Contents
=> “Yogi Berra Said” - quotations and discussion
=> “The VP Said” - quotes from a vice president
=> In the Next Issue

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“Yogi Berra Said” - quotations and discussion
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Yogi Berra was a baseball player. He was famous not only for being a good player, but for his use of funny, nonsensical, or plain stupid English. Here are 10 quotations (supposedly) from Yogi. But first…

USEFUL WORDS

TOUGH = difficult
AIN’T = isn’t/aren’t
FORK = where a road splits into two; not the thing you eat with

1. I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early.

2. It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.

3. The future ain’t what it used to be.

4. When you come to a fork in the road, take it!

5. You got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.

6. [Speaking about a restaurant] Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.

7. Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.

8. You can observe a lot just by watching.

9. I don’t want to make the wrong mistake.

10. In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

PROCEDURE: Copy these and hand them out, OR just write a few favorites on the board. Then break students into groups. They will have fun translating them into their native language. Ask them to discuss the following questions about each quotation:

a. What was Yogi TRYING to say?
b. Is his advice obvious, possible, impossible?
c. What is funny about it?

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“The VP Said” - quotes from a vice president
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The vice president under George Bush (the old one) was Dan Quayle. He said some funny things too.

1. I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn’t study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people.

[editors notes: Later we discovered that Quayle did not say this. It was just attributed to him]

2. If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.

3. The future will be better tomorrow.

4. One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared.’

Discussion Question: What memorable, funny, or embarrassing things have politicians in your country said or done?

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In the next issue (@May 6th)
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© Copyright 2003 Kevin McCaughey & I.M. Poosheesty
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