On Christmas Eve, I took my turn in the cycle of teaching Ivy. Not wanting to do a boring discussion class (oh how I hate trying to get teenagers to talk), I decided to turn them loose on The 12 Days of Christmas lyrics. We listened to the song a couple of times and I told them they could work in pairs or small groups to come up with their own lyrics. The catch was the things they used as gifts had to be tied to Korea in some way. Here’s what we came up with in the end.
- On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a big pot of spicy kimchi.
- On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two shots of soju.
- On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three orange restaurants.
- On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, four Taekwondo belts.
- On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, five hand phones.
- On the six day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six lovely hanboks.
- On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven rolls of kimbap.
- On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eight bags of ramyan.
- On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, nine taxi drivers.
- On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, ten chewy rice cakes.
- On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eleven English hagwons.
- On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, twelve bowls of rice.
I think it’s really cute. True, some of the things aren’t unique to Korea, but they are popular here. Try to find anyone over the age of 7 without a hand phone (aka “cell phone” to you westerners). I’ve seen quite a few elderly men and women with them. And the taxi drivers? Well, that was my contribution. Every time I get into a taxi I say a quick prayer to get out in one piece.
