Body Parts

I remember teaching the spelling and pronunciation of body parts to a classroom of limited English proficient men and women in a non-profit vocational program. Wanting my lesson to be as clear as possible I wrote each word after pointing to the area of a simple figure I had drawn on the chalk board: ears, eyes, chin, hands, elbows, and knees.

My mother was teacher and never tolerated slang terms for body parts were not used and though that didn’t place me well with my friends as a child, I was more or less satisfied that that I was not serving my students well if I taught slang.

Marta, a beautiful young Hispanic woman, raised her hand from the back of the room to ask, "Teacher, how you say teets?” I was unsure of how to respond, sincerely wanting to teach the class the correct word instead of slang terms. I calculated the possible response of the students against my need to teach them terminology.

I began to explain to Marta and the class that the correct word was "not teats, but breasts" and I pointed to the chest location on my chalkboard drawing of a human figure. I was fairly sure that others had adopted the word too.

Marta looked puzzled for a few minutes but suddenly the class was alive with chatter. Marta began to shake her head. Finally, she shook her head and said, "No teacher" she said insistently, “how you say teets, teets". I was still struggling to understand when finally she opened her mouth and pointed inside -to her teeth. I wrote her word on the board - no explanation was needed or could be heard over the roar of classroom laughter.

Misunderstandings between people can usually be cleared up with effort from two people work at their communication.