After 10 and a half months, one of my classes gave me a nickname.
And it wasn’t a completely insulting one either!
(Much to my surprise.)Of course, this is the first one I’ve heard, so there may have been other they kept to themselves.Before I go and say what it is, there is a slight bit of setup needed. In my classes, all the students have an “English name.” Supposedly it makes learning more fun, and gets them in the mindset of speaking and thinking in English.
Plus, they’re easier for me to remember.
We just got a back on a regular schedule this week, after four weeks of “exam prep.” That’s when the kids don’t have conversation class and focus on cramming for their quarterly exams. Great for me since it means a lot fewer classes. Since those classes are only two days a week, it’s hard enough for me to remember their names as it is, but after four weeks off, I’m lucky if I know 1/4 of them, so the first class back is always filled with sorting out names and students wanting new English names.
Of course, they’re always happy to suggest silly (or mean) names for each other. If they don’t know how to be rude to each other in English, they’re perfectly willing to do it in Korea. Of course, this leads to me asking for translations, since I want in on the joke too.
In one of my classes today I remembered one kid’s Korean nickname was “white pig.” (Given to him since he’s pale (for a Korean) and a little pudgy. Of course, since I said it out loud (and in Korean) that made everybody else think it was that much funnier. (And it had the added effect of reminding those who’d forgotten. Oops.)
Once that one was out in the open again, it set them off on a flurry of “color-animal” nickname combinations.
I ended up with “Red Bear.”
The logic behind it actually makes sense (if you’re me, anyways). The kids always comment on my face – and how it tends to flush when I’m hot, or angry, or cold, or if it’s windy out…. The bear part I get from being larger than any average Korean – both in height and weight. I don’t mind it. There are worse (fatter) animals I could’ve been stuck with, so I guess I lucked out.
I just wonder what took them so long to come up with one they were willing to tell me?