My student Giung sent me a text message this morning:
teacher i foughtwith my parent until late yesterday so i couldn't do my homework i'm so sorry i'll do it until tomorrow i'll promise you
Keeping in mind that Giung rarely does his homework for me, it was hard not to want to make some snark. Finally, I just sent back:
heh. 파이팅. .
In fact, this is a bit of a joke. The Korean I wrote is [paiting] which is, in fact, derived from the English "fighting" (via Japanese). But it is used to mean "work hard" or "keep trying." A student like Giung, however, with his high English comptency and ironic sense of humor, was likely to understand I was punning on the fact that he'd told me that he fought with his parents. In fact, he did – he was explaining what I wrote to the other students in class, today.
[daily log: walking, 5 km]