I'm A Bad Teacher!

This week I've been teaching my students a few slang words and phrases. When I asked for suggestions at the end of last semester, a lot of them said they wanted to learn more idiomatic, conversational phrases and words. So in an attempt to do that we've been practicing phrases like "I'm beat" and "bent out of shape" and "blow all your money" and funny expressions like calling someone an "airhead." At one point, I told the students that the word "bad" can sometimes mean "cool" depending on who says it and the context. No one had ever heard the word "bad" used to mean "cool" so we kind of laughed about it. After my classes were over today, I packed up and walked outside and waited for Katie to finish her classes. Today was a bright sunny day so I put on my sunglasses as I was standing there waiting. A few of my students walked by and one of them said, "Kim, you look so bad!"

Related to that discussion: try explaining the word "cheesy" to someone. I defined it as "cheap, silly or ridiculous" but that doesn't quite encompass the whole idea of the slang phrase and there's no good Chinese translation for it that I can find. It's hard to explain because things I would describe as "cheesy" are not at all "cheesy" to my students.

And last, Happy Pi Day . . . 3.14 today. I just found out about Pi Day. I'm kind of sad that I went all through geometry in high school and didn't know about Pi Day. I really want to make a French Silk Pie in honor of Pi Day so I just might "go and do it, please."