On Wednesday, we talked about a very important skill in another language-interrupting.
We started off the class talking about what we did the night before. This was mostly so we would be ready to talk about this topic later when our partner continually interrupted us.
Next, we talked about how to interrupt in Korean and in English. Some of the ways to interrupt were:
Shut up!
Hey!
Sorry.
Excuse me.
Just a moment/minute/second.
Wait a moment/minute/second.
Could you wait a moment/minute/second?
Would you wait a moment/minute/second?
Can you wait a moment/minute/second/sec?
(Please) Hold on.
Could I say something/ask you a question?
Can I say one thing/something?
Sorry to interrupt, but…
After discussing and practicing these ways to interrupt we changed partners and discussed what we did last. This time, the parter continually interrupted. I thought that everyone did a good job to interrupt and ask lots and lots of questions.
Next, we thought of ways for the speaker to return to the point. Some of these phrases were:
To continue,…
As I was saying…
I’ll go ahead.
Anyway, …
Where was I?
Where were we?
What was I saying?
While repeating these phrases we took a much needed break. When we came back we practiced the sentences a bit more and then one partner tried to explain about their last night while the partner who was originally interrupted got some revenge.
To finish the class we worked with some worksheets with 2 partners, where one person would ask a question, one person would try to answer the question and a third person would continually interrupt. This seemed to be pretty good practice and everyone was interrupting a lot by the end of the class. Actually, I am worried that we might interrupt each other too much!
