At school teaching a pre-intermediate class. They’re in groups of five and each student has a piece of paper with information about a famous person. The other students have to ask questions to find out who he/she is and the person questioned can only answer “yes” or “no.”
I wonder around the class monitoring. One group is a lot louder than the rest (teenage Brazilian, Spanish, Korean and Taiwanese boys- enough said) so I hear most of their questions from across the room.
‘Are you a man?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you English?
‘No.’
‘Are you American?’
‘Yes?’
‘Are you a singer?’
‘No.’
‘Are you an actor?’
‘No.’
‘Are you black or white?’
‘Yes.’
Students realise the problem.
‘Are you black?’
‘No.’
‘Are you a politician?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you a President?’
‘Yes.’
Loud cheers.
‘Are you Bush?’
‘No.’
‘Are you Clinton?’
‘No.’
‘Are you Big Bush?’
‘No.’
‘Are you Kennedy?’
‘No.’
Silence. Everyone is stumped except for the Korean who has obviously studied US history.
‘Are you Lincoln?’
‘No.’
‘Are you Eisenhower?’
‘No.’
‘Are you… Carter?’
‘No.’
I’m curious now. I can’t think of any more Presidents and most of the cards are really easy, people like Madonna or Gandhi. Who is it? I move across the room.
‘Are you Nixon?’
‘No.’
I look over his shoulder and read his card.
‘Are you…?’
He’s Elvis Presley.
