cute student story of the day, take one and two

     there's something about hearing one's own native language spoken by non-native speakers that makes it infinitely more cute. i can imagine that there would be exceptions, (a certain german geography professor comes to mind), but at least in my immediate sphere as an esl teacher and the wife of a non-native speaker of english living in a foreign country, i am pretty much surrounded by cuteness all day, every day. maybe some of the parties involved or uninvolved would take issue with that, but i won't apologize. it is what it is. and for me, it just happens to be one of my greatest joys. and with that introduction i bring you what will furthermore be called "cute student story of the day," of which today i have two.
     story number one comes from a high school girl named romana, (who, by the way, is hopelessly adorable before she even says a word).  i affectionately call her romy. she told us that when she was younger she used to attend an after-school english club, and for whatever reason at one of the meetings she and her friend decided to pretend they were english singers (the language, not necessarily the nationality. i like to believe they were american), performing for a room of screaming fans (the other members of the club). so they got up on one of the desks and started to sing the only words they knew..the numbers from one to ten. but they sang those numbers with all their heart, dancing and soaking up the attention they were showered with..not to mention the monopoly money.
     story number two stands on its own for adorability factor, the level of which could only be multiplied if you could know its teller. she is a tax-auditing mother-of-two who likes to play badminton and takes ballroom dance lessons. her name is vladka. one day i asked how she and her husband had met. she said, "on a bus." he had been in a hospital in bratislava, trying (unsuccessfully) to dodge his military obligation. she had taken a job there, and was coming back from a short trip to vienna. she said she had not known what to expect as far as meals were concerned in vienna, so she purchased 6 kilos (13.2 pounds) of bananas for the trip. she didn't end up needing to eat them in austria, so she was eating one on the bus (while it was broken down) and her seatmate offered to throw away her peel. she offered him a banana, and the rest, as they say, is history.
     i love teaching.

testing, testing, raz, dva, tri...