lessons in language

This weekend, I am writing to you from a hostel in Stockholm.  My friend, Julia, and I decided to go on a quick trip out to the capital city to take in some Swedish culture and get a break from school.  Because of our limited time in Stockholm, I will refrain from describing our adventures in much detail now.  You will have to stay tuned for stories and pictures until next weekend.  

Gamla Stan in Stockholm.

To compensate for such a short post, here is one cute story from this past week at school…

It was Thursday and I was teaching one of my sixth grade science classes.  About five minutes into class, I saw one student stealthily pass a note to another student.  Reflecting back on the lessons I learned during my teaching program at university, I thought it best to deal with the situation promptly.  I walked to the back of the room, and took the note from the student who was now vigorously erasing some text from the backside of the paper.  As I returned to the front of the room, I glanced down at the paper to see a word written in large capital letters which, I thought, was absolutely not appropriate for school.  I told the students I would talk after class with them, and continued with the lesson. 

This was the note that I intercepted between two students.

Fifty five minutes passed until the end of class came.  The note was written in Swedish, so I was at a slight disadvantage when it came to any disciplinary measures.  I decided it best to talk with each student individually before getting the note translated by another Swedish-speaking teacher.  When I talked with the students, they nervously explained that it was a story they wrote for Swedish class.  I asked about the note they had been erasing on the back, and they shifted from one foot to the other before deciding they did not know how best to translate the sentence into English.  I told each student I would talk to another teacher to translate the page before following up with them.

Anyways, long story short, when I asked another teacher to translate, she keeled over in laughter as she explained to me that “SLUT!” means “THE END!” in Swedish.  The text on the front was indeed a story the student had written for Swedish.  And the half-erased note on the back was a question about when we would start the sex ed unit in science.  Oh, dear.