more student gems

Let me preface this post, and maybe help explain previous ones, by saying this: for the majority of my students my class is a blow-off class.  They are postgraduate students required to have a language credit, and since most of them have been "learning" English for years, they figure that another English class will be the easiest way to get said credit.  The title of the course is "Spoken English for International Communication", so I don't focus on writing--that is why so many of their answers I post on here are funny.  I'd be surprised if 5 out of all 50 of them use or think about English outside of their two hours in my class each week, and I'm not going to bang my head against the wall trying to earnestly improve their language skills when they don't try.  Their writing will always entertaining, but I don't want people to think I'm a bad teacher who just laughs at my students instead of helping them.

That being said...I spent yesterday catching up on loads of grading and homework, and of course, I discovered some interesting tidbits.  First, two answers from a pop quiz, the question asking what "brunch" is:
-A big room with chair or sofa, that people could talk to each other.
-"brunch" refers to part of something, and alikes the subject.  For example, precision engineering is a brunch of mechanics.

The second, and more comically profitable, assignment was for students to write one page on which historical time period they would like to live in, and why.  Following are some of my favorite bits and bobs:
-So in the Three Kingdoms, a man is able to be a hero and achieve spandex achievement with his talent, his bravery and his loyalty in the troubled time.
-(from a student who wanted to live during the revolution/founding of the P.R.C., a little more serious) I wanted to work in foreign countries' governments, so I would control them in order to help my own country and my Chinese people.
-I may become a great man like Martin Luther King who fought for the freedom ring of Negro.
-Although, at that period, I may died early, can't enjoy the Internet and the colorful world of dairy life.  (INFINITELY funnier when you know that he has the same accent as Kim Jong Il in Team America--the 'l' sounds like an 'r'...I have heard him say 'revorution' and 'actuarry')
-The arts of that period are also world-sharking.
-So imagine a question: 'if I lived in ancient period, how long I can live.'  I think the answer is one day.  Because I can't bare that environment, Because I want to contact others freely, because I want to go to anyplace without limitation.  I want free.  So if I really lived in that period, I would be crazy, and then be killed by the king quickly, so I can't live more than one day.

I'm blessed to have a job where I can laugh, and my students do keep me in stitches.  Currently I'm hitting the burn-out phase, our semester here is about a month longer than the average American semester and that's starting to get to me.  As of tomorrow, it's only three weeks until I leave for home, and while I'm excited, I'm also a little hesitant to leave because the last couple months have been the best ever.  Once I am on the plane and on the way I know I will feel more committed to being home, and it will be a good trip; I'm also hopeful for the coming fall, I think it will definitely be another banner year!