Teachers have many stories to tell. This is one of them.
There was a student once who had booked a week of afternoon private lessons and I was assigned to be her teacher. The moment she walked into the classroom, she made it clear that she was interested in having conversation practice. It’s a reasonable (and common) request because so many learners of English have very few opportunities of using the language when they’re back in their countries. For some students, their idea of conversation is actually listening to the teacher do most of the talking.
Not with this particular student though. During the 90-minute session, I didn’t get to speak for more than three minutes. She was the sort to TALK NINETEEN TO THE DOZEN. The first day I tried to point out a couple of errors she was making but she literally ignored me and carried on talking … and talking … talking. Funnily enough, at the end of the session she even thanked me for the interesting lesson! The next day, I again wanted to highlight some problems but she just went on TALKING NINETEEN TO THE DOZEN.
If you have an interesting story to tell about someone you know who TALKS NINETEEN TO THE DOZEN, write in and share, using the comments box below.
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