The Strange Machine

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

At school I conduct creative writing competitions. This was the winner of the last one. Check out the artwork.

The Strange Machine

My uncle is an inventor. One day I was looking through the basement of his house, and I discovered a strange machine. It had many buttons, knobs, dials, and levers. I had never seen anything like it before. On one side was a button that read “on”. The machine had two big frog’s eyes, four things like legs, and hands. I was really excited so I decided to turn it on.
I pushed the red button carefully. Strange things happened. The screen said, “Hello! How’re you doing mate?”

“OK,” I said. It started flying around the basement. Suddenly diamonds and money flew out of its hands.

“Wow!”

“Do you want to get on my back to take a trip?” asked the machine.

“Yes, of course,” I said.It took me over the clouds and into the sea. It was wonderful. Hours later the machine asked again, “Do you want to meet Da Vinci, the president of America, or any one else?” I thought for a while and answered, “Jesus.”

Then the machine made a ‘time hole’ and flew into it. Everything was quiet. The numbers of years flew past me. 1980, 1009, 300, 3,2,1……I opened my eyes. I thought it was the kingdom in which Jesus lived. Poor people were all over the roads. But a man with a big beard was talking to some people. It was Jesus. I thought it couldn’t be happening. Then, I walked up to him. He looked old; maybe he was too tired. Then I got his signature.Yipee! It was a great trip.

The machine brought me back to the real world. If you have been to the past and come back to 2008, you’ll think this is such a terrible world. Garbage is all around you. Dirty air fills the sky. It makes the earth warmer and warmer, with the ice melting and the sea getting bigger and bigger. One day in the future we’ll have no place to live.

“Can you turn the world back?” I asked. The machine nodded its head. Then it used its magic. The earth was like it was thousands of years ago-that beautiful; no garbage, no dirty air, and …no robot! In making the earth not warm, it died. Thank you machine.

2

Truly awesome. I can’t get work like that out of most of my so called “Advanced-High” ESL kids here in Houston.
Make sure to let that student know that they’re now famous on the internet, and that others in other countries are impressed.

3

very very cool. please confiscate their bong now.

4

:laughing:

He’s a great kid. Thanks for the comment. I’ll let him know.

There were some other funny entries such as the:

Ding, Ding Daniel Making Machine

My uncle is an inventor. One day I was looking through the basement of his house, and I discovered a strange machine. It had many buttons, knobs, dials, and levers. It looked like a car, but it wasn’t. On one side was a red button that read ‘on’. Next to the button was written, “If you push ‘on’ the machine will start working and the Ding Ding Daniel making machine will make a Daniel or you can put a person in the Daniel making machine and the person will look like a Daniel.” Notice: “If you put anything in the Daniel Making Machine, you can’t regain it.”

“Wow! It is cool,” I said.

Then I pushed ‘on’ and the machine made a Ding Ding Daniel. I told my friend, the president. We put every bad person in the Ding Ding Daniel Making machine and soon all the bad people looked like Ding Ding Daniel and said, “I’m ding-ding Daniel. I’m a stupid, crazy, lazy, poo-poo bottom person.”

I did this work every day; it was fun. One day I put my school teacher in the Ding Ding Daniel making machine and my teacher became stupid like Ding Ding Daniel.

“Wow! My teacher looks like a real ding-ding,” I said. Then I thought, “Hey I can put anyone I hate in the machine.” The next day a lot of people became ding-ding Daniels.

“Yah” I said.

Suddenly somebody pushed me into the Ding Ding Daniel making machine.

“No~~~~!” I yelled. But no one wanted to help me. “Help me. I’m scared.” Then I woke up. “Oh it was a dream,” I said. However, when I went to my uncle’s graduate school, I saw a sign on a big machine that said, “Ding Ding Daniel”.

“No way,” I said. Then I fainted.

5

And…That kid could be a professional illustrator!

6

That’s a very talented kid. How old is he?

7

He’s in grade 6 so he is 11 or 12.

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Extra credit project:
Expand the story just a bit along with illustrations and turn it into a children’s’ book. Get that kid published! With the “Jesus” theme, it could likely sell on the Christian market.

9

If you get it a silly hat and organise a march for it, it could become the next president of Taiwan.

10

It’s too smart for that job.

11

What sharp, talented kids! It must be fun teaching them!