Monday, November 5, 2007

puh-rank-un-stine-uh

Last week I did a lesson on Halloween. Korea does not celebrate Halloween, but a lot of younger Koreans have some knowledge of the holiday from the media or English class. Most don’t know a lot, though—so when I pantomimed how to make a jack-o-lantern they paid rapt attention. When I showed a picture of a pumpkin patch in my powerpoint, they collectively gasped. Sometimes I feel so fortunate to have this job. I got to teach the words “zombies” and “werewolves” to my students. Other highlights from the week:

-Telling my students, “Just like we say that cats say ‘meow’ and dogs say ‘bow wow,’ in English, we say that ghosts say ‘boo!’”—and hearing a tiny chorus of voices behind me go “Boo! Boo! Boo!” as they tried out the word for themselves.

-Wearing a witch hat and having several students tell me sincerely that I looked pretty with it on (Korean fashion???).

-Watching girls fight over the Halloween stickers my mom sent from the dollar store. I let each girl choose a sticker, but at the end of every class I was swarmed by girls who wanted to exchange their sticker for a different design after seeing their friends.’

-Having some confused students say trick or treat and then give me candy when I saw them in the hall.

-Watching the stickers reappear this week on cell phones, pencil cases, girls' faces, and in the center of their uniforms' tie.

Halloween REPRESENT!


ps-- check out out the school's fall uniform!

4 comments:

Aaron said...

THEY HAVE BOLOS!! wow, that is a classy uniform.
This was the cutest story -- you make Halloween sound so warm and cuddly! My friend Joy, who is teaching in Taiwan, makes it sound frightening and traumatizing.

Steve said...

You're such an anthropologist!! :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi! It's mom helping Grandma figure out how to comment on your page. We just celebrated an early Thanksgiving and we wish you were here. We love you!!

Steve said...

so anxious for another update...