Teaching sarcasm

Today I taught the same lesson to two different classes, and the topic was sarcasm. How does one teach this? I'll go through my lesson with you. I've had trouble getting students to use this successfully in the past so I was pleased that it worked out well today, even with some students I thought would struggle.

"You're waiting at the movie theatre," I began, "and your friend is late, as usual. What are you going to say to them?"

I got one student to be the late friend, and gave some examples of rather peeved sarcasm ("I'm so glad you finally arrived", "I didn't want to see the first half of the movie anyway", etc), and then had them try. The first lady up got completely stuck and couldn't think of anything at all.

"Okay, think," I coached, "a good tip is to try thinking of the opposite situation. Let's imagine your friend is always on time, and they came early, and you're going to enjoy the movie. What could you say?"

A long pause.

"How about, 'I'm glad...'," I prompted.

"I'm glad we can enjoy to watch this movie," she said, at last.

After a little more conversation, I had them switch, and the other girl said, "it's such a nice day to be stand outside waiting for you to come".

(Today the weather actually was very nice, so in terms of sarcasm, this didn't make sense.)

So this is not the most withering sarcasm you've ever heard, but it was their very first try. And they acknowledged that sarcasm is not very common in Japanese conversation - whereas it is very, very common in English.

***

We did some listening practice. In the listening, one character (Japanese) didn't understand another's sarcasm. It reminded me of last week in our office. Pete, very unusually, had a day last week with only two classes. He said to our manager, 'I'm sorry, but I'm so busy today, even with only these two classes, could we postpone our meeting'. I knew he was being sarcastic; but he was so deadpan that the manager (who hears his sarcasm every day) took him seriously!

Then we practiced some scenarios using sarcasm. They were just reading the lines from their books, but it was a good chance to teach the importance of a Good Sarcastic Voice. We practiced:
1. The low, harsh, drawling voice ("Yeah, that's a reeeally good idea...") and
2. The fake enthusiastic voice ("Wow, that was the best movie I've ever seen!")

On the rare occasions a student has tried to use sarcasm with me before, I've usually been confused about how to take their statements; they just haven't gotten their voice quite right. I've been confused about whether they're joking or being sarcastic; this confusion never happens with native speakers.

(The exception is my advanced discussion class, one member of which is more sarcastic than I am. ^_^)

***

Anyway, after some preparatory stuff and more examples, we were ready to start them practising their own ideas. I had a bunch of scenarios for them, so I put one up.

"Your friend is going out with an incredibly boring person," I said, "what can you say? So first, let's think of the opposite. What could you say if they were going out with a fun and exciting person?"

"I'm glad you're going out with such a nice person," volunteered one.

"Good," I said, and started writing it, "but you know, someone can be boring and nice. It's better if you think of the opposite of boring."

"I'm glad you're going out with such an exciting person," she corrected herself.

So we put some ideas on the board - me changing their grammar to be more correct and a bit more sarcastic, and then they practised. (And I pointed out that while sarcasm can be quite mean, it can also be friendly and good-natured.) Then we tried another situation, and another. Each time, I got them to brainstorm example sentences, and then they could practice it more easily, without getting so stuck.

When we got the fourth situation, I didn't put any ideas on the board, but had them launch straight into it.

"You went to a rather pathetic party," I said, "only one other person came."

And they were off.

"Wow, what a great party that was," one of them said.

"It sure was," agreed the other. "I'm really glad we came."

And the next.

"You went to Niigata to go snowboarding," I said, "but the snow all melted the day before."

"Wow, what great weather it is," one of them said.

"It looks like perfect conditions for snowboarding," agreed the other. "It's a good thing I brought all these warm clothes."

***

Like I said, they're not going to be on The Chaser any time soon, but I felt excited to see them getting the hang of it. The second class I taught on this did well too. One of them surprised me by having a *great* sarcastic voice, it was actually kind of scary hearing this sweet lady suddenly busting it out, hahaha.