I Think…

some of my students say things, just to see if, or how, I’ll react. I always introduce the class exercises by saying, “Look! We’re so lucky! Today we’re going to play a game!” And most of the time the students get very excited – ohh – a game! In one of my intermediate grammar classes (12 year olds?) we were pretending we were going on a camping trip. In turn, each student had to say a food item we would take with us, beginning with a, then b, then c, and using the correct form of “a/an” or “some.” One of the students in particular, Min Sok, likes to see my reactions. For d, of course, he listed “some dog.” No surprise there. I smiled, then went on to the next student. For h, he offered “some horsemeat.” I joked that with all of the meat he was taking, his backpack was going to be very heavy. Then, the next time around, I can’t even remember what letter he had, he said something in Korean. I asked him to choose an English word. “But, teacher, you allowed Jin Ho to say kimbop.” Yes, I did. Okay. What was your word? He repeated it. It wasn’t one I was familiar with. I don’t know that one, what is it? The other students (both boys) looked like they were about to explode. Min Sok smiled and said, “Well, it’s like cigarettes.” The other boys said, “But not regular cigarettes. Magic cigarettes. Make you very, very happy. Like drug-as.” I seeeee… Hmmmm, Min Sok, technically, I don’t think that’s food. What else can you think of – you know, that we could eat or drink? He was disappointed. I think he thought he would get me flustered with that one.