Bad Teacher

Now I don't do this very often, but sometimes my students are so unintentionally cute with their incorrect English that I don't correct them. Sometimes I will even encourage their mistakes, because they are just too adorable.

Does it make me a bad English teacher to ignore and/or encourage my students' incorrect English? Before you answer that question, let me show and tell you some examples.

Two 3-year old girls both thought that "zero" was "zebra," so whenever I would count down from five, they would join in... "five, four, three, two, one, zebra!!!"

They still don't say "zero," but they've gotten a little bit closer with "zebro," which is great too. It makes me think of a fraternity loving zebra.

Here's the notebook of a girl named Bella. I don't know what her 8-year old life is like outside of English hagwon, but I like to imagine it's full of champagne, expensive cars, and gold jewelry.

Sometimes they are unintentionally obscene and racist as well. I do correct them when that happens, but first I make sure to document it: