Dutch lessons and superstitions
March 19, 2007 at 12:27 PM
by Ashleigh
This blog has been a bit short on content recently. Probably due to that rip-roaring cold I've had. Not to mention the recent succession of kitchen flops recently experienced. Buns that didn't rise, pizza dough that didn't cook through, leg of lamb that was so tough it got binned*...
I still have my Dutch lessons to write about. No flops there, fortunately.
There are seven students.
Me, two Japanese women, one Chinese girl, an Albanian man, a Turkish woman and a boy from Kurdistan.
Note that I said 'girl' and 'boy' because they're not even 20 yet. When you reach your thirties it gives you the ability to call younger people 'girls' and 'boys' with impunity, as long as they're in their teens. When I'm 50 I'll probably be calling 30 year olds 'kids'. Hah.
We have two teachers. One of whom teaches us from a textbook and the other who teaches us grammar.
I like the textbook lessons the most because the teacher stimulates conversation and some of the most amazing dialogues develop. In the grammar lessons we're too busy identifying subjects, objects and conjunctions and changing sentences from the passive to the active and vice versa, to talk much.
Some of the conversations we've had have been ... illuminating.
We had one on superstitions.
You know, normal things like shoes on tables = poverty, black cat walking across path = bad luck.
The teacher asked everyone to talk about superstitions from their home countries.
Eventually it was the turn of the Chinese girl. The teacher asked her whether a black cat crossing her path was a harbinger of bad luck, so the Chinese girl looked blank and then said,
'We have no black cats in China'.
To which the teacher replied, perfectly poker-faced,
'Maybe that's because you ate them all up.'
I was the only one who laughed. Perhaps I was the only one who understood the joke or perhaps I was the only one able to lose my PC veneer and find the situation humourous.
Thank goodness political correctness is not yet a feature of the Dutch classroom.
* If I were a superstitious person I'd think I had a kitchen curse!
Comments
Oh, poor girl. What an introduction to Dutch Bluntness, hehe. Too funny!
You really had to toss the lamb? That's so sad.
Your Dutch class sounds about a million times more interesting than the one I had. I don't think I'd have minded going so much if mine were that interesting. ;)
Wait, no cats in China? And was the teacher joking?
YIKES! Good for you for laughing it off.
But ask the Chinese girl if she has had a haircut in the last 30 days....you can't get one for 30 days after Chinese New Year or you cut all your luck away! I think Monday was haircut allowed day.
Oh my goodness, Ashleigh! I almost just pee'd myself reading this post!
THANK YOU!!! (I needed that:))
Well, undoubtedly the black cat stir fry you served with sweet and sour sauce cursed the kitchen. Shame on you. ; )
OMG! How funny. The teacher totally would have been fired in Canada for saying that but I would have laughed my head off :)
March 19, 2007 1:30 PM