I've assigned the students a letter as their writing mark for the term. They are allowed to write to anyone and we've gone over what's expected in the format and so on. The letters are pretty interesting and have been addressed to everyone and everything you can imagine. I love it!

They're writing to their parents, their cousins, their best friends and me, but the ones I love the most are the less conventional ones, like Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, Harry Potter (my suggestion), Hello Kitty, numerous Japanese cartoon characters and even ghosts. Some kids have even gone so far as to write to a UFO, God, Binladen and even Saddam. I'm sure someone wrote to Hitler, but they, of course, did not hand it in.

The best part of the letters though is marking them. Of course I have 456 to mark, which is not fun (and is taking way to much time!), but during this process you do learn alot about your students and your teaching. The English that some of these students possess is just hysterical. Here are a few examples of the things that have been making me laugh (mistakes and all).
Enjoy!

Dear Superman,
I'm writing to you because I really worship you. You can help the people and kill the bastard.

I have a dog. It called Jolin. It very ugly. It like urinating. It is very interesting.

This one is surely from some bad translation:
My hobbies is wind instrument: different recklessly swimming.

Another poorly selected translation:
I am very glad to knowledge you.

This one is just...well...I don't know:
Yous eyesight are very clean and honest. I always sustain you.


One student asked me today:
"Where have penis?"
"What? I don't understand." was my reponse, until his friend corrected him. Turns out, he wanted to know where you can have picnics, not penis.