Following on from the previous lesson, we talked about the best party you’ve ever been to

Jason told us about a house party he went to last weekend and touched on an interesting point – parties in Australia are very different to those in South Korea

In South Korea parties are usually at a restaurant or a club, and even the clubs are very different! Here, because we live in houses rather than apartments we tend to stay home and party there.

Kyoung Suk told us about her ‘initiation’ birthday, her 19th birthday, where she and some friends went away, got drunk, tried to swim in the ocean, got caught by the lifeguards, and then kept drinking. Sounds like a good time!

Which got us to talking about important birthdays in your country. In Australia we mostly celebrate our 18th and 21st birthdays. Of course, there’s our 30th, 40th, and definitely our 50th, but some people also don’t like to celebrate these, for obvious reasons

How old would you like to live to?/What age would you like to live to?

Jason and I agreed on living until 60 – that seems to be the age where the health problems really seem to start. Of course, to get to that age would be lucky in itself!

How are elderly people treated in your country? How much respect do you have for elderly people in your country?

TODAY: article and audio

THIS TOPIC HAS ALSO BEEN DISCUSSED HERE

Jason set the tone for today’s lesson by telling us about a party he went to on the weekend where a stripper had been hired – lucky your girlfriend wasn’t there!

We then watched the video below of Corey Worthington, who became famous in 2007/2008 for his organisation of ‘the best street party ever’

what makes a great party?

is it influenced by the number of men or woman?

Kyung Suk thought that this depended on the type of party it was: ‘buck’s’ nights and ‘hen’s’ nights (the parties to celebrate before you get married) were a little different

what did/would you do for your hen’s and buck’s nights? Kyung Suk won’t tell us what she did but we’ll find out!

next class we’ll be talking about the best party you’ve ever been to

THIS HAS ALSO BEEN DISCUSSED BY ANOTHER CLASS HERE

TODAY: article and audio

So what are tourists, in this case, Korean tourists, like?

Are they clean or messy? Stylish or unstylish? Polite or rude? Do they try to speak the local language and try the local cuisine (local food)?

Jason thought that Koreans were messy/untidy and littered alot. He also felt that, if they could, they would speak the local language but that they try and put up a barrier between themselves and locals.

Were you surprised by any of the 10 selections in the article?

Why would you/did you visit Australia? Why would you visit Korea?

PS. don’t ever mention the video below again! Ever!

TODAY: article and audio

We’ve discussed what we would like to teach our children, but how would we like our children taught?

We outlined private schools, public schools, religion-based schools and home-schooling.

Included in this are same-sex/single sex and ‘co-ed’ (boys and girls) schools.

What type of school do you attend?

Did/Does a same-sex school make it more awkward around the opposite sex when you’re younger?

What about home-schooling? Do you think this type of learning could be effective? Why/why not?

For homework we were asked ‘what two things would you teach your children?’

So, what are the two most important things you would teach them? Yosuke suggested teaching manners and encouraging them to be sociable.

After all, it’s not what you know, but who you know!

Kyoung Suk suggested something slightly different: diligence and love.

What is ‘diligence’ though? Focus to a particular task and never giving up/perserverance are some of the ways Kyoung Suk wanted to apply this word to her children.

Why did you choose these? Did you parents encourage you to be like this? Are you like this?

We also discussed schooling. Did you attend a private school? Public school? Religious school? Was it ‘co-ed’ (boys and girls) or just single-sex (all boys or all girls)?

Yosuke suggested he would send his son to a ‘co-ed’ but not his daughter!

And would you consider home-schooling?

TODAY: audio and article

It seems like people are always complaining about how different today’s youth/Generation Y are.

The world is changing and so are our children, yet many parts of society are not changing with them.

In Britain this has become a big problem – so much that British schools are thinking of fining parents or sending them to jail if their children don’t come to school!

What were you like as a child? Well-behaved or badly-behaved?

What did your parents do to ‘discipline’ you? Did it work? Would you discipline your children another way?

And is the idea about fining or jailing parents a good one?

and Kyoung Suk, in NSW, it’s legal to ’smack’ your child but illegal to hit them to try and cause injury. Hmmmmmmm.

TODAY: audio and article

Yes, it was Tamami’s last day, but we ended the week on a positive – free hugs and $1 kisses. Not to mention Jason and his girlfriend celebrated their 500 day anniversary. Congratulations!

It began with us discussing how to show emotion in your country.

In Korea and Japan we all agreed that people are very reluctant to hug or embrace. Some of us don’t even like to hold hands with our boyfriend/husband or girlfriend/wife.

So then, would you hug this guy?

and would you kiss Lachlan Christie in the picture at the top?

Is what he’s doing a bit weird? Why is it okay to hug a stranger but not kiss a stranger?

TODAY: audio and article

Yes, it’s true. Homeless man Ken Johnson earns up to $400 a day, just sitting outside Myer about a block from here. That’s potentially $2000 a week. Even on a bad day he reckons he will make $175 – $220. That’s a good day for just about any of our students!

Could a homeless person do this in your country?

What are attitudes like to homeless people in your country?

What about buskers – do many people busk in your country?

Could you busk? Could you go homeless, even for 24 hours? How would you eat? Where would you sleep? How would you get money? How would you clean yourself?

In response to the above question there were some hilarious answers! I’m impressed/horrified by some of these ideas.

Tamami had a clever idea – she would get a job as an innkeeper (someone who lives and works in a hotel/motel) at a Japanese hotel. Do you mean a ryokan?

Kyoung Sook said she would simply stay with a friend for a little while. Well that was easy.

Now here’s where it gets a little silly: Jason said he would sleep in a park and use newspapers as blankets. Not too bad.

and Yosuke? Well he said he would get arrested for shoplifting and live in jail! In jail? Man, are you serious? Clever idea but it’s not the nicest place in there!

Tamami can’t stop talking about this place, so I thought I might as well mention Bertoni Casalinga , which serves a heap of delicious Italian food on Kent St in the CBD. I’ll have to try one of those paninis Tamomi

THIS TOPIC HAS ALSO BEEN DISCUSSED HERE

Article and Audio

With Andrew and Hans on Friday night we looked into the attitudes Australian’s adopt when they’re overseas. Click the link above for a more in depth look at a discussion of Australian stereotypes including ‘bogans’ and ‘mullets’ – that’s a fine example in the picture above!

Apparently class divisions between expats can be quite distinct in England, where a third are extremely well paid and the rest are just out for a holiday and a good time.

We also mentioned silent letters - why do they exist? For the answer, just look below.