I often use Google Translate in class to tell my students what a difficult word is in Chinese. I find this is a lot easier than explaining the word, which could just present a lot more confusing words to the students.
I found out that many of the words, and especially the sentences, just didn’t make sense. Oftentimes they were quite funny in their unintended meanings. I figured, why not just write some silly sentences into Google Translate, and let the kids get a good laugh?
Well, it worked. After several months I had a whole file of great little stories that made little sense, but which made the students laugh quite a bit. Here’s an example:
She ate a turtle and a fish and a dog and a tiger and a mouse and a chicken and a cake and a school book, and a pig, and a pig, and a pig, and a flower and she got really sick. She went to the hospital and they asked her what she ate, and she said she had eaten a turtle and a fish and a dog and a tiger and a mouse and a chicken and a cake and a school book, and a pig, and a pig, and a pig, and a flower. The doctor looked at her and said “that’s all?”
It might sound stupid, but so are a lot of the things you find yourself doing in an ESL class. Give it a try regardless; it just might become one of your go-to activities at the end of class.