Sunday 15 March 2009

Beware the naked French boy

One of the side effects of being an ESL teacher ( and yes I do mean the word 'side effects') is that you get invited to student's houses for dinner.
Yesterday I spent from three in the afternoon until one the following morning in France listening to the delights of Frank Zappa (a 4 hour DVD special) followed by Zappa does Zappa (Dweevil Zappa's tribute to Papa Zappa) while my student's wife shouted from the kitchen that perhaps he should be talking English instead of watching Frank Zappa. This then led to an excursion in the garden where I had to explain that while the word 'tit' in English does mean both a bird and a woman's breast it is probably not the first word of choice when referring to the latter.

After clearing this issue up I went to find the bathroom which led me to a rather tricky game of guess which door is the bathroom( in an endless corridor of closed doors ) only to finally locate the desired room complete with my student's nineteen year old son very much in flagrant delecti showering with no shower curtain. So surprised was I that I immediately mumbled 'sorry' (I think he said hello) and pulled the door shut so fast it bounced open just enough for me to see it all again. As luck would have it I was then placed next to recently exposed son of student for dinner. Fortunately said son did not seem to be the slightest bit embarassed ( those boho Europeans) indeed at a guess I suspect he might have even revelled in it and I found him to be a most chatty and attentive neighbour for the whole duration of dinner.

Following dinner my student offered to demonstrate his guitar skills by playing along to a cd (but always three chords behind.) He actually played very well but I think the 4 hours of Frank Zappa had undermined his confidence a little.
I have been invited back for the spring. Stay tuned!

1 comment:

miss_belle said...

bwa ha ha! that, and the story of my father accidentally putting dried dog food into the washing machine instead of washing powder, made me smirk today!