This is the best ESL moment I've had in quite some time. For tonight's tutorial, I tried out a new game called "Future Stories" which has various hypothetical situations written on cards such as "Where do you want to live in five years?" "What is your ideal fantasy job?" etc. One of the questions was, "If you could spend a day in someone else's shoes, who would it be?"
I had the students talking in pairs and was walking around monitoring the activity when I overheard two of them discussing this question. They said it was their favorite question and both chose Japanese singers. "Makes sense," I thought, and continued walking. The next time I came around they had included two more students in the conversation. They were all talking animatedly about whose shoes they would like to spend a day in. "This is great," I thought, "They are really enjoying this question."
And then I heard, "I would like to spend a day in her shoes because, I think, no smell."
Yes. For the past ten minutes they had been talking about whose shoes they would literally like to spend the day in. As in wear.
When I had finished laughing, I told them that wasn't what the question meant. They were completely shocked and couldn't stop laughing. And hey, they learned a new idiom. But I still can't believe they spent ten minutes talking about which celebrities' shoes smell.
