Friday, January 12, 2007

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

One of the first things I noticed when I stepped into a classroom in good old Korea, was how much English the kids already knew. There would be some kids that it seemed could barely speak a word and then I'd say, "Show me the homework," and they would yell back, "Show me the money!" Not only is show me the money a pretty trendy thing to say (or at least it was a few years ago), it's also grammatically complex; especially for an eight year old that has a hard time saying "May I go to the bathroom." At first I thought that Jerry McGuire might be a cultural hit over here. A kid would say, "Show me the money!" and I would point and say, "Jerry McGuire!" This would only confuse the child who would then say something like, "No teacher. I'm Sussie." To make a long story short I found out that "Show me the money," is a cheat code for a popular video game over here. The kids seem to have picked up a lot of slangish idioms through American pop culture such as songs, video games and movies. Listed are some phrases that have surprised me:

- Head shot (video game reference)
- Wave your hands in the air!
-Final Round!
-I'm loving it.
-It's in the game.
-Oh my God!
-Oh Shit!

I believe the kids learn these last two from watching uncensored American movies on Korean television. It's a kind of shocking when little Cindy forgets her homework and busts out with "Oh shit." I then have to explain to the child why this is wrong and naturally the other kids get interested.

Kyle: "What did she say?"
Tom: "She said, Oh shit."
Sarah: "Teacher what is Oh shit?"
Me: "It is a very bad word that children should not say."
Jenny: "What is the bad word? Oh shit?"
Paul: "Teacher, what is Oh shit?"

Before I know it the whole class is saying "Oh shit" like they've come down with Tourettes. Still if they want to go to America I can only think that I am teaching them valuable skills, inadvertently or not.

Below are pics from New Years and such. Happy late New Years y'all.

3 comments:

Clint Gardner said...

Hah. You could really fuck with them by telling them "Oh" is the bad word that children should never say.

Catinlap said...

Oh, shit, that's funny!

Swamp Crotch in AZ said...

Tom: "Teacher, what does 'oh shit' mean?"
Nate: "Where did you hear that horrible saying?"
Tom: "From you!"
Nate: "Oh shit."