Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Babysitting: 12B style

As the date of their impending freedom approaches, 12b's apathy towards the English language grows, and this results in both frustration and hilarity for their Anyanelvi teacher (the No). 

One poignant example is today's class. The assignment in the Erettsegi (Hungarian maturity exam, much like the HSC in N.S.W., The Abitur in Germany or the Matura in Austria) book was to explain to the examiner why the student would be a good babysitter. They had to cover such points like:
  • Do you have any younger brothers or sisters?
  • What would you do to entertain the child? 
  • What would you give the child to eat/drink?
  • What would you do in case of an emergency (ex. Crying)?
The No divided the class (about half of them were 'mysteriously' missing) into two teams. The boys opted to stay together, and so did the girls. Fluttering between them, the No tried to spur her students on to do the exercise, she received only blank looks and muttering in Hungarian. In the end, she sat with each group and asked them their responses. The girls gave fairly normal responses: Yes, I have helped look after children. We would give them fruit and vegetables. We would play ball and run with them, and in case of emergencies, we would sing to them, hug them or take them to the Hospital.

The boys, however gave a slightly different response. One of the boys kept repeating that he hated small children, and finally assisted his group (himself, one other official student, and one student who comes although he has already taken his language exam (he just sits in the back and listens to music)) with the following responses:
  • We would feed the children fruit, vegetable and beer milkshakes
  • We would take the kids to the pub and a metallica concert (lifted on shoulders so not to get squished)
  • In case of emergency we would take them to the hospital (yes, even if the kid is just crying). 


1 comment:

Hanna said...

Note to self: Never let Hungarian boys babysit any future children I may have...