"So what does it mean ..."

"Nappy headed ho."

Yes that question was posed to me.

I like teaching English. I LOVE teaching slang.

This week, a tip of the hat to Don Imus, because I never thought I would teach someone in a foreign country what a "nappy headed ho" was.

Most of my colleagues are fluent in English but that's the academic sterilized classroom shit. It's hard to try and relate to them how important slang is, but I always try to give them a little extra. When you've been on the streets like I have, hopping from crackhouse to crackhouse, you learn a few extra things. This is one of the rare moments they do some good.

About a day after I explained nappy headed ho - "Nappy means their hair is very dirty and ho is a dirty woman. It used to mean prostitute but now it just means she is a dirty woman who has multiple sex partners" - a student had me cracking up today with this one.

Yes, a student, an 11-year-old Korean boy who said, "Son of bitch is baby dog."

I immediately told him to stop.

There were no articles in his sentence. So I had to show him how to put the letter a in front of "son," "bitch" and "baby."

So once we corrected the sentence to, "A son of a bitch is a baby dog," I had to teach him the word "puppy" instead of "baby dog."

So then we repeated, "A son of a bitch is a puppy."

So I said, "Good, but the subject should be up front. Is the subject the bitch? No, so we need to start the sentence with the subject, 'A puppy.'"

I was so proud when he said, "A puppy is a son of a bitch."

It's a good feeling when you end the day like this, knowing you made a positive difference in a child's life.

James


*The student really said that. I did however, tell him he said a bad word in English and not to say it again. Then I turned around and did everything I could not to cry because I was laughing so hard.