English terms and I'm trying to remember what the British-English term for "soda pop" is and I'm drawing a blank...)

A brave student: "Like lemon juice?"

Me: "No, not lemon juice. Like Cola-Cola but lemon-lime."

A very honest student: "We don't understand."

(I decide to resort to a little Polish because I didn't know how to proceed without translating a little bit. I always prefer to try to describe the word in English even if I know the Polish equivalent, but I'm having a difficult time thinking of alternate explanations for "lemon-lime soda." It's still tricky because I don't know the Polish word for "soda pop." Although I've lived here for two years, I've never actually bought soda pop at a store.)

Me: "Okay, you know "lemon" - in Polish "cytryna" and you know "lime" - in Polish "wapno" or "limonka."

Students: "Yes."

Me: "And this is a sweet drink, like Coca-Cola, but it is lemon and lime flavored. And it's with gas – ‘gazowane.’"

An enlightened student: "Ah-ha! Lemon water with gas!"

A (more) enlightened student: "No, like lemon seltzer water!"

Me: "No, it's not water. It's like Coca-Cola but it's not brown, it's clear like water, it’s the same color as water. And it's lemon-lime."

A tentative student: "Are you talking about Sprite?"

Me: "Yes, Sprite!"

Oh, right. They have Sprite here. Yes, Sprite. That’s what I meant all along. Bring that.

It's one globalized world out there and sometimes this “walking human dictionary” forgets it.