Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Cultural blunders...

Last Sunday I read a book with one of the little girls who comes to see me in the cafe every week. Easy right? Hmm...

So we're reading a book about animals, and deciding which one is the King of the Beasts. Everything goes smoothly - we roar for the lion, we wiggle our noses for the rabbit, we woof woof for the dog... the little girl is unimpressed and shakes her head. Is that a dog? Yes! What does a dog do?

Mung Mung!

A cat goes "yow! yow!", and (my personal favourite) a frog goes not "ribbit ribbit", but "gaggle gaggle"!

I realise now why I often get blank faces in class when we're playing charades and other guessing games...

Another vital piece of cultural information for teachers is that red pens are now a no-no. I know what you're thinking - what is a teacher without her red pen? But using one runs the risk of accidentally writing someone's name in red, which implies that that person is dead. Quite important then.

It can be a bit of a minefield, but I'm still grateful that total Americanisation hasn't yet overwhelmed Korea :)

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