Yeah, I’m a real hoot once you get to know me.
One pet peeve I have with my students is Konglish. Konglish is to Korea what Engrish is to Japan – messed up grammar and misspellings that seem to make themselves a permanent part of the language. Or that show up enough on the internet so much that people in other countries assume that’s how “they speak English over there.”
“Are you fun?” is the one I’ve been hearing a lot lately. I think it comes from some TV show, and is supposed to me “do you think you’re funny?” That’s as close as I’ve been able to approximate it, since every class I’ve brought it up with seems to think it’s perfectly good English.
I explain that while the words may all be English, the grammar isn’t, and that’s why it doesn’t make sense. Part of their insistence on it’s correctness stems from the fact that “fun,” “funny” and “happy” are synonymous to many students. I’d love to find out who’s responsible for that screwup. I’ve seen too many kids write stuff like, “I like my friend. He makes me very fun.” Or sometimes, “I had a good day today. I am fun.”
Of course, trying to correct some of them only makes them say it even more. With kids like that I’ve got to be careful, and not show any exasperation at their refusal to say stuff the right way. A lot of times it’s better just to roll with it and not say anything. Once they see it doesn’t tweak the teacher anymore, they’ll give up and move on to something else.
There’s one kid who won’t let “are you fun?” go, though, so I’ve started tweaking back. Every time he says it now, I shoot back with something like, “yes! I’m very fun!” He’ll get irked and insist that I’m not. But when the other students start laughing at our exchange, I’m inclined to think I’m right.
How about you? Are you fun?