Interesting Class Conversation

My middle school class tonight had to write some sentences in their textbook in response to several pictures and word prompts.  All three of the pictured scenarios required the use of a polite question, which, of course, necessitated using the word "please".

I suggested to the students that, in the case of a of a visit to a customer service desk in a department store (one of the scenarios), it would be a good idea to move the "please" to a location closer to the beginning of the sentence/question (most of our student are used to placing "please" at the end of a question, such as "Teacher, may I go to the bathroom please?").

In the customer service situation, then, instead of saying, "These shoes were delivered with stains. I would like to exchange them please", it would be better to ask, "These shoes were delivered with stains.  May I please exchange them?"

My point was that the sooner a clerk hears the word "please", the more likely that person will be to help you.

To elaborate the point, I told them that if they wanted something from their mothers, they should try paying a compliment, such as, "Mother, your hair looks beautiful today!"

We were about to move on to a new exercise when one of the students said, "Teacher, I have a question."

Knowing the student, I thought the question would probably not be about the exercise that we had just completed, and I was not wrong.

"Is there a time when we can drink juice?" she asked.

I looked at her for a moment, trying to shift my brain gears.

"Do you mean now, or next week, or when?"

She replied, "Anytime."

"So you want to drink juice tonight?"

"Yes," she said.  But she was not done.  She launched into an account of how, before class, she had gone to a store to buy some juice with her T-money card (a transit card for the subway and buses that can also be used in convenience stores).  However, she said, there was a grandmother working there who didn't know how to process the card, so the student couldn't buy her drink.  In addition, the grandmother/clerk had asked her if she didn't have the little bit of cash it would take to buy the drink--which she didn't--so she felt humiliated and would never return to that store again.

Wow--talk about going off-topic!

But, the students are there to communicate in English, and she did a great job in doing so.

"Here's what I'll do," I replied.  "I have a cup of coins on my desk, and before break time I will give it to you and at break time you can make a dash to the convenience store (less than a block away) and buy juice for everyone."

"Thank you, teacher," she said.

"But you didn't say my hair looks beautiful."

(For those of you who don't know me, I buzz-cut my hair every week, so it is very short.)

All the students thought this was quite funny, and one of the boys piped up with, "Your hair is so beautiful!"

Thus my point was made, and I was satisfied to leave it at that.