'Is that your best English .....?'

School is going well. There are plenty of idosyncracies, as there are in any school, but the students are delightful - in general they are extremely good natured.

The school has a policy / rule that only English is to be spoken. Unsurprisingly it is constantly flouted - it is very hard to mandate the language friends use for conversation with each other. I appreciate the students wishing to speak the lanuage of their choice at times; however they are at the school to be speaking English and to ensure they have academic levels of the language. By year 11-12 the students who are there genuinely do want to improve but encouragement is sometimes needed.
Rather than tell them to speak English - (as I know how annoying it is to be told what language to speak in) - I have taken to asking them 'Is that your best English ...insert name...?' To my amusement (and theirs) they have taken to using it with each other - I hear it used in most classes now.

This week I had the journalism class writing letters to the editor and had to chuckle finding my language coming back at me.... the school chef is not working to his 'optimum capacity' '. (Note 'optimum capacity' is something I only use in question form when speaking to them.) At least it is encouraging that they are listening.