More interesting questions

Each day this week, I have had new classes, except my 9^th graders, who I have 4 times a week.  I am dealing with more interesting questions as I do the same lesson plan for various grades.  Yesterday I was asked how I felt about the hypocrisy that is the US involvement in the Kosovo situation… and why I wasn’t fat.  The first one is just plain interesting – and the second one begs a little explanation.  I use an activity that worked as a first day activity in the United States.  I have the students introduce each other with small bits of information and then a “fascinating fact” about themselves.  My stock fact is that I love to eat hot dogs, and I’d like to participate in a hot dog eating contest in New York City.  So, I shared this with all of my students, and then at the end of the class – some 30 minutes later, I was asked “why aren’t you fat?’ meaning, as a result of all the hot dogs you eat.  I subsequently was challenged to a hot dog eating contest, and I said maybe at the end of the year.  Many of the students want to know what I think about Hungary, and why (in the world) I came here.  They want to know if I like Hungarian food- some of it yes – and how long I will be staying.  They are also curious about the other places I have traveled and my attitude towards these other cultures.  We talked again about the Russian invasion of Georgia (do my Burnsville kids know that Georgia is a country in Europe – not just a state originally intended for debtors?) and I told them I was worried that the Russians were going to attack Hungary.  They laughed initially, and then said, “yeah, they might.”  This again reflects some of the attitude the Hungarians have towards the world- inevitably we’ll be attacked again – yeah.  I see it every morning on my walk to school – the lack of smiles, and questioning looks as I half smile and nod while passing.  By Hungarian standards, I believe I’m up to about 34 boyfriends, though sadly none of them talk to me and almost none smile back at me- so in that case, Hungary is just like the United States in terms of boyfriends.  Oh well.  

Today, I had the students do an activity with their favorite English word - interesting to see what they came up with: hippopotamus, miscellaneous, butterfly, forever, July, unfortunately, royal, umbrella, muddle, wildcat, pumpkin, fabulous, cocoon, little and gorgeous.  I made the young man who chose "cookie" pick a different word (as I think I explained before, cookie in Hungarian refers to a little boy's private parts.  Oh the tricksters they are...