Yesterday I was talking about the common practice of giving so-called "English" names to children with two of your 선배님, 조효선선생님 and 송선미 선생님. One of the problems with doing this is that we rarely control the CONNOTATIONS of the names we choose. So 효선, who is very attached to her Korean name, chose the name "Heather", because she wanted a name that begins with the same sound as her Korean name, and 선미 chose the name "Shushu" because it was the name of a hippotamus icon in Mozambique where she travelled as an undergraduate. The problem is that a "heather" also suggests (to some people) a girl who steals other girls boyfriends. "Shushu" has a rather giggly, girlish flavor, not at all in accordance with 선미's serious academic persona.
The same kinds of problems arise when we try to produce classroom materials, of course! Let's look at a few in Santina's (???) homework:
Let's play animals.
Notice the PLURAL. That makes sense, because "Let's" means "let US". So it means "Let us play animals."
"Let's" is often learnt as a single unit, as in "Let's + VERB". Because it is imperative, the verb has no tense, and no number. DANGEROUS! Look...
Let's be a monkey.
What this means is that ALL the children must be ONE monkey. So presumably one child is the monkey's tail, and another is the monkey's foot, etc. How could one get children to do this? What would be required in CASTING it?
T: 은실! You are the monkey's NOSE. 정은! You are the monkey's EAR. 태영! What are you?
Jingling jangling jongling
Jingling jangling jongling
Notice that "jingling-jangling" is an example of onomatopoiea. Does it suggest a monkey?
"Jongling" is not onomatopoiec. But it DOES suggest "jungle". Does that suggest a monkey?
Let's be a turtle.
Cripping crapping cropping
Cripping crapping cropping
Compare:
a) Clip, clap, clop.
b) crip, crap, crop.
The same or different? What are the differences?
Let's be a worm.
Wiggling waggling woggling.
Wiggling waggling woggling.
I'm sorry but i can't make three verses..
It's too difficult...
It's really too easy! Just choose another animal, no? It would help if it were a rather NOISY animal.
Let's be a CICADA
CI-CA-DA!
(Does it obey the open closed rule? What about the closed open rule?)
dk