Tales from the Classroom Vol. 17

The vocabulary game of Taboo is great for conjuring up all sorts of funny descriptions.  It's the game where you work in teams, and each team's player has a word that he or she must make his team say, but without using any of the TABOO words for clues.  For example, the word is truck, but the forbidden words are car, pickup, semi, and dump, so the player must find other ways to circumlocute around these to get his teammates to say "truck." 

Many of my students are very imaginative with their clues.  Once, the word was mouse, and the taboo words were cheese, hole, rat and trap.  The student simply said "Mickey..." and her team nailed it.  Another time, the word was Japan, and the forbidden words were sushi, kimono, geisha, sumo, and samurai.  The student pointed at a Japanese teammate and said "You are from..."

Great job.  But one incident today left everyone on the floor laughing.

It was "Tony," a confident Korean, who had to make his team say idea.  He looked at the forbidden words, then pointed to his head and said, "I have no..."

Three of his teammates, in perfect sync, yelled out "IDEA!!"

A split-second behind, his other teammate, petite "Sasha" from Japan, blurted out "Brain?!"

Class dismissed.