Interesting! Cave Survivors.

I'm reading Yahoo news and one of the top stories is: "Student cave explorers are found safe."

That reminds me of my guys here. They saw alot of things this weekend, one of the most exciting was the cave tour. The cave was a real Indiana Jones type experience. (Actually their travel just to get to these spots was pretty Indiana Jones!)

At some points they had to crawl...at some points they were in water up to their chests holding their backpacks over their heads. Gyu said he saw a crab with no eyes. There were a gazillion bats (actual number)and meters of bet guano underneath. At some points the rock was so slippery that they had to crawl, so they got nice juicy bat guano on their hands.

Gyu was a bit concerned because the guide had a gas light that he held with one hand and nothing else. If that gas light hit the ground and broke, that was it they were in a pitch black cave miles from the opening. Hopefully the guide would have bat vision and super bat-guide skills if he dropped the lantern.

There was also a waterfall. The guide cost was 800 pesos, so 400 each, which is almost 10.00 dollars each. Pretty good. Their entire weekend cost each of them 60.00.

Oh, the hospital bill: Gyu just went to the hospital this morning because this weekend a bug flew into his ear and lived overnight at least and may have flown out the next day, we don't know. But the "damned insect" as Gyu calls it...may have laid eggs, so he's getting that checked out. That story was funny because I think Gyu thinks that the name of the bug is "damned insect"...because he says it without inflection and he says it every time, the whole time he's telling the story. "So I go hospital second class check damned insect. Damned insect may have laid eggs." "I sleep then at 4am damned insect started crawl." He was just relaying the facts.
At lunch maybe he'll update me on the damned insect.

UPDATE: It was still there. One of the teachers told me the doctor removed it. Gyu didn't save it, and they didn't film it! Rats!

Marathon

Director: Jeong YunchulCast:

Cho Seungwoo, Kim MisookGenre:

Feb. 23, 2005

Homepage: http://www.run2005.co.kr/

This movie, Koreans sometimes call Malaton. I think that's Konglish for Marathon, although sometimes they adopt strange new words into their language. This might be a real word over there.

UPDATE: The students said that the autistic guy in the film says "malaton" and that's why the name...

This is a true story. "Cho-won's intelligence is still that of a five-year-old boy. He farts everywhere, bows to his younger brother, and dances to music wherever he is. However, his mom dedicates herself to training him to accomplish a 'Sub-3-Hour,' which is completing a marathon below three hours, a dream for amateur runners." -Movie review website.

My son is autistic, but I don't know if they recommended this film because of that. The particular students in class didn't seem to know that fact when I mentioned it. Anyway, it's not hard to imagine how badly I'd like to see this movie. It sounds great. All the students interviewed gave it a 4, or 5 out of 5 rating, and all who had seen it cried.

Spot the Difference.

Konglish Alert!
So my students yesterday were telling me that they saw a movie starring Colin Powell.
ME:"Really?"

THEM: "Yes! Colin Powell!"

ME:"The General?"

THEM: Laughing.

They know who Colin Powell is and suddenly realized their mistake. A student went out to the lobby to look it up on the internet and came back, "Ahh, Colin Farrell!" It was pretty funny.I tried to get a picture of Colin Powell without his shirt on to make the comparison, but there were none available.

Hey, did you notice they both have beverages, though?

What?

My afternoon class has stopped doing this when I ask them a question. I'm so glad.

Also, Cute Konglish Of the Day:
S was wearing a tshirt with a cowgirl on it, one student said, "See, it's a cowboy girl."

I'm So Boring!

I used to tell my friends that people only get bored because they are boring people. Usually I can find something to do to interest myself because I find so many things interesting. So I'd say things like, "there are no bored people, only boring people"...

Now at school the students tend to misuse this word, it's part of Konglish. "I'm so boring!", they complain. And I'm like...uh...well no, you're bored, not boring. Of course in the back of my mind I'm thinking, yeah you're boring, but I can't teach it that way. They also do the reverse, "The movie was so bored." There's a general rule that may not always apply, but generally people are bored and things are boring. Example, I am bored with this boring blog entry.

Is He Handsome? No! Just Good Looking

I've had girls insist that Rain not only isn't handsome, but he's also not good looking, yeah right! This is Rain by the way, in Korea he's called Bi, pronounced Bee. To me, Rain is hot. The girls like him and say, yeah he's talented and has a good body, but he's not cute, or handsome, or good looking, his eyes are too small.

Whatever.


In the past I've blogged about this adjective frenzy that the Koreans get into, having precise yet unexplainable definitions for beauty words. I've got news for them, Rain is handsome AND goodlooking, AND cute, and has a great body. Deal with it. The native speaker has spoken.

Rain is popular in Australia and has toured a bit in the US, he actually sold out at Madison Square Gardens, and venues in Las Vegas.

I know, I know, he's probably a couple years older than my son.

Lost in Translation

One of my favorite students of all time has just emailed me from the UK. I thought I'd share.
___________________________________________
Dear. theresa

I뭢 June. I'm in cambridge.

First day, I had many problem. It was that my bag was very heavy in the airport. I had to pay extra pee. But I have to money. Because my credit cart already broke. It gives me a serious problem. In finish on argument long time, I could take on my fight. However I could arrive in London. But my problem didn뭪 finish. When I arrived the airport, I didn뭪 pass the customs desk. Because my school letter was in my hard luggage. I felt very upset. And it seems to be other people like coolness. Nobody interested me. Nobody wanted to know me.

However when I could go to out in the airport, it was at night. I was pulling my heavy bag, nobody helped me. I slept on a chair in this airport. I felt lonely. But I didn뭪 sad. ?

Next day in morning, I bought a ticket to go the Cambridge. I took on the bus with some meals. At that time, I was decided to get strong mind. And I took off my top cloth. Because I need a courage. When I arrived the Cambridge, I searched my homestay myself.

However, I still have my lock. because There are very kind of mother and brother.
I like them and their make food. it's a redeeming feature in a tragic affair.

By the way, I뭢 not accommodation in UK life style yet. And I have jetlag. But I don뭪 worry. I believe that time give me to answer.
I want you to give me courage. Thank you. And I promise that I can live here well.

P.S - I really like you. and could you do me a favor?
I want to fix my write if you want it. I really need to help..(T...T)
can I spend you my wirte about every issue?

You're Number 2! You're Number 2!

Last night I went with three of my students to Pizza Hut. Fun. Maybe I'll have pictures to post here later. Scott has to email them to me.

Yesterday was funny. I've been teaching for a year, and groups come and go, it's not uncommon for me to get a question like this: "Theresa, who do you think is the best looking Korean guy here at the school?" This is a normal question to them, nothing inappropriate about it. Usually, it's girls who ask me, they ask all the teachers. I used to say, "Brad Pitt." and pretend that I don't understand English. That's what they do.

Well I got a surprise yesterday, because my studious quiet guy student was the one who started the survey, Jason. I had four options...out of Kuni, Peter, Jason and Scott who has the best face?Commonly they say "best face", or "good face"...then whoever is present will campaign for themselves. Scott is a strong lobbyist. The funny thing is that all the teachers were answering "Kuni.", like of course and they each answered quickly. "Kuni." So when I was asked, I did the exact same thing. Kuni is not my student, actually, so it was easy for me to say that and I knew that it would be a funny answer. Oh, these guys were MAD. Shouting, pointing, arguing with eachother. "WHY?", they questioned me.

So eventually they changed the question. Ok, Kuni aside, who's number two out of the remaining three? I said you're all number 2 (if ya know what I mean). I got shouted at and called a liar. Scott is not speaking to Grace anymore because she chose him as number 4.

The students also have strict category criteria for adjectives. Reading my blog entries for Konglish reveals this, I have one entry, ME: "Is he handsome?", STUDENT:"No, just good-looking." That's funny for native speakers, but Koreans have definite ideas about cute, handsome, good-looking, glamorous (you don't want to know this one), beautiful, etc.

One day my girl students told me that they had talked about it, and come to the conclusion that I like cute guys, but not handsome guys. I'm like, OK, I'll buy that. They said, for example, Brad Pitt. I said, no, I don't buy that because the thing with Brad is that he's cute and handsome and that's why he has such universal appeal. Kapiche? Ahh, yes.

That's what I'm here for, to educate.

Cute Konglish of the Day

"She is small tall." (meaning, she is short)

Little Finger- Pinky

This morning I came to work and some staff started shouting my name, "Theresa! Theresa! What's this?". Grace and a few other teachers were showing me their little finger. "What's this called, the little finger?" Someone offered, "Index?" No, that's a pinky finger.
And then I'm thinking, why in the world is that called a 'pinky' finger? So I looked it up on wiki and the pedia says that the word comes from Dutch. In Dutch, pink means little finger, so in English that was adopted and changed to pinky.

It feels nice to be needed here. I hope they never discover the internet. :)

Update: I asked one of my students if he knew the name of the little finger. He held his up and said, "uh...children finger". Funny.

Airport Security: Ban!

In class we discuss new vocabulary words. Yesterday one of them was ban, also, banned.
The topic turned to airport security.
A student told me about his airport security experience. Looking up from his electronic dictionary, he told me, "They sequestered my toothpaste."

I love the usage I hear everyday, it's fun.

Also, I learned that up until around 1995 Japanese comic books were banned in South Korea, along with other media and entertainment. There is still a ban of Japanese singing on the airwaves. A Japanese band has to sing in English or Korean.

Japanese Girl At Our School

Our school is Korean, but there's open enrollment. There is a Japanese High School girl whose family is in Lipa for some reason, so she's joining us here at the English Institute for awhile. She might feel strange for a few reasons.

1. Here, the languages she will hear are English, Korean and some Tagalog.
2. She is much younger than anyone else here.
3. She is Japanese

About number three...
I don't expect a problem, but there's an akwardness. I've had Korean students with various mindsets. My first batch informed me, 'We have issues with the Japanese government, not the people.' My repsponse to this, facial expression and all was 'of course...well, naturally.' Their response to that was 'no, not of course...many Korean people hate Japanese people.'

Oh.
Another batch of students rolled in. I heard, 'I hate Japan, Japanese people, culture, everything. I do not want to speak Japanese, I hate everything Japanese.'

STUDENT: "I hate Japanese."
ME: "Government?"
STUDENT: "NO! I hate all of them!"

another,
STUDENT:'Korean people very, very hate Japanese'
ME:, "No, 'really really'."

Then there's a lot of this too.
ME (to male students): Describe the ideal woman.
MEN: "Japanese school girl"

If there are women in the class, this likely leads to the guy getting punched or slapped in the arm.
WOMEN:"They love Japan girl because Japan girl not talking...quiet. Korean woman not quiet."
GUYS:"That's right, Korean woman not quiet."

more slaps...

MAN (to woman student):"I am afraid to you!"
ME: "I'm afraid OF you."
MAN: "Yeah!"

(Side note edited in after I posted this. Korean guys often say they like talkative women, but they also like submissive. Just in case you're keeping track, I have another post where the guys say they enjoy talkative women.)

I ask the class the question, when there is a disagreement between your parents, who usually wins? More than 2/3 of the students:"My mother."

So there's a glimpse in to that.
Currently we have a student, Peter who speaks some Japanese. He spent a year studying law in Japan. His major is law, he hates it. Anyway, he's able to speak to her and make her feel comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. Why? Because he's a much older Korean male, it's a bit akward. It would be even more so if she knew that he used to go to Korean chat rooms pretending to be Japanese and starting fights with the Koreans. 'We should attack Korea and kill all Koreans.', stuff like that. He was also telling me that he can read Japanese so he reads some of their blogs and they are hateful to Koreans as well. He said that he saw a blog about Cho Seung Hui and it said that it's just in the Korean nature to do something like that. (Yeah, sure.That makes no sense.)
So this guy talks to her once in awhile.
We have another student here whose major was Japanese. He tried to hold a conversation with her unsuccessfully. I've met a few students that have a degree in a language that they can't functionally speak. From time to time we have English majors that enroll here and refuse to take my class or speak to me. Hilarious.

I spoke with the girl a bit and did my best to make her feel comfortable. I hope she loves it here.

No Chuckle Zone

Boy it has been a no chuckles day at work. Ok, that's an exaggeration. But only kind of.

I'll just quickly jot down a few things that the students say here...to add to my collection.

One thing lately is the guys have been coming in looking a bit tired. They explain how they are getting no sleep because of a certain noisy neighbor.

"Crazy chicken, always sing a song!" I guess there's this rooster over there that crows loudly all night. I did chuckle at how that was explained to me.

Today poor Bini was constipated and told me in the bathroom, "Today I cannot succeed!"

Here's one I hear regularly "I'm so boring!", meaning I'm so bored.

Enough for now.

Things The Students Say

Quintessential Konglish:

"We ate some live banannas."
(fresh)

"I was tired to death."

"They have an insane ambiance."
(talking about gay men who approach him in the gym)

"The mosquitos anguished me."

"You should be ground up."
(trying to say 'grow up!')

"What is a wrinkle in time?"
( come...pull up a chair...)

"After I see that movie, I eliminate."
(deleted off PC illustrating his review of movie)

"He's not handsome, just good-looking."

"I couldn't sleep, so I played with myself."
(entertained myself)

"I forgot my memory."
(I hate when that happens)

"I went to the store to buy some crack."
(but he bought crackers instead)

Future Plans: "I'd like to grow one child."

"In modern times, we have nuclear weapons families."
(no, that's 'nucular' weapons families)

"I ate something to eat."
(highly recommended)

"Whenever I meet a cockroach, I'm scared."
(don't worry, I hear they're really laid-back)

"His face is very variety."
(on Jim Carey)

"I want to meet a special experience."
(tell him I said hi)

Me: "Where is Martin?" Students: "He has a disease."
(illness)

"We cheer up the team!"
(cheerleading)

"I slept tightly."
(Don't let the bed bugs bitely)

"Your face is marvelous."
(student to ex-teacher, he was trying to insult her)

"You are poverty period."
(I don't know what this means, I just say, 'thank you')

There's No Such Thing As A Stupid Question

My student Lino asked me, "Did you ever kiss a black man?"

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.