Student Stories

So this morning in my 10:30 class I was reminded that I should post about Konglish.

Usually at the begining of each class, I ask the students, "What did you do yesterday?", and they practice their past tense English.

This is the part of class where they joke about eachother, and I hear some interesting gossip. Once "Young" was walking along the front of the dorm buildings and she saw "Ralph" in his underwear. That was a fun day. Or as the students would say, "It was a funny day."

Today "Alexander" said, "I went to the store... to buy some crack."

It took me a second. I just looked at him, and waited for the rest to see if I could figure out what he really meant. Turns out he meant to say, "crackers". Oh, I said, "crakcers". I explained to him the importance of saying crackers instead of crack.

He understood.
He said, "The name is OREO..."
Oh, I said, cookies. Unless you're from the UK where they say 'biscuits', but they're crazy over there, and I make the crazy sign with the circular finger motion to the side of my head.

"The taste was chocolate...very good."

One of my favorite things that the students say goes like this...

Example

"I was very heavy drinking last night. I drank SoJu, and Beer, and Ginebra, but I don't know what time I went to bed. I forgot my memory."

Yeah. I hate when that happens.