Stupid Picasso
Teaching March 12th. 2008, 10:01pmIn one of the books I was teaching today, students had to choose someone they wanted to emulate and describe why they wanted to be like that person. I wanted to generate a list of people that were famous, then we could start picking people someone might want to be like, or they could get an idea for someone they liked.
The boys yelled out names of wrestlers, of course. Someone yelled out a few famous Koreans. Then a girl yelled out, “Picasso!”
“Oh! Very interesting choice! Picasso! Pablo Picasso!”
The girl got very offended and said, “Teacher! Picasso isn’t stupid! Why would you say that?”
I looked at her for a minute, thought about it, then started laughing. “PAB-LO. Not 바보!”
She thought I had said 바보 ba-bo, which is the Korean word for a fool, or a stupid person.
The entire class thought it was very funny that you’d name someone “Babo“, or anything that sounds like that in Korean. If only they knew what some of their names sounded like, or meant, in English, I think they’d be a lot more sympathetic.
5 Responses to “Stupid Picasso”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
This semester I have one student named 왕검비 ha! King Gumbi!
This is the first time I’ve encountered the name 검비 in 11 years in Korea.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I lucked out. Today most English hagwons in town were closed due to the yearly meeting of directors. Those that are accredited are supposed to attend these meetings.
It was strange to see kids out and about acting like kids instead of in the English institutes; however, they clammed up around me because their friends were around. I do know that a few kids were upset that they did have to go to math and musical instrument hagwons.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:12 am
[...] A Geek in Korea has an amusing class anecdote involving Mr. Picasso. (Even though I just gave away the punchline.) [...]
March 13th, 2008 at 9:38 am
My girlfriend happens to be Korean. We met in another country and she still lives there, so I expected her to see the funny side in this. When I showed her this place in my town her serious reply was “Yes, it is a movie name.” Apparently a Business Club named Dumb and Dumber (Babo and more Babo) is normal here
March 14th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Hahahah I just had a similar experience.
I was teaching a story about 2 kids making a model car and one kid was named Pablo
Only difference is the kids knew I wasnt saying Pablo not 바보 the students only said Pablo is 바보