Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I need help! What sounds like "Soo-sung?"

At the beginning of every class, I write all the kids' names on the left side of the board. Every time a kid talks or asks a question, I put a mark next to his or her name, and whomever has the most points at the end of the class gets to choose a "super-special sticker." (They're colorful and say things like "Way 2 go!" and "Awesome!" I got them in the States before I left for Korea.) The other kids get to choose a regular sticker, which are still pretty darn awesome, if I say so myself. The names/points/stickers system is used in some form by most of the teachers in the school, and the school has sheets of stickers for us to give out. They even have special sticker books! These stickers are highly valuable currency; they'll mug each other in the halls for them. Hence, my sweet American stickers are a pretty powerful motivator. I even brought my non-super-special stickers from the US, and there's quite an assortment. Because I am an awesome teacher. In case you didn't know.

Anyway!

I always start class by writing the kids' names on the board. In one of my classes a couple days ago, on a whim, I wrote "silly names" instead of their normal English names, and it was a HUGE HIT. To come up with a "silly name," I took their normal English names and expanded them to be the title of a movie, a character from a book, or whatever. It ended up being a creative lesson in American culture! I even employed YouTube and Google Image toward that end, because of COURSE the kids wanted to see pictures of their namesakes.

Today, I decided to make up silly names for my second morning intensive class. As is generally the case at my school, most kids have an English name they use in class, but some kids use their Korean name or an anglicized version of it. The ten kids in that class are:

Sabina
Zinna (pronounced ZEE-na)
Peter
Jason
Alice
Soo-Sung
Becky
Annie
Shone
Sarah

And with a little bit of creativity, I came up with these names:

Sab(r)ina the Teenage Witch
Xena, Warrior Princess (OBviously...thanks, YouTube!)
Peter and the Wolf
Jason and the Argonauts (explaining what an "argonaut" was = SUPER-easy! NOT.)
Alice in Wonderland
...
Aunt Becky (from Full House)
Little Orphan Annie
Shaun of the Dead (explaining "zombie" = also fun)
Sarah Brightman

Did you notice something in there? Namely (PUN!), a glaring hole right where Soo-Sung's silly name should be? Y'all. I couldn' think of a THING for Soo-Sung. Not even a slant rhyme! Not even something close, like I did for Sabina and Shone! It's understandably difficult to come up with an American cultural reference involving a Korean name...but surely there's SOMEthing! I ended up telling Soo-Sung that I'd think about it and give him a silly name tomorrow. Help please?!

[UPDATE: see the comments to find out what I decided!]

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Ask him what his name means in Korean. That might work. Otherwise, how about Robin Williams, since sung sounds like "song" a little bit, and so a robin is a bird that sings, and RW is just a funny comedian.

Kate Croft said...

Susan Sarandon? Really reaching here...

Unknown said...

How about "White Castle"? "Sung" could mean castle in korean, and well, "white castle" is the most masculine silly name I can think of.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to Soo-sung off Key?

Anonymous said...

Poo hung!!! Poo hung!!!

Anonymous said...

You could call him Dingleberry!!!

Lori said...

All excellent ideas....but I ended up going with Susan Sarandon. (Thanks, Kate!) I apologized that the only name I could think of was a girl's name, but he solemnly said "is okay. It is my name." Because he is awesome.