Prague. 2004.
iEnter Language School (No longer in business. And they still owe me money!)
I walked into my first group class.
I was nervous.
The students looked nervous.
But I had a strategy: Be casual — not formal like a typical teacher — and everyone would relax.
So I said, “What’s up?”
And the students said… nothing.
Silence.
Not a good start….
Much later I solved this mystery.
I discovered that “What’s up?” is not on the list of Official English Greetings you typically find in those boring text books you studied in school.
What is on The List is:
“How do you do.”
“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Allow me to introduce myself, my name is….”
And a bunch of other nonsense that no one ever says.
Text books are rubbish.
So how do you start a conversation? In English?
With a native speaker (or anyone else)?
That will be our topic this week.
And then next week, I’d like to introduce you to some teachers I recently met.
Maybe you’d like to meet them, too…