Being thrown into middle school without any teaching experience is a bit scary to say the least. Luckily, for my first week of classes all I had to do was introduce myself. As the only non-Korean in the entire school, I'm a bit of an enigma and students are dying to know about me. The funny thing is that they are absurdly shy. When I stood in front of a classroom and said, "ask me any question you like", I was met with dead silence. I decided to put students into groups and give them 10 minutes to write down 5 questions. Then, I walked around the room and selected groups at random to read their questions.
A question I got in several classes was, "What is your blood type?” From what I gather, this is equivalent to asking, “What is your star sign?” The myth that blood type is indicative of personality is a very popular in both Korea and Japan. In fact, blood type can be used for matchmaking! A Korean comedy made in 2005, B형 남자친구 ("My Boyfriend is Type B") explores blood type compatibility.
Other than that, some of my favorite questions were...
1. How much do you weigh? -This was the first question that was asked in one of my classes...you'd think they'd at least want to know my name!
2. Can I touch your nose? – Apparently my nose bridge is quite fascinating.
3. Do you like your face? - Initially thinking I should be offended by this one, I was later told that it was a student’s way of asking whether I knew I was beautiful. Along these lines, I also got, “Did you have plastic surgery?” and “Why is your face so small?”
4. What time is it in America? – The kids were amazed when I told them that America has multiple time zones. (China, crazy as it may sound, only has one.)
And this one was cute too...
( ㅊㅣ= chi)
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