One boy, a student from the former Soviet Union, raised his hand eagerly. It means to scream at someone. Puzzled, Monica asked him to use it in a sentence.
Communication is difficult.
It can be difficult even when everyone is speaking the same language, but when you have a class full of students with no common language among them, it is well nigh impossible. In Israel Horovitz's The Primary English Class, Didi Conn plays Debbie Wastba, a woman with no teaching experience, teaching her very first class of five students, none of whom speaks a word of English. To say Ms. Wastba is ill-prepared would be a gross understatement. She was hired the night before the class and, though she has ambitious plans for what she intends to cover, has no idea how to teach. As her frustration increases, so does her cruelty, which escalates to absurd heights.