As you probably know, Kelli and I are here teaching English. We always introduce ourselves to new classes and tell them a little bit about where we are from. In elementary schools the students are just beginning to learn English--other than the words they have picked up in life. Their teachers have studied English in school, but that doesn't mean they speak or understand very well either.
I explained to every class that in Colorado this year the snow (yuki) was waste deep. They were very impressed. I told them that many people ski. For whatever reason, in one class I said that "we ski." I believe it was a fifth grade class. A boy in the back yells "Whiskey!"
Oh, no. Not good. It was my first week on the job and I was already wondering how much plane tickets home would be.
I tried to explain. Most kids know the word "ski" so I motioned skiing, saying "We" pointing to myself "ski."
"Whiskey!" I hear in reply, now a chorus. Everyone was laughing. I snuck a peak at the teacher, wondering if he was already on the way to the teachers' room to tell the principal an alcoholic American was teaching the fifth graders about booze. He was chuckling.
I should've dropped it but instead, I drew a bottle on the chalkboard and said "Whiskey." Then I drew two stick figures skiing and said, "WEEEEE........SKI."
They got the point well enough, but the chuckles continued for a while.
Sometimes, out of the blue, the language barrier will catch you. Sometimes it doesn't so much catch you with your pants down as it does give you a pantsing, then point and laugh.
So that's the story of how I ended up drawing a whiskey bottle on the blackboard in an elementary school.
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