Teaching English

I think he was ok, just very tired

In Malaysia one of my university friends took an B.Ed degree. After graduating, she was posted to a rural school for a year to fulfill the requirements of her scholarship. On one of her trips back to the city, she regaled us with stories of mistakes students made in English sentences. I thought those mildly amusing, but of late I have come to think that those mistakes just illustrate irregularities in English.

My mother is a good cooker.

My mother is a good baker is a perfectly good sentence so why not cooker? Which reminds me I once texted a friend that Aldi was selling rice coolers, thanks to autocorrect. Friend texted back that coolers wouldn't be approved by his wife as she preferred her meals hot.

I am in the well, I hope you are in the well too.

I am healthy, I hope you are healthy too is fine, but of course the student didn't recall that well is a physical object too. I'm often tempted to ask people if they are in the well.

 Maybe more examples will come back to me.