"What the Heck?! Wednesdays" focus on the
heart-warming, ridiculous, and sometimes frustrating stories from our
school days. Teaching in Turkey is trying and difficult. We come home
exhausted, and our days off are nothing short of precious. That being
said, we love our students. Most of the time. They are creative, silly,
smart, obnoxious, loud, affectionate and adorable. And they make for
some delightful stories. Enjoy...
We've both had a lot of experience saying common English words and phrases that accidentally offend everyone around us, because those same words in Turkish are some sort of vile swear word. I won't translate all of them, because I don't want to offend you, but let me give you and idea of the kinds of things that we have to avoid saying...
I'm sick.
Book
Peach
Goat (The last three aren't actually bad themselves, but if you aren't careful about the way you pronounce them they can quickly turn into offensive words. Also, all three of these words are vocabulary words that we have to teach by the end of 2nd grade.)
I regularly ask children gripping their stomachs, "Are you sick?" To which I always get big eyes, blushing cheeks, and a quick head shake. Oops. As an American, that is a difficult phrase to shake.
I've also discovered a few other words by trial and error. Fun!
A common phrase used to discipline children here is "Çok Ayıp." It means "Shame on you." So after hearing many of my second and third graders using this phrase on each other, I decided to be a good English teacher and teach them the English version. When I taught it to them they all got really giggly, which I naively took to mean that they were all giddy about getting to learn English that isn't in their books. Idiot. They got really good at this phrase, and I beamed every time I heard them shouting "Shame on you, Cansu!" or "Shame, Shame Süleyman!" in the corridors.
Then one day something funny happened. In the middle of my lesson, one of the girls stood up and Shame, Shame-d one of the boys, who got really mad, and started yelling at her in Turkish. Soon many children were chiming in about she had said something bad. She adamantly defended herself, pointing out that Miss Erin says it all the time. But her cheeks were turning the colour of someone who knows she's in trouble.
"Does shame mean something in Turkish?" I guessed.
Rapid nodding and hidden faces.
"Does it mean something bad?"
More silent nodding.
"What does it mean?"
Horrified silence. They all looked down at their tables and turned to statues. No one wanted the job of telling me.
One girl finally said "Miss Erin. Shame is very very ayıp." Ironic.
"OooK." At this point I just thought quietly... I was curious, but clearly no one felt comfortable translating what I had been saying for weeks.
Finally another girl got up, pointed between her legs, and said "Boys have it."
Ahhhh...
After confirming with my colleagues, it was clear. I had been teaching my children to say a slang version of "Penis on you," all year.
Shame on me.
We've both had a lot of experience saying common English words and phrases that accidentally offend everyone around us, because those same words in Turkish are some sort of vile swear word. I won't translate all of them, because I don't want to offend you, but let me give you and idea of the kinds of things that we have to avoid saying...
I'm sick.
Book
Peach
Goat (The last three aren't actually bad themselves, but if you aren't careful about the way you pronounce them they can quickly turn into offensive words. Also, all three of these words are vocabulary words that we have to teach by the end of 2nd grade.)
I regularly ask children gripping their stomachs, "Are you sick?" To which I always get big eyes, blushing cheeks, and a quick head shake. Oops. As an American, that is a difficult phrase to shake.
I've also discovered a few other words by trial and error. Fun!
A common phrase used to discipline children here is "Çok Ayıp." It means "Shame on you." So after hearing many of my second and third graders using this phrase on each other, I decided to be a good English teacher and teach them the English version. When I taught it to them they all got really giggly, which I naively took to mean that they were all giddy about getting to learn English that isn't in their books. Idiot. They got really good at this phrase, and I beamed every time I heard them shouting "Shame on you, Cansu!" or "Shame, Shame Süleyman!" in the corridors.
Then one day something funny happened. In the middle of my lesson, one of the girls stood up and Shame, Shame-d one of the boys, who got really mad, and started yelling at her in Turkish. Soon many children were chiming in about she had said something bad. She adamantly defended herself, pointing out that Miss Erin says it all the time. But her cheeks were turning the colour of someone who knows she's in trouble.
"Does shame mean something in Turkish?" I guessed.
Rapid nodding and hidden faces.
"Does it mean something bad?"
More silent nodding.
"What does it mean?"
Horrified silence. They all looked down at their tables and turned to statues. No one wanted the job of telling me.
One girl finally said "Miss Erin. Shame is very very ayıp." Ironic.
"OooK." At this point I just thought quietly... I was curious, but clearly no one felt comfortable translating what I had been saying for weeks.
Finally another girl got up, pointed between her legs, and said "Boys have it."
Ahhhh...
After confirming with my colleagues, it was clear. I had been teaching my children to say a slang version of "Penis on you," all year.
Shame on me.
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