"He's Tramping, He's Tramping"

One of the great things about being human beings is our ability to use language.  We can express ourselves to others using our language, sometimes more eloquently than others.  We have the ability to create phrases and sentences that have never been uttered before, and will probably never be uttered again. This post contains some of my favorite quotes of the past couple of weeks, quite a few of which I'm sure the world has never heard before.

"Hello, my graffiti."  We were working on introductions in class and the students asked me which languages I could speak.  When I mentioned that I had studied a little bit of Swahili, they asked if I could say a sentence for them.  I told them in Swahili that I could speak a little Swahili.  They were so interested in the language that I decided to tell them that some of the names of the characters in the Lion King were taken from Swahili.  After explaining that simba meant lion, I moved on to rafiki, which means friend. One of the students thought I kept saying "graffiti" and turned to the person sitting next to her and, while giving her a big hug, said, "Hello, my graffiti".  It was entertaining for the entire class.

Student 1: "I have 12 years old." (We're still working on using the verb "to be" to say ages instead of  "to have".)
Student 2: "You are only 12!"
Student 1: "No, pero no sé cómo se dice 13 en inglés." Translation : No, but I don't know how to say 13 in English.

Student, upon first seeing me after the summer vacation: "You go home for vacation?"
Me: "Yes."
Student: "How was England?"
Me: "I don't know. I went to the United States. I'm American."
Student: "What?"  The student couldn't believe that I was from the U.S. even after being in class with me for a year.

Woman from choir: "¿No eres de Inglaterra? Pensaba que eres de Inglaterra." Translation: You're not from England? I thought you were from England.

After trying to establish that I was from Seattle, Washington, a student asked me, "You're from Washington. Do you know Obama?".

Pointing at a photo of the Space Needle, "Do you live there?".

Student: "And your father's name?"
Me: "Ken."
Student: "Your father is Ken, like the boyfriend of Barbie. Then your mom is Barbie?! Your mom is Barbie. Barbie and Ken."   In case you were wondering, my mom's name isn't Barbie. It's Tina, which I had told them about 10 seconds prior to this exchange.

Student: "He's tramping, he's tramping!" In Spanish, hacer trampas means "to cheat".

Student: "Rita, what is this word?"
Me, after trying unsuccessfully to define it in English: "I don't know how to explain it."
Student: "In Spanish?"
Me: "I don't know, but I have a friend named Oxford," gesturing towards the dictionaries at the back of the room. "Ask him, he'll know."
Student, thinking about it then laughing: "He's your friend, not ours."