The hamster-faced Barbarian always slurps her soup - and loudly - during lunch. Today she suddenly announced to me, in Korean and in a very matter-of-fact tone, that her mother made her put her arms up at home last night. (Telling kids to hold their arms up over their heads is a common form of discipline here.)
I faux-gasped and answered her in English. "Why?" I said. "You didn't listen to your mother?"
Despite their lack of English ability, I think my students already have quite a lot of experience with the phrase "didn't listen," so she may have understood it.
She just nodded and stared down at her tray, after which Ms. Mischief quickly shoved a thumbs-down at her and shouted, "Bad!"
I'm sure if the Barbarian had known divulging information about her personal life would have ended so unhappily for her she would have chosen not to share. But then again, that's one of the defining traits of the Barbarian - her uninhibited drive to follow any and every impulse as soon as it flings its way into her head.
But don't worry - the Barbarian is in good company. The CD player started playing without the teacher's permission today, so I made it sit in the baby chair.
I should mention here that I also teach the Barbarian's older sister, who is a year older than the Barbarian and whom I've taught since Korean age 5 also, and last year the Sister would frequently show me a colored pencil that had snapped or otherwise was thwarting its own usefulness, inform me fiercely, "Colored pencil is not listening!" and then plop it in the baby chair.
Ah, I love these kids.
...Yes, even the bad ones.
