The Sweet – Love Is Like Oxygen. 1978. I was… 13. I didn’t really buy into the “style” – I was too much of a nerd and a reject. But I listened to the music, and still do.
Time on my side I got it all I’ve heard that pride Always comes before a fall There’s a rumour goin’ round the town That you don’t want me around I can’t shake off my city blues Everyway I turn I lose
Chorus Love is like oxygen You get too much you get too high Not enough and you’re gonna die Love gets you high
Time is no healer When you’re not there Lonely fever Sad words in the air Some things are better left unsaid I’m gonna spend my days in bed I’ll walk the streets at night To be hidden by the city lights city lights
Here’s why I sometimes have a really hard time working with opinionated 14-year-olds who have very limited English:
Student: Teacher!
Me: What?
Student: My school 원어민 [native English-speaking teacher] is handsome but you are not.
Me: I see…
Student: You have small head but big 배 [tummy]
Me: It’s very sad…
Student: Why are you 통통 [fat]?
Me: I don’t know… I used to be fatter, you know. I dieted a lot.
Student: 와아아 [wow].
This student is not, otherwise, habitually insolent or impolite. In fact, I like the student a lot. And I know from previous experience that comments, negative or positive, regarding another person’s appearance, are much more freely thrown about in Korean society than in Western culture: long-time readers might remember the time the restaurant owner (a total stranger) in Busan greeted me with “You’ve got a bit a paunch” [in Korean]?
So what do I make of this? Should I take the time, yet again, to explain that this sort of talk will get a person smacked in the US? – Because I’ve explained it before, I’m sure. Does it even matter?
Regardless, it can take a strong ego to survive this kind of thing, can’t it?
Sigh.
Later, I had a more pleasant (but equally culturally interesting) conversation with my boss.
Boss: You [Westerners] like to argue.
Me: Koreans like to argue, too, I think.
Boss: Koreans like to fight.
Me: Fight… argue. Yes.
Boss: No. Argue is rational. Koreans just like to fight.
Me: Hmm. Yes, I could see that.
Boss: You know I’m right.
Point taken.
Tomorrow, my coworker Grace goes on her month-long special vacation home to Canada. That means my schedule is getting massively augmented. I’ll have 30-something classes, for the next month or so. I’m not even really dreading it, though I feel a little overwhelmed by mastering the content of the classes, I don’t feel particularly overwhelmed by the extra time I’ll be putting in – I’m really in a sort of “wanting to forget my dull, unaccomplished life” mood, lately. So I’ll throw myself into my work. I’ll dedicate myself to hearing the unintended insults of a hundred teenagers.
Time on my side
