what'd he say?!

a few weeks ago, one of my friends/colleagues came to me to talk about one of her students. this student moved to the states from korea in late spring and is still in the beginning stages of acquiring english.

my friend came to me because while she was teaching, her student kept saying something in korean and cracking himself up, to the point of distracting his classmates. so, my friend asked me what the word meant in a conversation that went something like this:

her: he keeps saying this word in korean and laughing hysterically!
me: do you know what the word is?
her: i don't know, something like "hong" or "hyong"?
me: hmmmm..."hyung" means older brother, but that's not really funny...
her: okay, that must not be it, i'll find out and come back to you.

a few days later, here's the conversation that unfolded:
her: i remembered!
me: what is it??
her: okay, it's "bong koo." is that something?
me (seriously stifling my own giggles): heehee, "bahng goo"?
her: yes! yes! that's it! what does it mean??
me: FART.

poor kid...he must have been so bored and not understanding anything, therefore resorting to entertaining himself by pretty much repeating the word "fart" over and over to himself. classy. ;)

the best part? my friend had me tell the boy to stop saying that and try to pay attention. then she said to him, "at school, we don't say those words. we say nice words. do you understand?"

he nodded fervently.

then i asked him in korean, "do you understand?"

and he looked at me and shook his head. :)

you gotta love the mind of a 6 year-old!