I’m sorry if that title offends anyone. Learning a language is fraught with difficulties – and one of them is that people are reluctant to talk about “bad words,” but somehow we must nevertheless learn them.
I had an unfortunate day, today. Specifically, my afterschool first grade class (difficult to manage even on regular days), was just too wild. I had one kid throwing things. I mean, REALLY throwing things. He nailed me on the head with rather hefty crayon – THWACK!
So I took him aside and yelled at him a bit. These are little kids. How do you manage this, when you don’t have a co-teacher who can speak Korean, nearby? My Korean Language skill isn’t adequate to express my feelings about this kind of behavior in a convincing way to the kids.
And then there was the kid drawing pornography. I mean, seriously… he’s what, seven (or at most 8 or 9, if you want to count in the Korean style which gives people extra years)? I suppose kids will be be kids, and draw weird stuff, sometimes. But he was drawing anatomically correct, adult-looking women and even coloring between the lines!
And that wasn’t enough. The clincher is that he was then running around the room, yelling “쭈쭈! 쭈쭈!” And all the kids thought this was hilarious.
This gem of vocabulary isn’t in any dictionary, nor online. And it’s not something I could figure out by typing “쭈쭈 meaning english” into google, either. Nevertheless, somewhat eerily, Korean language spellcheckers don’t flag it as wrong, either. It’s a “secret” word?
My best guess, based on the child’s illustrations, combined with some weird dance moves two of the other boys started doing, is that it means “tits.” Charming. If any of my better-at-Korean-than-I readers want to provide me with some reassurance that my reading isn’t too far off, I’d appreciate it, but I realize it may be a bit awkward.
I couldn’t find a Korean teacher anywhere in my wing, when I finally got fed up and decided to try to find someone to talk to the boy in Korean. I ended up hauling him down to the staff room, but that was a bit awkward, since I walked in saying “쭈쭈” myself, among other things, but I found the principal and vice principal in there, in some kind of high-level-looking meeting. Ah well, I left the boy with my colleague. Hopefully things will sort out on Monday.