Barriers

Yesterday I walked into the last class of the day three times a week, my favorite class. The one I can joke with and look forward to the most out of the whole week (which I just found out I have to lose to take on another class where the students are evil :( ) and when I enter the room and turn to put my books down my favorite student exclaims, 'Teacher! Teacher!'. I can see alarm and something akin to wonderment on his face. I turn, asking what. 'Teacher, teacher. Turn!' He calls his friend over, they're both not only looking at, but pointing to my butt. I turn away to face them, trying to figure out what's wrong but they tell me to turn again. Very hesitantly I do. They're trying very hard to explain something to me in English and I don't like to squash that effort. At the same time though - I'm understandably weirded out by two young teen boys looking at my butt. I'm wearing pretty tight pants, that material black pants are often made of that you have to wear boy cuts ( >>shhh<<< or thongs) with to avoid underwear lines. I'm wearing the boycuts, but wonder if maybe they've slipped up and the boys are seeing my underwear line and shocked by it - this would surprise me since many Korean women wear very tight pants - much tighter than the ones I have on. But I think . . . maybe they're all very adept at hiding the dreaded 'panty-line'. Paul (the favored one) calls a few more students over and they keep asking me to turn, and then point. Some are kind of snickering, some just seem unsure - almost incredulous. Some are just focused on trying to explain to me what the big deal is. Finally one finds a word. 'Reversible! Teacher! Reversible!' . . . reversible? I wonder. He's pulling on his jeans - and again says reversible. 'No.' I respond. They're not reversible. I wonder for a moment if they can see my underwear above my pants and think the pants can be worn inside out since my boycuts are of a similar fabric. But no, I specifically remember that I put black ones on today and I'm wearing a shirt that covers the top of my pants by a good 3-4 inches. Actions go on for a few more moments accompanied with various near unintelligible words regarding the situation. Finally one student points out 'zipper! Back!' (usually they can speak much better than this but for some reason their shock and wonderment seems to have them tongue tied - they're always amazed and the ways of foreigners it was absolute mayhem when the girls discovered I had grey hair and have had it since I was 12. They were trying to ask so many questions and explain so many things to me that I imagine were Korean remedies. Anyway . . .). After this outburst at long last I understand - not reversible. Reversed! They thought I had my pants on backwards because the zipper was in the back! And so I try to explain, no - no. This is right. This is good. I point to the zipper. 'Good! It's ok.' I'm trying to be really simple because they've already exerted a lot of mental energy getting this far. One pauses for a moment, then seemingly remembering the situation of 'the crocs' he says with a broad smile. 'Oh teacher! Canada pants? Canada pants!' I laugh. 'Teacher. Korea pants. . . ' as he points to his own pants zipper in the front. Smiling more I explain - Not Canada pants. In Canada we have zippers in the front sometimes, and in the back sometimes. (They don't understand sometimes, but with actions they get the jist - though I still hear snickers of 'Canada pants'. Knowing this could go on for a long while as the students who were around me start to explain and point my butt out to the other students I make them all sit down and start class.

Sometimes this whole language barrier thing is just ridiculous! And hard! Like the other day - a less amusing anecdote I had the sweetest little 11 year old girl who can hardly speak English but is always trying to explain things to me explain for about 5 minutes with elaborate actions and broken words 'Soju teacher, Soju' (A very strong Korean liquor). 'Grandfather. Much Soju.' As she acts guzzling back bottle after bottle. 'Mother.' She does crying action. "Much. Much. Much . . . cry! Grandfather soju!' She acts out yelling, arms flailing, wobbling actions. She wanted so badly to talk about it - she didn't seem upset. But she clearly wanted me to know. And what can I say? In a language she barely knows?