what country is the guy from?
I don’t think this kind of comparison is very common in US spoken English. While it is true that elephants are often associated with good memories, I am not aware of any set figurative expression based on this association. In a list maintained by British researcher Gary Martin of common phases based on animals [1], there are three that contain “elephant”
- elephant in the room
- couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance
- white elephant
but none that associate elephant and memory.
As for how long we have associated elephants and superior brain function, Aristotle wrote about them in his History of Animals (4th Century, BC). Among other things, he says
[1] https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/animal-phrases.html
[2] Book IX, Part 46, found here: The Internet Classics Archive | The History of Animals by Aristotle
I let the students choose their topics of conversation, reading, or listening practices. I let conversation flow naturally until it fizzles out, and then I change subjects, or the student does. If the student wants to talk about golf for an hour, its fine. If they want to talk about their crazy ex-husband or their teenagers, it’s ok. Whatever is cool.
I begin every class, except the first one, with “So, what did you do after class yesterday?”
And the follow up questions usually go along the lines of "Oh, really? So why did you decide to go there? What did you think about the [food, service, atmosphere/ etc]? How was the [sports event] you went to last night? What was the most exciting moment for you? How was it different than you expected? etc. Many students bring questions about vocabulary, idioms, funny cultural misunderstandings, etc.
In terms of listening or reading: I present a menu of options. Primarily I use VOA learning English , NPR, BBC learning English, as well as Harvard Business Review, Smithsonian, Science News, MIT-- naturally dependent on the students level. I also use the websites of the companies they work for. I have had students who want to learn from less usual sources, ranging from ESPN, The Lancet, The US Constitution. It’s all fine. However, since I’ve been doing this for a decade, I’ve learned about 70% of my students expect/request me to choose material for them, despite my encouragement to be self-directed in their learning. That’s why I might select the source “TED.com” and they choose what video they want to watch. Funnily enough, some students are even reluctant to choose a talk, even if given a small range of choices (choose one of these 4). I have even had a few students push back: you’re the teacher, aren’t you supposed to know what is appropriate for me?
Thanks!
Actually my students are mostly Latin American., but I see that you understand. the cultural context. Perhaps I could have clarified it. In some cases I have to be rather vague because of some individual non-disclosures agreements, so habitually I avoid providing too much info.
Despite having an Ecuadorian girlfriend and working closely with adults from all over LatAm, for over 10 years I’m often reminded by my students (and gf) not to take everything so seriously 
Let’s say the Andean region of South America, from one of the countries south of Ecuador. I don’t want it to be personally identifying.
Right, I don’t think we can truly separate language and culture. I’m looking at this from an emotional-psychological point of view, and how this relates to Krashen’s language acquisition theory and the affective filter.
I’m looking at it like this, and I’m giving a purposely fictional analogy:
Suppose a student from Westeros has to do business in Essos. The Westeros student feels she needs or wants to learn Dothraki so she can improve her life. Her family business is an iron foundry, and the Dothrakis, being warrior nomads, need iron to make weapons. Perfect customers. But deep down, she just doesn’t like the Dothraki culture because they are brutish nomadic warriors. Dothrakis kind of drive her crazy. Their culture just rubs her the wrong way. It seems to me this would create significant cognitive dissonance, and thus greatly affect her language acquisition.
To me, the student needs to work on her feelings. She should change her attitude about the Dothrakis and learn to tolerate them. This might lower the affective filter so she could learn Dothraki language more effectively. Or perhaps, if this isn’t feasible, give up on learning Dothraki. and find some other customers. Or perhaps find another land where Dothraki is spoken that has more sophistication and luxury and learn from a Native Dothraki teacher there. Or get a native Dothraki tutor from LingQ