I want to be a secretary

Most kids "graduate" from Hess after about 4 years (!) but they can go on and do more classes that are meant to get them talking and writing more. I've had one of these advanced classes (called Focus) for over a year, and just started teaching a new one in Feb. I was wary because I had 2 classes that graduated in Dec and Jan- one that I loved and one that I, um, didn't- and my new class would be made of 6 kids from the bad class and 1 from the good class, plus like a dozen who came later on.

It's turned out to be a great class, though. I got most of the good kids from the bad class, and when they were away from the too-cool-for-school kids, they are good and a lot of fun. In my other class it's still a little hard to do "free talk" (not like I say a question, you say an answer) but these kids are always joking around and cracking me up. And all the new kids who have trickled in are great, too. It's a good thing b/c I teach it at 3:30 on Sat (the end of a 6-hour teaching day).

Anyways, we were learning jobs and one was "secretary". The one boy says, "Like Andie!" and I said, what?, and he said, "In The Devil Wears Prada." I was like, um, yes, that's right. Weird that a teenage Taiwanese boy recognizes that, but whatever.

This past Sat. they had oral tests- in this level they are just supposed to talk about one of the topics in the book for 3 minutes, which sounds easy for me but you try getting kids to talk freely for 3 minutes. (It's like when you talk to your friends at break-time in Chinese- except in English, OK? No, they can't do it.) Anyways, this kids Jason and his friend were talking about professions, and he says, "I want to be a secretary. Because I saw The Devel Wears Prada and I think it's such a good job. I want to answer the phone for my boss, and when his wife calls, I can tell him, your wife called. And sometmes I will write letters for him..." etc. etc. I really can't tell if he was joking or not. But it did crack me up.