This week, teaching: A Dialogue

Dramatis Personæ: A group of 7 girls and 2 boys, plus Self.

[The two boys are sitting together and talking incessantly.]  
Self: You two are talking the whole time.  You’re like two old tetkas (aunties).  Do you need to go down to the kaviareň (coffee place) and have a nice chat with some coffee instead of being here?
[Some of the girls, who are much better at English than the boys, perhaps because they don’t talk nearly as much during class, pick up on the fact that I called their colleagues chatty old women and so translated this for their benefit.  Because of their age, they are often teasing each other in both Slovak and English, so this aided the young ladies in their teasing efforts.]
Boy 1, in Slovak: We’ll go if you pay – we’ll need €2.

Maybe you had to be there.  But my Pitt SLI crew will be happy to know I also made the Martin Talking Gesture™ while commenting on the boys’ conversation habits.  It’s just as much of a hit here as it was with us.