....but this one really is random

Ohhh Korea...your crazy shirts!   This is a shirt one of my 5th graders was wearing.  The rest of the shirt gave no clues as to what this is supposed to mean. 

These logos were printed on each sleeve.  What...does it even mean?



Sometimes I find myself teaching stuff that just annoys me.  There is obviously a world wide stereotype that every last man in America is stinkin' rich.  I don't like it when the textbooks perpetuate this myth.  The answer to this question is not "Bill Gates", but the activity is supposed to be to match up the phrase, with the country flag (I had to look up that birthday on line, after class, to figure out if they were making reference to a particular rich man).  I have taught many other similar things in the textbooks here, but Korea is very "by the book"--so even if there are typos, major grammar errors or way off the mark comments, they don't let you teach it the correct way, because if it is in the book it's true.  In this particular case, yes Bill Gates is rich.  Sure, he might help poor people.  But I don't think it should be used as an example to define a country and 'find the corresponding flag'.  (I know, I am making way too much out of this, but so many of my kids talk about how "rich" I must be...and how rich my family must be....and how rich my future husband will be, because he is American etc.  Of course they also think we have CSI on every street corner investigating crime scenes....)



Our door to the building is electric.  The other day someone took the trash out, and ended up not being able to get back in, because the circuit blew.  My landlord then printed this up for everyone in the building, just in case it happened again.  She brought this to my door and I misunderstood her and thought she wanted me to "correct" it.  So I whipped out my red pen and began mutilating her flier to make it "proper English".  She just stood there staring at me, like I just called her baby ugly.  Then she gave me a clean one and asked if I would please keep it in my apartment for the next tenant!  I was so embarrassed and apologized up one side and down the other.  "Don't mind me, I'm just bein' a helper!"  I am just so used to people here asking me to proof read their work.  I liked the very last section though, and kept that 'as is', because I thought it was so cute.  "Now.  You can come home.  I'm sorry.  It is an uncomfortable experience." 

TidBits:

My kids think that  you can get arrested for anything in America.  Rumor has it, that if little kids get in fights at school in America, the police will come and arrest them.  They then wanted to know if they would get arrested if they "hit a teacher".  I said, well you would get in really big trouble with the school and your parents, but I don't think you'd be arrested.  I then said, "if a teacher hits you though, that teacher would be arrested".  That were shocked, but they LOVED that.  Physical punishment is technically illegal here, but only in VERY recent years...like 5.  Unfortunately it still happens.  They also think that if you flip someone off, you'll get arrested.