On Tuesdays I give a private lesson to two sisters, eleven and thirteen. They’re both really sweet girls and hard workers. And Miriam, the eleven-year-old, she’s got spunk. She’s going places. When she’s president of Spain, just remember, I called it.
In our last lesson we practiced the future tense. Each sister had to say where she thought the other sister would be in ten years. For teachers, I definitely recommend this for practicing the future tense. It’s a nice twist on the usual where will you be in 10 years activity. Just be sure the kids aren’t complete brats.
So Paula, the older sister went first.
“In ten years…Miriam will be at university in America… no. Miriam will be at university in China. She will eat dog for dinner. Then she will go to Antarctica where she will be frozen.”
Me: Alright. Good use of future tense. (We will leave the discussion of stereotyping for later.) Miriam, your turn.
A brief pause. I can tell Miriam’s thinking.
“How do you say… pobre in English?”
Needless to say, I think Paula got the worse end of the deal. Not only will she be poor. She will marry a rock and her children will be half rock and half human. More specifically, their top halves will be human and their bottom halves will be rock.
Rough times, Paula. Rough. Times.
Isn’t that how it goes with siblings? The older one thinks she has all the power. She’s bigger, wiser in her many years. And just when you think you’ve got ’em cornered the little one pulls the rug out from under you. (Yeah, I’m talking about you Nick Foster.)
Anne Foster 