What the Fox Say?

It always strikes me how trends spread here like rapid fire.  It's because Korea is such a small country, and it's so intensely homogenous.  A few examples of this in the classroom:

1.  Mother, Father, Gentleman.

If you are unaware of the latest Psy song, his sequel to "Gangnam Style," it's "Gentleman."  It's a song whose chorus goes "I'm a mother, father, gentleman." 

This is fun for English teachers.  And by 'fun' I mean 'kill me, kill me now.'  EVERY SINGLE TIME I have to teach a new class about family I encounter this.  As I teach "It's a mother, it's a father..." I get interrupted by a rambunctious student who yells "Teacher, TEACHER!! Mother father one more time."  So I roll my eyes and monotonously say "Mother, father..." and wait while they all yell "GENTLEMAN" at an ear-piercing volume.

2.  Let It Go.

This one in actually cute.  At this point, I don't think there is a single person in Korea who has not see the movie "Frozen."  Not one.  Even the president must have seen it.  It's all anyone talks about and if that wasn't enough, "Let It Go" plays in every single coffee shop and bar.  Mention the word "snowman" and instantly students yell back "teacher, oh-la-puh" (Olaf).  If I say, "okay let's do something else" this prompts "Teacher, Elsaaaa."  Yeah, yeah.  One day, as I was trying to teach 6 four-year-olds about toys I was interrupted by a boy in the class named Cole, who started to yell "Let it gooooooooo" as loudly and off-pitch as he could and for the next five minutes of class I endured a rousing chorus of the words "let it go, let it go" on repeat because that's all they know.

3.  What Does The Fox Say.

The most obnoxious example of this is "What Does The Fox Say?"  Though I'll admit this song has come in handy when teaching animal sounds, this song has become the bane of my existence in ways.  Like I said, it's fun to use this song when I want to ask my class about what a cow says or rabbit says.  "What the cow say?  Moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo."  You get the idea.  However, I have one class who was clever enough to figure out that "What the fox" sounds a like like "What the ..."  (fill in the blank, reader).  This class will sit in class and go "What the foc...x say."  To which I respond, "yeah, that's...that's a good one guys.  You're so funny...ha. ha. ha."  Sadly, they don't understand sarcasm.