Plumpy Kittens

Our fifth grade just finished a unit on daily routines.  Some of the key phrases they needed to learn were "What time do you...(get up, go to bed, etc.)" and "I .... (get up...) at (time)".  The songs that accompany the units are pretty hit or miss, but this one was quite catchy and the boys loved dancing to it.  Check out 25 seconds into the first video when I film the character on the screen dancing.  He has amazing skills with his hips.

The second video is the same song in a different 5th grade class.  The main dancer is a kid named Sang Pum who is an adorable little ladies' man who likes to tell me I'm beauty-ful.  

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I've stopped posting with regularity on here, partly because my schedule is much busier, but mostly because my day-to-day life doesn't feel exciting anymore.  Oh, I'm plenty narcissistic, and my activities are still interesting to me, but I usually don't think of them as blog-worthy.  Which is silly because almost everything that happens to me here would give my readers insight on life as an English teacher in South Korea (which is why I'm writing).  It's easy to forget that the constant bowing, the screaming grocery store dudes, and the kids who stalk my co-teacher are actually not normal everyday life occurences in most places. 

So without further ado, here is the first of a new series I will dub "boring posts" until further notice.**

This morning SH has been moaning about how plumpy she is.  Yes, plumpy.  Our Head Teacher who we privately refer to as "scary teacher" has been pretty nasty to SH in the past for no apparent reason.  She spread rumors about her incompetency and told her that she had a bad voice.  Yes.  A bad voice.  Apparently SH's voice isn't loud enough. 

The latest Scary Teacher incident happened this morning when Scary Teacher spotted SH wearing a slightly shorter skirt than usual.  "You usually wear longer skirts, so I didn't know that you were fat."  Why, why, why would someone say that to anyone – let alone say it to the skinniest employee at our school?

So SH came into our classroom, googled whatever Korean word Scary Teacher had called her, and came up with "plump/chubby" which she garbled into "plumpy."  Which is kind of a fun word.  If you don't have to hear it ten times from your distraught co-teacher.

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A few days ago I almost stole a kitten.  I have been considering getting a kitten for a few months now, but haven't made the plunge because of my temporary situation here.  It's difficult and potentially traumatizing (for both parties) to travel with animals, and I only have seven months left in Korea.  However, when I walked outside of my school on Wednesday and saw a tiny (8 inch) kitten meowing and wandering among a few of my students, I took it as a direct sign that I was meant to have one.

"Awwww," I exclaimed, kneeling down and cradling her.  She lay quietly in the crook of my arm, her soft gray fur warm against my skin.  I made obnoxious crooning noises that have probably permanently undermined me with the students who witnessed the scene.  A group of kids had quickly formed, gabbing at me in Korean (they're waiting for my sudden switch to Korean fluency in the same way I'm waiting for their sudden English mastery).

"Where's the mom?" I asked.  They stared.  It dawned on me that I was a complete failure of an English teacher if my 5th grade students didn't understand the word "mom" - which is fairly similar to the Korean word "oma."  But one student, a tall, chubby girl with a big smile, understood my question.

"Blah blah blah," she said to the others.  "Blah blah blah Oma."  They all responded energetically with throat slitting gestures and manic laughter.  Apparently a dead cat is endlessly amusing to my students.

"Did you (point at them) see (point at eyes) oma die (throat slit gesture)?" I asked.  Oh yes, they nodded enthusiastically.  Yes yes yes.

I was about to walk home, cradling my new lifemate, when I realized that perhaps the kid - a shy, skinny ten-year-old with glasses - who had originally shown me the kitten might have an attachment.

I took him upstairs and got a reluctant translation from SH (who is terrified of kittens).  As it turns out, my student has been raising her since her mom died.  So I would not, in fact, be taking my new companion home. 


In the meantime, I'm dog-sitting for a friend (who is on vacation), so the kitten shaped hole in my heart is being partly filled by an adorable little pup named Bentley. 

Posted in: classroom video, dancing students, Funny things that happen in Korea, kitten, Korean Body Image