Word Scramble and Saving Face

Yesterday I taught my advance level kindergarten kids. It's a class of seven students all around the age of 10. They are the highest level offered in the school. We are reading about the ocean and the undersea garden, an area of hot springs and weird clams 30 cm long. By the way, clams that big are disgusting when opened. Anyway, since there is new vocabulary, I created a "word scramble," a new word that is spelled incorrectly on the activity sheet in which they must decipher it into the correct word. For example, "toys" would be scrambled to look like "oyts." They are my most advance kids and they still had a difficult time with my instruction.

A Korean student named Spark, yes, that's his self-entitled English name for the class, cannot decipher a troublesome word on the activity sheet which I spent an hour or so editing and refining in the cold basement somewhere in Suwon, Korea. Spark and his buddy, Sean, are the two boys in the class. Sean graps the concept and so do the five girls seated at the next table.

"Teacher, what's this?" Spark asks. I kneel by the kiddy table and guide my pen while I write the transformation of the word "oyts" into "toys." Still not understanding, I begin by writing Spark's name, mispelled, in the margin. I begin with the letter "R" and then write "A" and next is "P" and finally "S." "See?" I asked. I realized I forgot the letter "K" and place it at the beginning. All of sudden Sean, his class mate sees this transformation and falls to the floor on his back in spasms of laughter. I realized I spelled the word "KRAPS" on the margin. Soon, the whole class pushes and shoves past me to see my error and joins Sean's laughter. I guess certain English words have the same meaning in Korean though spelled slightly differently but sounding the same!

I apologize to Sean in Korean who brushes it off with a shrug. After our big laugh, Spark tells me that "Krap" is wrong and that "Crap" is the correct word. Interesting how saving face works in word scramble!

The next day the Director told me that he received a call from the parent. I could not tell if the Director was mad or just exasperated by the number of complaints by parents at the school.