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I sipped on my giant water bottle tonight during each of my classes while they made Christmas cards, an assignment I was relieved to give them, having little energy to be the circus performer tonight, walking ropes, swallowing fire, and taming lions (all still just earning a yawn from most of the kids). So I sat at my desk and sipped water, like all the Korean teachers sipping their tea at their desks. Except during this last class, I guess I was swigging it, not sipping at all. My students noticed that I actually SWIG my water and the girls made some comments about Hippos, which I didn't follow and didn't appreciate. The boys laughed and taunted me with "Soju!!" which is the Korean alcohol of choice. "Soju boys," they call them, men who you can smell a mile away and who come up to you and start speaking English to you (Konglish, actually), and watching you incessantly, despite the normal conserative, careful Korean public customs. Then the boy students tried to make me understand "one shot," by their usual method: repeating it over and over and louder and louder. Once I got it, I was amazed they actually knew the words. These kids can barely tell you their name and that they're "fine." But they sure haven't missed certain cuss words and drinking phrases. But I still didn't understand what they meant exactly, until I started to drink from my bottle again, half-full of water, when my kids started pounding their desks and chanting my name ("Celess, Celess, Celess"). I nearly spit out the water as I finally got it and laughed my head off. I tried it again, for their sakes. But that was a lot of water. So, I fetched Scott, who is the only person I know who can actually chug an entire 2-liter of anything in "one shot." Besides, Scott had to see these kids and be delighted, too, by their unexpected humor. Scott wasn't able to finish it in one, but he did it in two, and that was enough for a giant applause from my classroom. When you loosen up enough, these kids can thrill you and delight you with their own humor and creativity. Problem is, loosen up too much, and you have a band of kids screaming Korean at you and at each other, burning paper in the wall heaters (that actually have flames), and endlessly playing their version of "rock, paper, scissors," which is their favorite game. They'll even play it during class, hiding their scissor and rock hands behind their backs. Of course, I only have 10 or so students a foot or 2 away, so I can seem them clearly and so roll my eyes. They seem so confident that their deception is working that I hate to ruin it for them. That, and I kind of feel bad that the kids go to school 6 days a week and all hours of the day. They come to our classes AFTER a full day of school. Now that's determination. Their parents', that is. One Shot, ck [2002-12-10]
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