I gave a G20 Summit lesson (thanks to Teacher Jim) to all my students this week. In case you missed it, the G20 was in Seoul on the 11-12th of November, so in some form or another it was a "big deal" here in Korea. They had bilboards, advertisements, and commercials all about Korea and her *coming out party.* Still, I guess I'm not surprised how many students didn't have a clue about the event...at least my students anyway.
After peppering in a few music videos and YouTube caricature sequences to hold their attention, I covered basic vocabulary like "leader" or "summit meeting" (I guess summit really isn't that basic, but oh well) and then run through all the who, what, when, where, and why's of the event. Despite the lack of awareness on behalf of most of the kids, I was consistently shocked at how many country's flags they're familiar with. In the middle of the lesson I ran through all 20 (see, 20 countries, G20). They consistently knew Australia, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Russia, etc. All in all, I think they did better than the average American student, as the only one that really tripped them up was Indonesia--and even that came up about half the time. Part of this might be due to soccer fandom, the world cup, since it was the boys who usually knew the hard ones (On the whole, the few girls in my classes come off a little brighter).Anyway, what I really wanted to mention was the grand finale, in which I had them write a "request" to one of the G20 presidents. After covering, or attempting to cover, the idea and vocabulary behind a request, I gave them about 20 minutes to think, scratch, and bang they're heads against the wall and write a request. This wasn't a free writing exercise however, that would hit a brick wall in my classroom.
Up on the project were the words: "I would like to ask the president of _______ to please __________because _________," along with a list of 20 countries. Three blanks, easy enough, right? To put things in perspective, I would say only about 2/3 of the students wrote anything at all--despite poking and prodding by myself and co-teacher. And about half of those only wrote down what was on the projector. It goes without saying that those who finished the single sentence were my better students--many of which were helped through by myself or Lee Teacher and consulted a dictionary of some sort. Anyway, here's what Korean students think about politics:- I want to ask the president of Saudi Arabia to please oil because are country need the nature gas
- I want to ask the president of U.S. to please gun because our country need the killing weapon
- I want to ask the president of United States to please Brazil because aze sick people (I think he meant AIDS here)
- I want to ask the president of Korea to please you die because I hate you (about 10 more just like this one)
- I want to ask the president of South Korea to please cow import because it's not good for our health
- I want to ask the president of United States to please help we are country Korea because verey poor- I want to ask the president of South Korea to please make some way to enter the univercity because entering the univercity is harod
- I want to ask the president of South Korea to please make a baseball times and ground because I like play baseball
- I want to ask the president of South Korea to please stop teaching English because English is very hard
- I want to ask the president of France to please give back to Korea because is our traditional book (???)
- I want to ask the president of Rusia to please war because bad man Japan
- I want to ask the president of China to please plan trees because a desert yellow sand
- I want to ask the president of Canada to please I'd like to see a musical because lovely
- South Korea stop talking your talking is very boring and stupid people
- I want to ask the president of Argentina to please help me because sexy girl
- I want to ask the president of to please population move because my country has a small population
- I want to ask the president of India to please stop movie musical because movie time is long
- I want to ask the president of Korea to please make student special rules because all student want freedom
- I want to ask the president of USA to please Korea president kill because he is bad and have no determination
- I want to ask the president of Saudi Arabia to please give oil because very very money
- I want to ask the president of France to please make breads for me because I'm very hungry
- I want to ask the president of India to please make curry for me because I like curry and hungry
- I want to ask the president of Japan to please people because Japan people my style
- I want to ask the president of China to please not making china goods because I want my korea goods
- I want to ask the president of all country to please nothing because I'm happy
- I want to ask the president of Japan to please shot up because I Don't like Janpen
- I want to ask the president of Germany to please do not make beer because I don't drink (My least favorite)
- I want to ask the president of China to please do not fight the Japan because China e Japan's economy is to down
- I want to ask the president of China to please no dirty food because food eating body sick
- I want to ask the president of Japan to please more fast many X dult video because im very super like it
- I want to ask the president of Korea to please promote social welfare because there is no remedy for poverty
- I want to ask the president of Japan to please don't say that everything in dokdo are yours because those things are ours
And the kicker:
- I want to ask the president of South Korea to please don't making condom because I like natural
*No further comment necessary...though that last one was a girl.
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