My P5 class is an interesting lot. Largely made up of Korean students with limited ability in the English language, they are vibrant and talkative. Because of that it is quite a chore teaching those little buggers. However, it makes my job a bit interesting too.
The topic of today’s lesson is environmental conservation.
Thus we went through the usual sub-topics such as endangered species, global warming and so on so forth.
The current teacher posed them questions such as the types of animals that exist within the scope of their knowledge or the effects of global warming.
Due to the interesting nature of the topic, they began their usual round of chaotic utterances in a desperate attempt to showcase their impressive knowledge.
The teacher asked, ‘do you know of any animals that are endangered or extinct?’
‘teacher,’ a student cried ‘what is extinct?’
‘It means die. Do you understand?’ the teacher confidently explained.
‘Yes,’ they answered collectively.
‘Can you give me some examples?’
‘Ant!’ one shouted.
‘Ant!?’ she was surprised by the answer.
‘Because on Sunday I was playing, I saw many ants and then I step step on them and many die,’ he said.
‘You killed them all?’
‘Yes,’ he proudly declares.
I didn’t know what to think. When I am up there I have no idea what to say. I must say she didn’t handle it very well.
‘Later when go home, go to the same playground and look at the place where you step on the ants. I am sure you will see more ants.’
‘If I see more I will step on it again. Kill it!’
Under normal circumstances I would have laughed out loud. Rolling on the floor perhaps. Well I can do that because I will face them next week.
‘Ok…,’ feeling exasperated. She looked at me as if calling out for assistance. Or was it the look of dying from the inside? ‘ok children let’s have another example.’
‘Tiger,’ one said.
‘Good,’ she seemed happier.’
‘Lion!’ another said.
She continued with the praise.
The chaos persisted for a few minutes more until a smart Alex gave a rather queer example.
‘Liger!’
‘What?’
Now, she looked confused.
The kids tried to explain their answer. A few others joined in, in support of their good friend. I was perplexed too.
I don’t admit to know everything but I am sure I have never heard of a liger. Perhaps it’s a native Korean animal.
And then a more eloquent classmate called Tim, who sits at the back shouts still in a thick Korean accent.
‘When a lion marry a tiger, the baby is a liger!’
Ah I see.
They are going to make one sick genetic engineer.
Liger….
I couldn’t help but to smile.
Soundtrack of the day: Fragile by Sting
Finger Acrobatics Performed by Avloomat at 1846HRS
1 Comment
February 2, 2007 at 2:50 am
Classic! ……….when a Chinese marry a Bai jaga.