Friday, June 27, 2008

East Vs. West

After posting the video of the spider the other day I got countless emails from friends who were astonished at the size of the beast in my living room. I told my Upper Intermediate English students about the spider and they asked to see it. I thought it would be a great experiment to compare the reactions of people from home versus the reactions from locals:



A couple of my favorite moments:
1. Nearly everyone saying it is small. 
2. Mai (far right wearing a white shirt) asking, "Did you cry?"
3. Me saying, "My friend is teacher." Yeah, I'm starting to develop a bad habit of leaving out the "a" in sentences sometimes. 
4. Mai again commenting, "Two men one spider." 
5. Anh (far left) pointing out that I didn't even kill the spider.
6. The class prematurely clapping when they thought Ryan killed the spider.
7. Trung (back row white shirt) commenting that, "I think your friend is afraid too."
8. Phuong being the only one to think the spider was large.
9. Huan (back row blue shirt) explaining that spiders living in the house and nearby are "never big." 

Because of their lack of support for their teacher and my insect woes, I'm going to have them write an essay which will be 75% of their final grade. Here's the assignment: I want a 2,000 word essay about why I am the bravest person you have ever met. 
 

7 comments:

aLeX said...

Ben, it's me Phuong, i swear that i really think this's the biggest spider i've ever seen. Your blog it's great, very interesting.

Benjamin said...

Thanks, Phuong. I'm glad at least someone doesn't think I'm a coward. Let me know about the environmental fair tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

Is it me or do they keep asking about Brett? How the hell did they know that he would scream and cry like a little girl at the site of a spider - or something other than grilled chicken for dinner?

Baby Songer said...

Asian people are just better at life...welcome to reality.

Anonymous said...

Have you noticed that all but one student wears glasses? Maybe they need new ones if they think that spider was not huge!

Anonymous said...

maybe you should tell the class about some of the brave things yo have done in your life so you can get some respect. tell them about the day you tried to knock down the arch in St Louis by yourself or just madeup something.

Unknown said...

Ben oi, (your student, Anh) you missed the last comment of Linh because she spoke in Vietnamese. She insisted "the spider in compare with the floor's brick size(30cm x 30cm) is small, too". It still makes me laugh whenever I watch the video :-)