Funny Moments
My kids are hilarious. I usually spend a good amount of time in class laughing my head off. I’m not sure how productive it is, but they crack me up. It’s funny what they pick up and mimic. I’m learning that I use quite a bit of slang in my speech. I’m trying to curb it so that they learn proper English, but it’s a bit late. For example, we were talking about dying and I mentioned that someone ‘kicked the bucket’. They thought that was great. Later on, I overheard Mujtaba tell Seyar that he was going to kick Seyar’s bucket. I tried to explain that you can’t kick someone’s bucket for them, but it was too late. That is now High School’s favorite thing to say, “I’m going to kick your bucket.” Then in Current Event class we were talking about a wife-beating incident that happened here in Kabul last week. The high school boys were all talking about how wrong it was to beat your wife, etc (Hooray that they think it’s wrong!). In the middle of it, Khalid, who rarely speaks at all, piped up with “That man is such a punk!” I had to have him repeat what he said because I couldn’t believe that he had used the word ‘punk’. When he did, I completely lost it. It was so funny! Then in the same class, it was Mujtaba’s turn to present his current even article. He had picked the earthquake that hit Indonesia. Mujtaba’s usual reaction to women is that they aren’t really worth a whole lot, at least when compared to men. (According to him I don't fall into that category because I'm his teacher. I tend to think it might be because I would kick his bucket...) More women died in the earthquake then men and so he said that women would become more valuable. Ok, that’s logical. His disappointment was obvious. For world impact he said that Indonesian men were facing the same problem as China and would have to marry women from other countries, changing the genetic makeup of Indonesia. An interesting observation. But the way he said it, so dead serious as if the world were going to end for men and they might as well just give up, was hilarious. I’m sorry that my description just doesn’t come anywhere close to doing Mujtaba justice. I was laughing so hard that I had tears running down my face. Then in junior high today we were talking about the different languages that we all spoke. Soso, from Papua New Guinea, couldn’t remember what the name of the language was that he spoke from there. Louis, from France but who has a British accent, jumped in with “It’s some bird language.” At first I was like, “Louis, it’s not nice to call other languages bird talk.” But he insisted that he wasn’t being insulting. Then I figured it out - Soso and Louis were talking about Pigeon-English. Go figure. Have a hilarious day!