Dear Family and Friends,We interrupt the previously planned blog regarding Chinese New Year to bring you an almost live update from Taegu Foreign Language High School.
My final semester has begun and I am savoring memorable moments; I’m writing down the funny moments. As this is me speaking, I hardly need to tell you all that my memorable moments usually involve my committing what you might call… acts of foolery… and, of course, my laughter is often returned in kind. Recent examples:
On the subject of my favorite movie star, one student said,
“George Clooney?? He is grandfather.”
I have joined the ranks of the truly old.
On the state of my classroom a student complained,
“Teacher, this room smells like a hedgehog!”
Seriously, does she know what a hedgehog smells like???
(Her answer: “Teacher, this room!” Hard to argue with that logic!)
Our school bell intones from a ceiling lodged speaker. I’m constantly complaining about the thing (it interrupts me!) but one time the bell rang and a student beat me at my own game with,
“Holy cow! WHAT THE HECK…???
Maybe you had to be there.
One day we were having a relay race where teams were writing words on the board – the ultimate object of the race was to use the greatest number of letters. One student froze every racer by spelling,
“pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis”
This is a real word with 45 letters. Look it up.
Yesterday we were in the midst of a discussion regarding Charlotte’s Web, when a student interrupted to announce,
“Teacher, you have a TAIL!”
My tail turned out to be a scarf dangling from my jacket. The double meaning of tail passed them by. But oh, the hilarity.
And, come to find out, April Fool’s Day is popular here in Korea, popular to the extent that students play pranks even on teachers. I.e. a teacher is scheduled to teach class 1-3, but she walks into the appointed classroom only to find a mix of students from 1-3, 2-3, and 3-3.
Happily, I only get reports of those pranks and yesterday I learned the origin of April Fool’s. Once upon a time, before the Wright Brothers flew at Kittyhawk, there lived a British pilot by the name of Loof Lirpa. Have you heard of him? Anyway, he made a grand announcement to the people of London that he planed to demonstrate the first flight ever at noon the following day. Sure enough, an excited crowd gathered the next day to witness the event. The crowd waited and waited but Mr. Lirpa did not show up. Later, Mr. Lirpa was discovered stuck in a tree - making fools of both himself and the people that had gathered to watch him. Nice, huh?
Oh, please note Mr. Lirpa’s full name: Loof Lirpa.
Conversely this spells A-p-r-i-l F-o-o-l!
Happy April Fool’s Day!
Love,
Laura
My final semester has begun and I am savoring memorable moments; I’m writing down the funny moments. As this is me speaking, I hardly need to tell you all that my memorable moments usually involve my committing what you might call… acts of foolery… and, of course, my laughter is often returned in kind. Recent examples:
On the subject of my favorite movie star, one student said,
“George Clooney?? He is grandfather.”
I have joined the ranks of the truly old.
On the state of my classroom a student complained,
“Teacher, this room smells like a hedgehog!”
Seriously, does she know what a hedgehog smells like???
(Her answer: “Teacher, this room!” Hard to argue with that logic!)
Our school bell intones from a ceiling lodged speaker. I’m constantly complaining about the thing (it interrupts me!) but one time the bell rang and a student beat me at my own game with,
“Holy cow! WHAT THE HECK…???
Maybe you had to be there.
One day we were having a relay race where teams were writing words on the board – the ultimate object of the race was to use the greatest number of letters. One student froze every racer by spelling,
“pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis”
This is a real word with 45 letters. Look it up.
Yesterday we were in the midst of a discussion regarding Charlotte’s Web, when a student interrupted to announce,
“Teacher, you have a TAIL!”
My tail turned out to be a scarf dangling from my jacket. The double meaning of tail passed them by. But oh, the hilarity.
And, come to find out, April Fool’s Day is popular here in Korea, popular to the extent that students play pranks even on teachers. I.e. a teacher is scheduled to teach class 1-3, but she walks into the appointed classroom only to find a mix of students from 1-3, 2-3, and 3-3.
Happily, I only get reports of those pranks and yesterday I learned the origin of April Fool’s. Once upon a time, before the Wright Brothers flew at Kittyhawk, there lived a British pilot by the name of Loof Lirpa. Have you heard of him? Anyway, he made a grand announcement to the people of London that he planed to demonstrate the first flight ever at noon the following day. Sure enough, an excited crowd gathered the next day to witness the event. The crowd waited and waited but Mr. Lirpa did not show up. Later, Mr. Lirpa was discovered stuck in a tree - making fools of both himself and the people that had gathered to watch him. Nice, huh?
Oh, please note Mr. Lirpa’s full name: Loof Lirpa.
Conversely this spells A-p-r-i-l F-o-o-l!
Happy April Fool’s Day!
Love,
Laura
