Kids Say The Darndest Things...

Yesterday was a BIG day for me.

My boss and I travelled 45 minutes on transit to get to the Korean immigration office. Between buses, we were standing in a sunlit terminal and I had an embarrassing coughing fit: tears streaming, struggling to catch my breath, Kleenex scrunched by my bright face.

My boss looked concerned because I was to be teaching 5 classes in the span of 5 hours that evening. She insisted I see a doctor but, after hearing how much it would cost to walk in off the street, I gripped my wallet & convinced her it was only a chest cold.

As for the teaching, it went smoothly! I had nothing but a raspy voice at my disposal, but it was great. I taught various levels and gave all of my students miniature Canadian flags, bookmarks & cards which said: My New Teacher's Name is EVA! I asked them to draw the South Korean flag on the board and we had an open discussion: Canada vs. Korea.

The best chapter I taught was the 1970's one. I brought in my laptop to play a George Harrison song, along with a hippie-style shirt I happened to pack in my suitcase. When I showed them a photograph of Elton John, they asked if he was like "Jim Carrey!" ..... hmmm.

Here are a few questions asked by my Students:

1. Is Canada exciting?
2. Is everyone beautiful in Canada or are they fat? I tried to explain how many ethnicities live together in our country! Korea is so mono-cultural.
3. One student asked, "What do you think of Korean people?" When I said I hadn't been here long enough to judge, I asked what SHE thought. She said, "Korean people are angry!" I asked her if she meant the language sounds angry; Koreans always seem passionate about what they're saying... but she didn't understand.

I felt badly about taking over one class of puberty-aged girls who seemed to be in LOVE with Jacques: their former teacher. I don't blame them. I watched him teach a few times and it was like watching Mr. Holland's Opus- that cheesy inspirational teacher-movie. He's really good at making them laugh and opening the floor for interesting discussions.

I told them, "don't worry! We'll have fun, too, and Jacques will come visit you when I teach... Isn't he great?"

Well, they got mischievous smiles on their faces and said, "if you think he's so great, you should marry him!"

I explained that that wouldn't be possible because I have a boyfriend back home... They were tickled pink! They wanted to know everything! They wanted to see a photograph! They asked how long we had been dating and when I said 3 years, one firecracker piped, "you and him have the sex?" Now, imagine a pimply teenage girl in a plaid school uniform uttering the word, "sex," through a nervous smile. So funny.