Thursday, March 09, 2006

At a loss for words

The following dialogue came from tuition this evening with two Korean teenagers. JH is a 14-year-old girl studying in a local government secondary school. DY is a 13-year-old boy studying in a private school.

JH: Teacher teacher can I ask you something?
Me: Ya?
JH: Today in school, a boy scold a girl cheebye. The girl was so angry. She hit the boy and the cried.
Me: (dreading what is to come next) uh huh
JH: What is cheebye?
Me: er... it is a bad word... in hokkien
DY: Cheebye? (says in Korean) It is a girl's name, isn't it?
JH: What does it mean? Cheebye (giggles)
Me: ... if you really want to know... it means the female genitalia...
JH: What is genitalia?
Me: (Takes my leave from the room while the two kids continue to mutter cheebye under their breaths.)

I guess I should have been cooler with my answer but this is the kind of situation where you never have the perfect answer on the spot. You'll think of dozens of other smart replies like 20 minutes later and by then it's too loserish and pathetic to go back to the topic. ><

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