Hao to float away... in 12 easy steps

  1. Find a Chinese student (Hao) who has only been in the United States for a couple of weeks.
  2. Make sure that his English skills are a little shaky and that he can't see anything without his glasses.
  3. Put an oversized life jacket on Hao and take him on a boat to the middle of a lake. 
  4. Turn the boat off and tell Hao to jump in.
  5. Say, "It's okay if you can't swim. The life jacket will keep you up."
  6. Watch as Hao jumps off the boat into the deep water.
  7. Watch as Hao's face turns from glee to terror.
  8. Watch as Hao struggles and stretches arms out in a panic.
  9. Throw Hao a child's swimming floaty that you found in the boat. 
  10. See Hao relieved.
  11. Forget about Hao for a few seconds.
  12. Watch as Hao floats away.  
Then have your American friend rescue Hao and bring him back to the boat. Thank her profusely.


Comments

Post a Comment

Leave me a message!

Popular posts from this blog

The Opposites Game

  By: Brendan Constantine The Opposites Game                               for Patricia Maisch   This day my students and I play the Opposites Game with a line from Emily Dickinson.  My life had stood a loaded gun , it goes and I write it on the board, pausing so they can call out the antonyms – My                 Your Life                Death Had stood ?   Will sit A                   Many Loaded                     Empty Gun ? Gun. For a moment, very much like the one between lightning and it’s sound, the children just stare at me, and then it comes, a flurry, a hail storm of answers – Flower, says one. No, Book, says another. That's stupid, cries a third, the opposite of a gun is a pillow. Or maybe a hug, but not a book, no way is it a book. With this, the others gather their thoughts and suddenly it’s a shouting match. No one can agree, for every student there’s a final answer. It's a song, a prayer, I mean a promise, like a wedding ring, and later a baby. Or what’s that p
Read more