Bad Words

I felt like a dictator today, especially in the early classes. There were 3 hours between adult and afternoon classes so I was quite bored, to the point of nearly falling asleep. Tomas and Sera's class was so-so, but Miro's 4 PM class was pretty bad. I took away a game and a comic book and gave one kid a good yelling-at in the first 5 minutes of class. I hate yelling at them and I don't do it frequently, but sometimes raising my voice and letting loose a tirade of words too fast for them to understand is enough for them to realize just how serious I am. Then for the rest of class I gave any misbehaving kids a sharp look.

Fred asked for his comic book back at the end of class, explaining that it's due at the store tomorrow (the kids rent comic books for around 10~30 cents, depending on how big or popular the book is). I originally told him I'd give it back next week, but it is the first time he's done it so I suppose I'll give him the option tomorrow of staying after class and writing a bunch of lines to get the book back early.

The middle schoolers were a little better than normal, although few of them can tell time. Reasons for being late ranged from sleeping to playing computer games. Come on! Be on time for class! Kara's class was GREAT. The final class was also good. Brandon (a different Brandon from yesterday) really benefited from his trip to the Philippines. His English is greatly improved and he now understands at least some about the world outside Korea. He shared with us that when he was in the Philippines he couldn't understand what a boy was saying so he started cursing at the boy in Korean. The boy kept saying, "What? What?" I can imagine what a funny scene it must have been.

Tonight Brandon (remember, a different one from yesterday) said "Shut up!" to another student and Julie acted shocked as she said what a bad word that was. I told them that while "be quiet" is a nicer way to say it, "shut up" isn't a bad word, maybe only a little bad. Then Brandon asked me if "go to hell" was bad. Uh, yeah, I'd say so. Don't say that. Then he asked which was worse, "go to hell" or "fuck you."

The difference between this Brandon and yesterday's Brandon saying the exact same thing is, of course, in how they said it. Today's Brandon was curious; yesterday's Brandon wanted to shock and annoy me. I told them that both expressions were pretty bad and that they shouldn't say them. "But HOW bad, teacher? I say it and man kill me? I go to police station?" Well, it totally depends on how you say it. If it's to a friend in a not-so-serious way, your friend is maybe just a little angry. But if it's to a stranger when you're really angry, then they're really angry too and maybe they'll fight you. It's all in the intonation of things, body language, etc., so you kids shouldn't even think about using English curse words with native speakers!