Sunday, November 14, 2004

Our students' crazy names

All the students at our school are assigned English names which they use throughout their time at the school (and sometimes longer). Most of the names are standard English names like Brian and Kate and Chris and Sally. Every once in a while, though (usually at the behest of the child's parents) the kid ends up with a really weird name! Now for a case in point.

A new class opened at the school last week, and two of the new students happened to be identical twin boys. One was given the name Collin, so his father thought it only natural that the other be called Mollin. So now there's Collin and Mollin. Wha?

In the same class is a boy called Simon. This was all fine and dandy until his father insisted on an alternate pronunciation. But what other ways are there to pronounce Simon? Well, apparently this boy's father wants his son called "Semen". OK...

Some other "English" names of note at our school: Hans, Yohan, Hoya, and Mikhail (spelled Michael).

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Pepero Day

In Korea, today is Pepero Day, a clever marketing strategy disguised as a holiday. Pepero are long thin cookie fingers that are covered in chocolate. Because the cookies resemble the date (11/11), November 11th has been designated Pepero Day and everybody exchanges these cookies. Lots of the students brought them to us, so now we have a year's supply of Pepero.

Happy Pepero Day!