Saturday 26 September 2015

Student Diary

From the 4th grade until middle school my students write in their diary once a week.  I find diaries to be an educational and entertaining source of information about Korean life.

Normally students write about what they do on weekends, such as going to a birthday party or visiting grandparents or having a boring period at home.

Last week one of my students wrote about her school taking pictures for the yearbook.

She said (wrote) that in one picture she looked very ugly. (She isn't.)

In another picture, she said, she looked like she was "chewing shit".

I was startled to read that, though I found the language use funny.  I asked a Korean co-teacher about it, and the teacher said that it was a direct translation.

Later, I told the student (a 6th grade girl) that it was ok to write such things in her diary, but that "shit" in English was a bad word and should not be used in public.

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