Narrative essay tidbits

For their narrative writing project, I gave my students the following assignment: Write about a day in the life of someone who is living in a different subculture from you. The subculture can be real or fictional, and the person can either be a celebrity or someone ordinary.

The following excerpts are from some of those essays, showcasing my students’ creativity, but also some of their (rather amusing) spelling/grammar errors, often the kind that Word won’t mark.

But I know that if I don’t run, I will be the fried chicken.

I regret being a wicker man.

Miao were hospital; I met a girl Zhuoma who is a native people.

After having pig between two sheets for my breakfast…

When I find my venery, I will hoist the Jolly Roger…The ship didn’t have enough water to wash my hear. So the hear will very dirty. […] And we like to drink rum very much.

Martin in a cult of the street culture…he very loves the Michael Jackson, the 50 cent, and the LBJ.

I took my weapon and woke up a pig who slept next to me.
“Hey, my silly partner, I think at this moment there isn’t a good sleep time.”
“Oh, what’s happening? You interrupted my sweet dream.”

I knew that guy; he is Pamela’s boyfriend – Ken, the person who may like the handsome prince of Pamela’s dream. Though I thought he looked more like the servants of Pamela’s dream.

There are old woman live in there. She is sawing the clothes.

I opened my eyes and saw a large golden Buddha in front of me. Also, a special smell of incense surrounded in the hall. “My god, I don’t have religious beliefs, and why have you chosen me to be a monk?” I felt helpless.

“We will support you, Pasu. You go first, and I need to install the programs about the usage of wooden stick,” Neo said dispassionately.
“You installed the usage of stick last time; there have any difference between stick and wooden stick?” I ask.
“Wooden stick will break easily, so that the usage is different,” he said.

After the classes, it was a happy hour time. I watched the Chinese opera with my beautiful concubine…After I finished dinner, I take a bath and change clothes, then I go to sleep with my lovely concubine.

She thought mike would make me stronger and bread was good tasting with mike. […] In fact, before I practice my radeo, I should feed my horse first, a little black horse. I called it omg, because it always surprised me.

Originally, I should have a lunch with my friends. But my mom said that I had to eat the food which made from the palace kitchen. First of all, my lunch is under the menu which the dietician formulated for my physical condition. Second, it is about my safety. Because I am a princess, maybe some one will use me to threaten my parents. For these reasons, I had to eat something that was not dedicious enough but healthy enough.

Fulbright film stars?

Last week when we first got down to thinking about how to plan a prom in 2 weeks, we worried about generating enough publicity to encourage students to come, especially since it was the end of the semester when many of them have exams (especially our own EELC102 students, who had an exam the next day). We batted around the idea of a video that could be shown on the TV screens around campus, but didn’t start writing or anything, first deciding to concentrate on a poster and asking the other ELC teachers to tell their classes.

Last Monday/Tuesday, however, we got serious. In a late-night flurry of inspiration, Sam/Susan/I hammered out an outline involving a couple getting ready for prom…but how could we make it funny? Throw in a fairy godmother…err, god-uncle, some McDonalds, a rockin’ soundtrack, and ta-da! For your watching pleasure, I present the promotional video for City Lights:

Seriously, making this thing will probably be one of my most hysterical memories from this year as an ETA. From Tom threatening to stuff a French fry up Austin’s nose to Sam’s fluttery eyelashes, it took us twice as long to film only because we were laughing so hard half the time. This video will also probably live on in infamy at the ELC…Janice (one of the teachers) wants to use it as a “perfect example of gestural communication” for her 200-level classes in years to come!