To Laugh or not to Laugh...
Silvie Bilková, Czech Republic
Silvie Bilková teaches at Masaryk University Language Centre and is based at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Probably all of us teachers we know the following situation: we explain something to our students, which they seem to understand, and then they make a mistake. And then again and again and again, always the same mistake. How many times have I told my students that there is a big difference between a customer and a costumer, saying a costumer does not come to a shop to buy something? Saying that stock, pronounced [ʃtok], thus a kind of spirit, is not the same as a stock, which means a type of security? These kinds of mistakes drive us crazy in lessons but then, at breaks, I talk about them with my colleagues and we laugh at them.
Moreover, I started realising that I like them. Firstly, if students do not make mistakes, why should we, teachers, be in classrooms? What shall we do when students know everything perfectly? And, secondly, it is impossible not to make mistakes. We all make them. It is a natural process, for by mistakes we learn as a famous saying says.
Therefore, me and my colleagues we have decided not to cry and lament over them but do the exact opposite: laugh at them and collect them.
To laugh or not to laugh at mistakes of our students? This is not a question for us anymore. We have decided to laugh so do laugh with us.
Taken from translation exercises, the following mistakes were made by students of the Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Brno, the Czech Republic. The file might work as inspiration to start collecting your students’ mistakes as well.
| STUDENT’S VERSION | REQUIRED, CORRECT VERSION |
| raw home product | gross domestic product |
| team ghost | team spirit |
| tax scratches | tax cuts |
| prices cut for a while | temporary reduced prices |
| lose and gain account | profit and loss account |
| final statement | income statement |
| import and export sheet | balance of payments |
| paused income tax | deferred income tax |
| beliefness of the company | trustworthiness of the company |
| trustability of the company | trustworthiness of the company |
| a few times ago | recently |
| a lot of tenth years | several decades |
| exited information | leaked information |
| extra money | bribe |
| taking money under the desk | bribing |
| water here | local water source |
| action | share |
| essence share | common share |
| without sight on | regardless |
| and plus | moreover |
| to bubble the estimation | to exaggerate estimation |
| revival energies | renewable energies |
| restoration energies | renewable energies |
| windy, sunny, and watery electricities factories | wind, solar and hydroelectric power plants |
| in impression of energetic companies | in the interest of energy companies |
| long-term keepable growth | sustainable growth |
| maintable improvance | sustainable growth |
| estimates of stockings | stock estimates |
| travel chain | conveyor belt |
| exogenous supplier | external supplier |
| unemployementancy | unemployment |
| higher clean of entertainment setting | higher transparency of business environment |
| higher visibility of business space | higher transparency of business environment |
| higher watching of entrepreneur area | higher transparency of business environment |
| to say good word | to pray |
| someone without job | freelancer |
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.
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