Who said only students learn things in class? Today I learned quite a few things! Here they are, in no particular order:

* Everyone DOES know what a chocolate chip cookie is. Even my 11th grade hard of hearing students who display dismal language skills in their mother tongue. However, it seems that the concept of a “chocolate cookie” is unfamiliar. It makes it hard to argue the point that Mrs. Wakefield was surprised when she took the first batch of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.

* It may be 2015 but it still makes the most sense to the students that Mrs. Wakefield baked for her husband. The text does mention a husband, what more information could possibly be needed? That’s what women do. Duh.  True, to find out that she ran a hotel with her husband and baked for the guests would have required a lot of painstaking reading and translating, which seemed a waste of effort when the answer was so very obvious.

* Candy bars manufactured by Nestle are actually sold in the school vending machines. I have never been interested enough in the company to follow which of their products are sold in this country. Or in what is sold in the vending machines. A student discovered the name on the packaging of her candy bar and showed it to me. The other students were convinced “Nestle” was “Nutella” (sweetened hazlenut chocolate spread) which made perfect sense to them. I’ve complained bitterly about the machines, I won’t let one useful candy bar change my opinion about them, right?

* The word “like” goes with the word “popular”. Another “duh” moment for me. If your post on Facebook/Instragram gets a lot of likes, it means its popular, right?! Students were asked to copy 2-3 words which show that the writer likes chocolate chip cookies. Why bother translating a long word such as “delicious” when there now are “hundreds” of such cookies in the market? The description “hundreds of cookies” sounds like a lot to them, without regard to the fact that the reference is to hundreds of recipes…

I must admit I think these cookies are  delicious, too! It’s a good thing the next text isn’t about them, all this analyzing of chocolate chip cookies may make me reach for the cookie jar!