Scattegories

So there I was.  It was a typical post-exam Friday afternoon.  It was one of those classes where quite honestly, I had no idea what to do with my first graders because...well, exams are finished, yet we still have two weeks of classes during which time every other teacher in Korea is allowed to show movies, but of course at our "rigorous and prestigious" school we're not allowed to.  This means that the kids have no motivation for class and are expecting to watch movies, yet forced to continue on with their classes as normal.  You can imagine how fun these two weeks are for all the teachers at my school.

I try to think of fun lessons to do during these weeks, because let's face it...the students need a break.  Not to mention the weather has become incredibly hot over the past few weeks, with highs around 90 accompanied with insane humidity every day.  Who wants to sit in school during that kind of weather? Certainly not I, and definitely not y students either.

Friday I was super busy finishing grading things for my writing class, so I figured why not play Scattergories with my students. I mean, who doesn't like Scattegories?

During one of the rounds one of the categories was "breakfast foods", and the letter was "M".

What did students respond with?

Mushroom soup and milkshakes.

There were two other answers and I can't currently remember what they were, but they were just as great as mushroom soup and milkshakes.

However, most notably, not one group said what most Americans would think....muffins!

Yes, for Koreans mushroom soup would be a totally normal breakfast food because in Korea breakfast food isn't really any different from food you eat at any other time of the day. Soup and rice are common breakfast foods, whereas muffins are just what you eat at a coffee shop, maybe as a post-dinner food.  Love those cultural differences.

Later in the day I gave another one of my classes the letter "S" for the same categories and answers included:

--salad
--salmon
--sushi (most groups disagreed with this answer, but they argued that in Japan this would be a breakfast food...)

Yes, who doesn't want salad for breakfast?  My students told me it's actually commonly served for breakfast in Korea.  Who knew?

Anyway, that's what I did on Friday.  And yes, I get paid for sometimes playing Scattegories at work. I guess this job isn't that bad.