Tonight I had class with a kid named Ken. He is a Korean kid that is maybe 12 or 13, I’m not sure. This was the second time that I had class with him, and what never ceases to amaze me about kids is how quickly they open up to you, even when they have only known you ten minutes.
What sets Ken apart is his ability to ask questions like he is getting paid for it. In one twenty minute conversation, these were the topics we covered:
I asked him how his week has been going, and what his favorite class at school was. He replied “PE.”
“Oh,what do you do in PE?”
“I play volleyball.”
“Oh cool, I used to play volleyball. Do you like it?”
“Yes, I do. Teacher, do you know who Evan Patak is?”
“Yes Ken, actually I do (after I spent five minutes trying to remember why that name was so familiar). He played for UCSB volleyball.”
“Oh, he plays for Korea airlines team, he is very famous in Korea.”
“Yea, I saw him play one time. He lived in the same town as me.”
“Really? That is cool.”
5 minutes later as I am correcting his homework
“Teacher is your hair two colors?”
“Well yes Ken, actually it is. I have been needing to dye my hair again for a long time. Do you know what hair dye means?”
“I think so, isn’t it very bad?”
“No you are thinking of die, like how you said your dog died two years ago. This is dye spelled D-Y-E. It means that my hair is really this darker brown color but I like to make it yellow so I put color in it. But I have been busy and my friend has been busy and I need her to help me change the color again.”
“Oh. So you think the brown is bad.”
“Well no I guess I don’t think the brown is bad, I guess I just like the yellow better.”
“Oh. In my Korean school, we aren’t allowed to have hair dyed. Your hair can only be black, and it has to be straight. You can’t have a firm.”
“A firm? What do you mean?”
“If you hair goes around and around”
“Oh, you mean a perm? When the hair is curly? You aren’t allowed to have curly hair at your school?”
“No. And if a boy’s ears are covered by his hair, he must to cut his hair too. And if you have any words on your shirts, you have to do maybe 30 or 40 pushups, I don’t know how many but it’s a lot. And the girls they can’t wear skirts. If they wear skirts, they have to do pushups but not the kind where you go up and down, just the kind where they have straight arms”
“Oh like a plank like this?
“Yes. And the girls at my school, they can’t wear their hair like yours, they have to wear it different.”
“Oh, you mean down? They can’t put their hair up in a ponytail?
“No.”
“Wow Ken, I would not last one minute in a Korean school. I have dyed curly yellow hair and I put it up, and I have words on my shirt.”
“I think it is too many rules.”
“Me too. Ok let’s talk about our book.”
2 minutes later
“Teacher do you have a car in America?”
“Yes Ken, I do.”
“What kind is it?”
“It’s a Toyota.. A Japanese car.”
“Oh, in Korea everyone has Kia and Hyundai. Are those in America too?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen them before but they aren’t as common. Toyotas and Hondas are very reliable cars, Do you know what reliable means?”
“No.”
“It means that it is a good car, that it won’t break down as much as other cars, hopefully. Anyways, Toyotas and Hondas are very reliable cars, so many people have them in America. But because they are so common in America, many thieves break into them. Do you know what a thief is?”
“No, I don’t”
“A thief is someone who takes stuff that doesn’t belong to them.”
“Oh yes, yes I know. Was he African American?”
“What! No, I don’t know. What do you mean?”
“Well in 1997 I saw there were a lot of African American people fighting in Los Angeles and I saw them leaving with a lot of blood.”
“Oh you mean they were bleeding a lot?”
“Yes, do you know what I am talking about?”
“No Ken, I don’t . (shoot I’m going to have to go home to google this stuff…) But sometimes in Los Angeles there are fights but it’s not just black people. It’s white people, and Mexican people and Asian people and other people. Everyone makes mistakes, not just black people.”
“Teacher why are there so many African Americans in America?”
(Does this kid ever quit?)
“Well a long time ago there was this terrible thing called slavery and many African Americans were forced to come over to America to work for white people. A lot of African Americans today are children from people who were slaves before.”
“But didn’t Abraham Lincoln set them free?”
“Well..yes…in a manner of speaking. (I did not want to have to explain what ‘emancipation’ and ‘proclamation’ meant).
“Well then why didn’t they go back to America?”
“Well it wasn’t that easy. It was very difficult to get back to Africa and very expensive and the trip was long and dangerous and many people did not have anything to go back to.”
“Oh.”
“Ok Ken let’s read Chapter 5 in the book now”
“Ok”
2 minutes later
“Teacher, what is your blood type?”
“I don’t know Ken.”
“Oh. Many Americans don’t know their blood type. Do you know Danica? She doesn’t know her blood type either. I bet you are an O.”
“Ok Ken, back to the book.”
“Ok.…..Teacher, what is it called when old people have this on their foreheads?” (pushes on his forehead)
“Wrinkles? Like this?” (I scrunch up my forehead and display the stair steps on my forehead)
No, like on your forehead like this” (he pokes his forehead a bunch of different times) “It’s red.”
“Oh.” Oh geez here we go again. Another kid I work with commenting on my skin. “That is called acne Ken.”
“Oh, is it bad?”
“Well no one really likes it but everyone gets it. It’s normal.”
“Oh. I don’t have that because I am young, but probably I will get it later.” How old does this kid think I am?
“Maybe, who knows. Ok, about chapter 5…”
I don’t know what amazes me more, how the kid barely pauses for breath between questions, the way his bright little eyes just want to know more, his insatiable curiosity, the extreme cultural differences, his preconceived ideas about what America is like, or the way he makes me think about things a little differently. I’m not sure.
But excuse me, I have to go brush up on American history and popular culture before our next class in a week.
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