52 Most Important Sentences of Survival English

A friend in Ireland asked for some help. Her daughter's class has some new students who are refugees from Ukraine, so she wants to make them flashcards to help them learn English. I thought this would be a great activity for my classes. Many of my students are second language learners, so they are experts. My freshman English classes tapped into this expertise and learned about Maslow's hierarchy of needs so we could identify the sentences these students would need to learn first. It was also a good practice for my students in what makes a complete sentence. We also tried to come up with sentences that would provide the refugee students with a variety of vocabulary so they could form their own phrases as they learn to mix and match. The exercise even gave us a chance to have a discussion about phrases that will be different in Ireland than in the United States. Bathroom? Restroom? Loo? WC? And certainly not, "I like your pants."  I thought it would be cool if my friend got 52 because then she could put them on playing cards along with their translations, and that way the new students would have something they could play games with while they practice. I'm hesitant to trust Google Translate (it's better, but still far from perfect), so if you write in Ukrainian or know someone who does, please let us all know how these would be translated. Thanks! 

1. May I please use the bathroom?

2. How do you say _____?

3. What is this called?

4. I don't understand.

5. Excuse me.

6. I need help.

7. May I go get a drink of water?

8. I'm thirsty. 

9. When is lunchtime?

10. I'm hungry.

11. May I have some of that?

12. May I have a snack?

13. Yes.

14. No.

15. Please.

16. Thank you.

17.  I like that. 

18. I do not like that. 

19. I'm hot. 

20. I'm cold.

21. I need a jacket.

22. I'm tired.

23. Goodnight.

24. Hello.

25. Good morning.

26. Goodbye.

27. What is your name?

28. My name is ________.

29. I like your ______.

30. It's nice to meet you.

31. I'm from Ukraine.

32. She is a girl.

33. He is a boy.

34. I have one mother.

35. I have two sisters.

36. I have three brothers.

37. I have a cat.

38. I have a dog.

39. How much does this cost?

40. I need space.

41. I feel happy.

42. I feel sad. 

43. I feel scared.

44. I feel lonely.

45. I want to go home.

46. I miss my family.

47. I love you.

48. I like you.

49. Where is the ______?

50. Can you show me the way to the______?

51. Can I play, too?

52. I cannot do that.

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I got a translation into Ukrainian! Thanks to Sveltana Thomas, and thanks to Molly K. Martin for sending it to me!

1. Можу я піти до туалету? Мені потрібно вийти.

2. Як сказати____?

3. Як це називається?

4. Я не розумію.

5. Вибачте.

6. Мені потрібна допомога.

7. Чи можу я піти попити води?

8. Я хочу пити.

9. Коли буде обід?

10. Я голодний/голодна. — it depends upon whether it’s a boy or a girl answering.

11. Чи можу я взяти це?

12. Чи можу я перекусити?

13. Так.

14. Ні.

15. Будь ласка.

16. Дякую.

17. Мені це довподоби.

18. Мені це не подобається.

19. Мені жарко.

20. Мені холодно.

21. Мені потрібна куртка.

22. Я втомился/втомилася. — it depends upon whether it’s a boy or a girl answering.

23. На добраніч.

24. Привіт.

25. Доброго ранку.

26. До побачення.

27. Як тебе звати? Як твоє ім’я ?

28. Мене звати____.

29. Мені подобається твій/твоя.

30. Приємно познайомитися з тобою.

31. Я з України. Please don’t use “The Ukraine”, only use the correct way “Ukraine”. Like I’m from Ukraine (“The Ukraine” is how russians say it. Also after 24 Feb Ukrainians do not capitalize russia, etc.)

32. Вона дівчинка.

33. Він хлопчик.

34. У мене є тільки мама.

35. В мене є дві сестри.

36. У мене є три брати.

37. В мене є котик.

38. В мене є собака.

39. Скільки це коштує?

40. Мені потрібен простір.

41. Я відчуваю себе щасливим/щасливою. Я щасливий/щаслива.

42. Мені сумно.

43. Я відчуваю страх. Мені страшно.

44. Мені самотно.

45. Я хочу додому.

46. Я сумую за своєю родиною.

47. Я тебе кохаю.

48. Ти мені подобаєшся.

49. Де є _?

50. Як пройти до __?

51. Чи можу я теж грати?

52. Я не можу це зробити.

Moment of Cynicism T-Shirts

At our school, teachers get to have a casual day each Friday. We call it "Spirit Day", and we have to wear the shirts that advertise for our school. I generally have no problem with this. I prefer a t-shirt to a button-up shirt and tie. But on those days when I'm feeling cynical, I wish I could choose some other shirt that expresses how I feel. In this fit of distemper, I made a shirt on cafepress.com that anybody can buy, and if I sell a few I'll be able to afford to buy one myself. So, my fellow high school teachers, if you're interested, here's my first design:





Available in all kinds of designs at:

http://www.cafepress.com/gorman_blog

Buy one for everybody on staff!

Who's to blame for the Drop Out Rate?

Debra Franciosi, my friend, former mentor teacher, and current associate director of Project CRISS, an education think tank in Kalispel, Montana, turned me on to an education blog called McRel, which disseminates educational research along with analysis. I read some posts and immediately took issue with one of them.

In "Addressing High School Dropout: Taking a Look Inward", David Rease Jr. analyzes some survey data regarding drops outs. The AT&T Foundation's report "On The Front Lines of Schools" examined why various stake-holders in education believed so many kids are dropping out of school. It found that district level personnel blamed principals, principals blamed teachers, and teachers blamed parents, and only the drop-outs blamed themselves.

Rease's conclusion was that we should all take responsibility. "Our dropout crisis will persist until each of us takes a look at those fingers pointing back at us, and identify our own culpability in our nation’s dropout crisis."

Here's where I take issue. I agree with Rease that kicking the blame down the ladder is wrong. I also agree that personal responsibility is a virtue, and self-analysis makes all of us better at our jobs. But, by that same rationale, perhaps the answer to the question of the drop out rate is actually presented in the report itself, and staring at the four fingers pointing back at us is a means to avoid aiming our index fingers in the right direction. In short, maybe the drop outs are right. They are taking personal responsibility, and are, belatedly, performing some self-analysis of their own role in their education. Why should we second guess that?

I know I'm going to sound like a curmudgeon when I start any sentence with "When I was a kid...", but let's face it: If I'd come home and tried to use any of the excuses Rease encourages us to consider when I got a bad grade, my parents would have been aghast, or maybe they would have laughed in my face because they would have been so incredulous. The district level employees were not being properly overseen by their administrators, so I was failing? Ha! My teachers' "lessons were boring and disengaging"? Too stinkin' bad. Admittedly, I have great parents who were willing to "create space, time, and the expectation [I] complete [my] homework", but part of that expectation was that no one was ultimately to blame for my academic achievement or failure except me. The drop-outs in this study have obviously internalized that lesson, and aren't blaming their parents for failing to teach it to them, so let's take them at their word.

Every year, in my Creative Writing class, almost half the kids fail. Is this because my lessons are "boring and disengaging"? Not according to the students. They chose to take the class because they felt it would be the most entertaining of their options for Senior English (composed of various elective courses at our high school). They are there because they expect to be entertained and engaged. But that half of the class fails because they, amazingly, do no writing outside of class. Zip. Zero. Every year I pester them about this. Why, in the name of all that's good and holy, would you choose to take a creative writing class if you have no interest in or intention of writing except when I'm leaning over your shoulder, making you? I've never received a satisfactory explanation from a student beyond "I don't need this credit to graduate." I try to explain, until I'm red in the face, that they are doing themselves a disservice, that they are missing out on the learning by not doing the work, that they are wasting their own time and an opportunity to better themselves. To this, I occasionally receive a downcast glance of something passing for shame, but generally I get shrugs. Have these parents failed to "create space, time, and the expectation [they] complete [their] homework"? In some cases these parents are atrocious, even criminal, but in other cases the parents are wonderful, so this doesn't seem to be the operative variable. Have I not made the class challenging enough? They are failing. I can't make it any harder on them. Have I not been entertaining enough? They picked the class for the entertainment value. Should my principal have mentored me in some way, or given me a stern lecture? If anything, she's been supportive even though, when students do need the credits and I fail them, I make her job harder by creating a scheduling nightmare for her the following year. Have the folks over at the district office failed "to adequately coach, monitor, and evaluate" my principal? What would they have said to her which could have trickled down, through me, and transformed into inspiration for my students? If someone has these answers, that's great, but I have a feeling that if we stare at the fingers point back at us all day long we won't answer these questions.

On the other hand, we could trust the drop-outs themselves. Or my students, who write self evaluations as well as evaluations of the class and of my performance as their teacher at the end of each semester. At the end of each class the ones who fail say they wish they'd worked harder. Instead of navel-gazing, perhaps it behooves us to ask how we, not just as teachers or parents or principals or superintendents, but as a culture, can better communicate this need for more motivation to students before it can only take the form of regret.

Here's the good news and the bad news on that front: I used to get so frustrated by parents who would actively undermine my attempts to motivate their kids when they would tell them "I didn't graduate, and I'm doing fine," or "I didn't go to college and look at me now". I would try to explain, without criticizing the parent, that the labor market is shifting, and that the same opportunities that existed for them will not exist for their child. Well, thanks to a combination of globalization and the current recession, I'm having to make that argument less and less. As much as there will be a lot of losers in this economic climate, and a lot of folks who are punished undeservedly, the upside will be a renewed focus on competitiveness. As much as I worry, as a teacher of the Humanities, that we'll place all the emphasis on math and science, that's a problem I'm willing to exchange for no emphasis on education at all. As we fully engage a global economy, we'll need to re-evaluate the way we carry on our debate about education. Teachers in India don't worry too much about entertaining their students, and parents in South Korea don't worry to much about being nurturing (they beat the crap out of their kids, in fact, which does not lead to improved educational outcomes), but those students will be taking jobs from our students because they came into their classrooms with a different attitude. Our kids will figure this out eventually, just like the drop-outs in the study did. Our job, as I see it, is to help them catch on before it's too late.

Europe Trip

I haven't posted in a bit, save for the clip of the great Hardee's add, because I just got back from taking 40 parents and students to London, Paris, and Barcelona for an educational tour. I blogged the whole thing, so if you're interested, the whole site is here (now with pictures!):

Central High Europe Trip

or check it out by city:

London (here and here)

Coventry, Warwick, and Stratford (here)

Bath (here)

Paris (here and here)

Barcelona (here, here, and here)

plus some funny accumulated quotes (here and here)

and one very embarrassing typo (here).

Enjoy!