Safety is My First Priority

I was returning my students’ test papers one day and while doing so, I went through the answers with them. I reached the part where the students were tested on redundancies. They were to pair two words to make them redundant i.e. “repeat” and “again” or “adequate and enough”. Well, one of the words was “first” which is to be matched to the word “priority”. Most of the students matched “first” to “number” while the latter is supposed to be matched with “total”. Trying to get to the bottom of this, I asked my students whether they know the definition of “priority” and to my surprise, most did not know. Resisting myself from reverting to the first language, I tried to define “priority” through the use of English, stating that as students, their PRIORITY should be to study. Upon saying this, I continued to ask them: “so, as a student, what should come first?” and they all answered “studies”. “Fine”, I said, feeling a bit satisfied now that my students finally know the word. Just to reassure myself, I proceeded to give another example. I posed another question that is of a different scenario. “So, if you were in the workshop, safety is your PRIORITY, right?” They immediately nodded and answered, “yes”! “So,” I said, “what comes first then?” And just as I finished my sentence, with utmost confidence, the class roared, “SA FETY BOOTS”!