(Monday)
Student: Today you is very... twik.
Me: Excuse me?
Student: Twik.
Me: Quick? Быстро?
Student: No, no. Twik.
Me: [puzzled look]
Student: Maybe I mistake. I at home see in dictionary.
(Tuesday)
Student: Yesterday I not mistake. I see in dictionary. Yesterday I say you twik.
Me: What? Quick?
Student: No. Twik. T-W-I-K.
Me: T-W-I-K? Twik? No, that’s not a word.
Student: Yes it is! I see in dictionary! You twik!
Me: Ummm... как по-русский?
Student: наблюдать.
Me: [I look up наблюдать. It means to observe, to watch, to look after, to supervise. I show this to my student.]
Student: [shakes his head] No, no. [Takes dictionary and tries in vain to locate twik.] This dictionary, bad. My dictionary... twik. Thursday I take dictionary. You see, you twik.
Luckily, whatever the hell twik is, he seems to mean it as a compliment.
5 comments:
Twik that.
You'll have to let us know what the word actually is.
Bravo your life, Jane.
Actually, W. Shedd, I could see it being 'twig'. That's the most logical answer.
Logic??? In ESL teaching?
But Jane, you are so very twik. Didn't you know?
I'm stealing that word and spreading it like madness all over Korea, whatever it means. Brilliant.
While I can see "twig" as a logical alternative to "twik" (especially as my students confuse "thing" and "think" all the time), "twig" has nothing to do with the meaning of наблюдать! Additionally, the student seems to have dropped the twik topic. Perhaps he checked his dictionary again and realized he'd made an ass of himself....
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