Today the mother of one of the students died. I don't have this student in my class, so I wasn't familiar with her at all, but the teachers were quite sad, and all the kids in my classes wanted to be the ones to "inform" me.
At the beginning of one of my older classes (maybe 7 years old?), three or four students rushed me, all saying at once, "Teacher! Teacher! Julie's mother is died. She is died!!"
Soberly, I asked, "How did she die?" a couple of times, just to get my question clearly across. They started hitting their guts. Cancer? I thought. Stabbing? Probably not. Then one precocious and well-meaning student was struck with inspiration.
"Teacher!! Teacher!! She BLAH!!!!!!" The girl lept up at me and threw her hands out, just about scared the crackers out of me. Then the girl proceeded to bug her eyes out and clutch her chest and collapse to the floor, face frozen in an expression of horror.
Oh. A heart attack. *fights to keep a straight face*......*is fighting a losing battle*......
"Children," I remained calm and collected. "That is called a 'heart attack' in English. It's a heart attack. And it's very sad."
And this is how English is taught.
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3 comments:
that is the cutest thing ever. I mean, I'm sorry for their loss...but the students face sounds great :)
Remember you have eaten well because people have heart attacks. This is too cool. luv ya dad
Do you realize how guilty I feel for completely cracking up at hearing about a Korean child losing his/her mother to a heart attack? I'm going to have to go eat my Valentine's chocolate (also from kiddos!) to make me feel better... too bad I didn't get any lipstick.
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