No Why.

Many times, I wonder if my students are absorbing anything I teach them. It is a known fact (that has been confirmed by the head of the English department) that our class is a joke. My site-mate and I merely teach spoken English, while they have a separate *daily* class taught by a Chinese teacher that focuses on the reading, writing, and grammar aspects of the English language. It is this class that actually counts for a grade and the content of this class on which they will be tested. This being said, the students generally don't take my class seriously, doing homework, talking, even napping while I teach.

I try hard to keep my students awake in class by planning lessons around topics that interest them (music, movies, sports) while reinforcing what that have already learned in their other class, rather than introducing new grammar and vocabulary. And sometimes, like today, I just throw in a DVD and sit back and let the movie do the teaching.

I also use my class as a time to acknowledge some of the common English mistakes made by my students and [try] to correct them. In particular, I have noticed that in response to the question "Why?" many, many of my students will respond with "No why." Take this example:

Me: What is your favorite food?
Student: Beef.
Me: Why?
Student: No why.

In each class, I explained that you cannot say "no why" - rather, you should say "no reason" or "just because" or, better yet, actually give me a real answer.

I wasn't really expecting anything to come of my mini-lesson, and it's true - I still do hear many a "no why" - BUT I am also hearing more and more "no reason"s and "just because"s, and when a student does slip and says "no why," often their peers will correct them, whispering the correct response.

It is nice to know that something I taught actually stuck.

Why? ...No why.