Hoppy Spreing!

Here's how my beginner students described our city in a writing assignment this week.

Little Rock is...

...not very big city. But it's Beautiful and Serenity. I like here and very happy here.
...very small and very cheep. The wither naw is spreing.
...a small city but so peaceful. I like it. It's became spring. It's a fine season. The tree is coming into leaf.
...a small city. The people are big.
...a very small and calm city. It has fresh air but It's too hot weather and often change climate.
...a very small city. It's very hot now. but I'm very happy here.

What amuses me most is that they're calling it "hot." In April. Oh, if only they knew what they were in store for! Most of them also made some reference to it being quiet or peaceful here. In some cases that's praise, and in some cases (from students who would rather be someplace "exciting" like NYC) it's polite, veiled criticism. Students here do tend to note, though, that being in a place where there's not much going on helps them stay focused on studying.

One student refered to me as "Shengy" in his assignment. Hee. A lot of Arab students come with very, very low literacy skills in any Western language. Their education system is very much based on oral teaching, not much writing or many books. They're at the invented spelling stage, so I get words like "siven," "onkel," "rane," "hoppy," and as you can see above, "spreing."