"he infested the societal with footpads"

Spring Break has come and gone, once again.

My last spring break of my undergraduate career was spent doing nothing more than checking (someofthe) items off my to do list, hanging out with friends and family, and making lesson plans. Sounds boring, huh? I thought you might think so.

In all actuality, I enjoyed my time off from school. While I'm certain that my break could have been a little more exciting, I was quite pleased to fulfill the necessary duties of the week and enjoy myself.

Now, I know you've got to be wondering about the title of this post...

"he infested the societal with footpads"? What could that mean?

Your question matches mine exactly!

My freshmen are finishing up writing their research papers, and this peculiar sentence showed up in a paper from one of my English language learners. This particular student works quite hard and is such a joy to be around and to work with. When he showed me his sentence he said, "you know what I'm meaning, right?"

It nearly killed me to crush his dream of writing a clever sentence to perfection, but it also took every ounce of energy I had not to laugh uncontrollably. Most of the time, when he says or writes something that's incorrect, I can translate his not-so-great English and figure out what he means. When I read, "he infested the societal with footpads," however, I was at a complete loss.

It turns out, his translator was leading him astray because he was choosing words from the translator " that sounded like the bester option. You know, Ms. Maris, it is cool words."

I have to admire this kid. He's in a school, in a culture, that relies solely on English, but he isn't fluent. Me, I'd probably give up. This kid, he's sticking it out for the long haul.

In case you're still curious, he was trying to say that one of the jobs of knights was to keep thieves out of the communities. So close, yet so far, huh?

:)