The Curse Of Language Learning Class

Personally, there are two great secret perils of language class. Most people, I would expect, fear the pressure to be correct or not sound silly, to be put on-the-spot, and even just not getting it. I've always been a decent language learner, but there are two, somewhat-related, things that go on in classes that I just can't seem to deal with.

1. The first situation I have trouble with is when the teacher (or an examination) asks the class to talk or write about something that I know nothing about or have no interest in. For me, I just have nothing to say on the subject, but for the teacher or whoever is reviewing my test, it looks like I struggled through the grammar or can't even come up with something simple to say. Two examples, translated for those monoglots out there:

Sra.: Okay, so, who watched the football game yesterday?
[moment of silence]
Another Student: Uhm, I didn't see it, but I think the Bills won?
[further silence, as nobody has seen the game or knows anything past the previous statement]
Sra.: Well, I guess we're just going to do some writing exercises out of the book since you guys are so reluctant to speak!

I would've love to chat about this, but I had nothing to say. The second situation was an exam I had to take at some point years ago (which really vexed me for reasons we'll not get into right now), where the final essay component was basically me writing both sides of an interview with some tennis player I have never heard of. I don't know very much about tennis culture, and to this day my knowledge of the world of tennis is "I enjoy playing tennis occasionally," so I'm sure I wrote some terrible nonsense.

2. The second situation that usually isn't a problem for me, because I have a decent imagination, but can be bothersome in excess is doing skits. I normally enjoy skits because they are a nice way to be creative and everybody can enjoy some silliness. It also breaks up the monotony of class. My portuguese professor has taken to having us do short skits (dialogues, really), almost every class. He also doesn't give us a whole lot of time to work on this, so it can only be so interesting or creative past getting the main idea down.

If they were less frequent, and at a less generally fatiguing time period, I would probably enjoy this. But, I am also not an actor by training, and at the end of the day, it's not as easy to turn on the clever switch as I might hope. My last skit was enjoyed by all, and probably the only one that had any serious points of humor, while most people resort to minor inanities and more unusual that funny exchanges. The skit before however, was for the most part not humorous, or particularly enjoyable for the writing, but possibly for delivery or acting independent of the writing. This shouldn't really be a main concern, as it's not an acting or writing class, but at the same time it's a little annoying to be expected to do as much.

Then again, I can't claim to particularly have any preferable alternative, it can just be irksome having to worry about being on top of any issue that could come up and making sure I can be clever in Portuguese on the spot.