 Korean schoolkids are keen to learn English |
"Allo. Allo! 'ow are you?"
The gaggle of kids in their bright nylon parkas, out on their school excursion to the Korean Folk Village, has me cornered. It is evident that I am to be their English language coach for at least the next two minutes.
"Allo, allo.' They all practice the words, and I repeat them back. Clearly. Slowly. A brave one fronts up. "What is your name?" he enunciates, with just the merest American accent. (Aha! He's been watching TV, I think). I tell him, and he and his friends giggle off into the distance, their conversational vocabulary in English exhausted.
I am one of just a few Westerners at this cultural display. These children have come to get in touch with their roots, their heritage; yet somehow I feel that the first thing they'll tell their mothers and fathers when they get home, will be about the strange camera-laden Australian woman they spoke English to.
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