Hiiiii-yah! Pizza!

For most of our classes, our school uses a book series entitled, "Thumbs Up," or "TU" for short.

The listening exercises in TU range from boring (The...ball...is...blue), to distracting (in some exercises, the voice is CLEARLY a woman, but the speaker is supposed to be a man/boy), to very strange. I'd like to share a very strange one I encountered a few weeks ago and again tonight.

The lesson is about food and the listening exercise entails listening to a reporter ask Chef Fu Manchu (I know...) what he is making for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The writers were trying to be funny (first made obvious by the name), so Fu's schpeel is frequently interrupted by chopping, HIIII-YA!'s and other karate-ish exclamations. I did this with my M6 class, and they were doubled over, they were laughing so hard. I did it again tonight with my K3's, and a few of them kept chuckling and glancing up at me, as if to say, "wtf?"

So you're listening...
"What will you make for dinner?"
"hmmmm...heeeeeyaaah! *chop chop chop* tomatoes! whaaaahh, fish!"

Then at the end, the reporter says, "Amazing!" and asks something to the effect of, "How are you so talented?"

"Ancient Chinese secret." *GONG*

Indeed, like the commercial from the '70s.

Whoever wrote this exercise must have reached that point when you've been writing so much that you completely lose your mind and can only giggle uncontrollably. And apparently leave jokes in listening exercises for foreign teachers to interpret.

It's a 'special' listening exercise. Most are boring or awkward, but this one is flat-out weird. I thought I'd share it with you.