Sound of Vitality

Blowin up Haengsin-dong. Holla!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Classroom tales

One of my favorite things to do in class is to tell kids about the word 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'. One of them even told a co-teacher of mine about it and she asked me what it means. I was at a loss. 'Umm...it's silly? It's from Mary Poppins. You know Mary Poppins?' Being that I saw MP the musical quite a few times in my capacity as an usher I know the spelling and rapid pronunciation of the word. It's a fun thing to pull of of my bag of Korean-perplexing tricks.

I was introduced to 'eye war' today in one of my classes. It's just what we call a staring contest, but isn't 'eye war' a way cooler way to say that? In another class I taught today the writers of the textbook I was using tried to introduce some modern vernacular in a dialogue about getting a cell phone. The male protagonist, Billy, gets a cell phone from his father and exclaims 'totally awesome!' Billy really has passion on the CD I play for the kids to help them get a handle of the pronunciation. But Billy's enthusiasm pales to the delight I feel when I hear bored, listless Korean kids recite 'to-tall-ee awe-somee' in a barely alive monotone while reading the dialogue back to me.

In other news, I'm an idiot. I've been taking a bus to a subway miles away, when, as pointed out by a helpful Scotsman who's lived in Haengsin for some time, there is an express metro train from the station right next to my house. It's a 15 minute ride to the center of Seoul, compared to my former hour and a half ordeal. The next photo is taken from the platform of that station (click picture to enlarge):

7 comments:

  1. Dad and I had a nice laugh when he told me that you had that subway next to your house with the quick trip to Seoul. Dialogue:

    Joe: "Oh, he's always been good at making things more difficult for himself than need be and then complaining about his predicament."

    Dad: "Oh, don't I know it, you didn't have to live with him for as long as I have."

    Joe and Dad: (laughter)

    Hope things are going well!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Both of you dinguses can bite it. When I asked the Korean teachers when I first got here if I could get to Seoul quickly from Haengsin station they clucked, and said 'I don't think so.' I inquired further. 'Oh you have to buy a ticket. It is not subway.' Liars.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh man. At least you now have an extra hour.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dad: "So your brother called us dinguses today for that comment."

    Joe: "What?"

    Dad: "Dinguses (with more gusto)"

    Joe: "Ha, doesn't matter if I'm 5,000 miles away or if I'm blind, deaf and dumb, I can always get under his skin."

    Dad: "That you can, he's too easy."

    Joe: "Oh, the easiest."

    ReplyDelete
  5. joe and james are fuckin dinguses. haha! i'm giggling like a korean coed!

    i WILL come visit you between june 1 and august 1. will you still be around? i need to buy some suits that fit me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bring it on T-Bone. I wouldn't even bring any clothes, just empty bags and money. We'll head to Itaewon and get custom suits and shirts. Some guy tried to get me to buy custom shoes last weekend in Itaewon.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Will - I was planning on coming in July. Does that work for you? Bob wants to come too. Preferably I'd like to be there when T-Money is there. Let me know.

    ReplyDelete