Wrath

Every Friday at school is game day. The Korean teachers still have to give lessons, but the foreign teachers get to play games with the students. There are a few staple games that the kids always love to play. The most popular are Uno and Jenga (neither of these improve English skills, so I think that's why they are in such high demand). My favorite game that the kids also love is Bingo. I like it because the kids have to be quiet all class so they can hear what squares they need to cover. Now, I like it when kids have fun and express it with shouts and laughter, but not six solid hours of it.

I always play the same Bingo game with my classes. The bingo cards have pictures on one side and the words to the pictures on the other. I've played it so many times that it's not even a challenge to my kids. They know all the words and they don't have to think at all. So last Friday I decided I was going to switch up the Bingo game. Instead of grabbing my usual game, I picked up the Bingo set with no pictures. There were no pictures because all the words were sight words (sight words are words that you must recognize on sight- like what, it, and, if, so, by, however).

On Fridays I walk into the classrooms and all eyes are on my hands to see what game will be played. On this Friday, my entrance was met with cheers when the students saw Bingo. After the applause died down, I passed out the cards and the little red pieces of paper to mark the cards. In each class the students took the cards, saw only words, flipped the cards over, saw only words again, flipped the cards back over (hoping their eyes decieved them the first time), saw only words for the third time, and became filled with a mixture of confusion, despair, and hatred. A few students threw their Bingo cards to the ground in disgust.

Nevertheless, I started the game. Here's how it went:
"B-and," I said.
"Teacher, spelling," said several pupils.
"And. And. You know, kimchi and rice. Oil and water. Amos and Andy,"
"Spelling."
"I'm not going to spell 'and.' I'm sorry. G-which"
"Teacher!!! SPELLING!!!"
"No, it's part of the game. If you don't know it then you'll lose. Besides, nothing in your 'G' column is even close to 'which.' You have 'say,' 'at,' 'to,' 'the,' and 'be'."
"SPELLING!!!"
"No."
"Teacher, sa-gi(this is cheater in Korean)" At this point some students would quit playing and others would grudgingly continue, but they all had looks of pure hatred directed at me. I severed many good relationships with this Bingo game. Relationships that I have been working on rebuilding ever since, but it is a difficult task.