[Katherine]: As I'm making up for lost blogging time today and just had a cute kid experience, I thought I would write about it on the blog, just so people know that I don't spend my entire life screaming at borstal kids and crying about my situation (see every other blog post!)
Today I'm at one of my super rural schools. It has a total of 26 kids in 3 classes (my BIGGEST super rural school, would you believe?!!?) and I actually enjoy teaching 2 out of the 3 classes, as the kids mostly listen to me and seem interested in what I have to say. My third grade class hate me with a healthy passion and either fall asleep or run riot, but the First and Second grade are absolutely lovely.
Today I was teaching the first grade about 'family', a pretty easy topic even for them, so we were all getting along fine. However, I was surprised to hear a fit of hysterical giggles when I said the 'key phrase' 'This is my mother'. At first, I thought they were amused by the picture, which happens a lot but then they all started chanting 'MUTHER' "'MUTHER' in the cutest oldham accents ever!! I am normally very good at hiding my accent in class. Korean kids learn American English which sounds so different to my natural tongue but I can normally adapt quite well and say words how they understand ( I don't like doing this but it's what I'm told to do so I do it). However, for the life of me, I COULD NOT say mother any differently. As I tried I got more and more northern and the kids found it hilarious!! So, I stopped bothering! It was really nice because these kids are normally really quiet and it was great to see them come out of their shells. Normally my classes aren't that exciting, so it was fab to see them getting a laugh and actually memorising my phrases! They kept goading me to say it again and I actually felt good within my lessons for once, so it was a nice thought, plus now I have all these ace mini-Oldham kids with northern accents - I want to bring them home!!
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| Ey Oop we're Northern! |
I have to teach the same lesson to 3rd grade now, but I'm pretty sure I won't get a similar fun response!
Also, did you know in the US, they spell aunt 'ant' WEIRD!! That's another powerpoint I have to change!!
[GIANT EDIT: Greg tells me this is infact BS and my co-teachers just a dumb ass, as I neither knew nor cared what the correct spelling was, I didn't even check it out, naughty Katherine! However, I like this picture of an ant/aunt so i'm keeping it on the blog, so there!!!]
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| Ant or Aunt?!! I just don't know?! |
Indeed, it's spelled "aunt" just the same as in British English. The weirdest spellings for me are still "ax" and "tire"; I've pretty much got used to "color" and "mold" to the point where it seems weird when you are talking about the skanky apartment "mould" problems ;-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I have no idea where she got that from!! I think she got mixed up because of the pronunciation! I had no idea that so many words were different in American English until I got here (and I'm forced to use it)- I had no idea about axe! it gets quite frustrating! Mould and colour are where it's at though! :)
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