TEFL blog » TEFL humour

Here’s a little lighthearted ESL relief courtesy of a Super Bowl commercial and YouTube…

Has EFL been infiltrated by the evils of consumerism? Have a look at this entertaining article by Mike Guest in the Daily Yomiuri, in which he takes a light-hearted yet thought-provoking look at the idea that EFL textbooks do not just set out to teach our students English, but to indoctrinate in them consumer and corporate values!

He gives the example of a chapter about shopping. Advocates of the “enemy within” theory, he says, would suggest that such a chapter is designed not to provide useful phrases for students to use when buying their fruit and veg, but “rather to propagate the ‘Buy!’ consumerist agenda”.

Guest goes on to talk about whether language in general is “value-laden”. Does everything we say reflect a particular set of values that we hold, and is this therefore a justification to promote these values to our EFL students?! His view is that, for example, asking a group of students what kind of work they would do if they started work tomorrow, is not promoting any kind of social agenda or support for the value of the work ethic, it is simply addressing a topic.

Have a look at the article and tell us what you think. Has EFL been compromised by the enemy within?!…

The Chinese government has launched a campaign, according to this article, to clean up mistranslations and bad English, in preparation for the world descending on Beijing for the Olympic Games in 2008.

Warning signs such as “Nice to live. Pay attention to safety” and menus offering “Swallowing the clouds” have made the government realise that if things aren’t changed, the city will “lose face”, according to Liu Yang of the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages program, quoted in the article.

As well as correcting signs and giving Chinese dishes in restaurants standardized names, citizens are being offered free English classes to boost the number of foreign language speakers and police officers and taxi drivers are being taught useful English phrases.

Will everything be completed to the government’s satisfaction in time for the Games in 2008? If you’re teaching in China at the moment, let us know how things are progressing by posting a comment below…

Need a new way to teach your students shopping vocabulary? Show them this video, filmed in a Jusco shop in Japan and made, says purplemary, who posted the video on YouTube, for high school students learning English…