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mothwing"Lesbian!"
Seriously, what's up with kids these days?
In the past, when people shouted names at me, it was something fairly insulting, the whole "Fat Cow!" - "Slimy bitch!" - routine. No, nobody's reliving their sad childhood, I am not traumatised, everyone probably has gone through that. The thing is - in the past, when I got shouted at, it was something insulting.
Today, all they can manage is a chorus of: "Lesbian!"
Now, seriously, how do they expect me to react to that? I thought the aim of calling someone names was to make them mad or make them cry, but what on earth are you supposed to say to that?
"Yes, actually, well done for figuring that out."?
So, what's next? "German!" - "Student!"
Things you shout at people from the comforting midst of your group of friends are normally taunting, are normally insults.
They did not even use a derogatory term. Apparently, "lesbian" is considered bad enough. Probably, I benefit from the fact that most people don't bother learning the appropriate derogatory terms, it's only men who get called names, gay or not. Does this leave me glad because it means that I get to feel superior due to the supremely lame tauntings, or mad because they think that "lesbian" is a derogatory term? I mean, I know that "gay" tends to be overused especially by young males to describe anything they don't like, resulting in sentences as meaningful as "Man, this traffic light is so gay! It's never green when I'm here!" - but I didn't know that the same applies to "lesbian".
I've been thinking a lot about those guys lately, seeing as I have seen them nearly every day. Most of them look as though they could be a bunch of rather nice, if bored kids who have nothing better to do in their free time than walking up and down Dumbarton Road.
Seriously - whenever we are out shopping, there they are, skulking around at the parking lot of the supermarket, smoking. Is that considered a hobby among cool youngsters today?
On the weekends, they girls are in full war paint and matching attire and they hang around at the bus stop opposite the library. Makes me think why they're not in the library, it must get cold out there, especially if you're only wearing mini skirts, or baggy jeans and friggin' T-shirts.
It's January, guys!
They seem to have nothing better to do whatsoever. They might as well go somewhere by bus, since they are waiting at a bus stop, and yet, there they are, just standing around that bus stop, smoking.
It is strange, there are two more packs like that, once consisting of about six boys around fifteen, and a group strangely consisting of five girls and one boy, who looks much younger than the lasses. I have never seen them actually do anything, but I see them at the same corner nearly every day on my way home from the university.
What makes them interesting apart from the fact that they use non-derogatory terms for insults and like shouting at me is that they are the age group I'm going to teach, and I wonder what could be done to get these kids something to do. Well, apart from homework.
They puzzle me. Seriously, they seem to have nothing to do, but even though they're always hanging around in front of it, I've never seen them in the library, and I've been there pretty often. But then, maybe I've been unlucky.
How can you get these kids interested in something, how can you make them do something instead of hanging around at a bus stop in the cold?
Even watching TV and eating would be a positive change, some of these girls look as though they'd snap in two if you bumped into them...
A lot of them seem like the guys in my school, and that'd mean that even though they're all tough and dare calling people names in the face - provided they're not alone, and tough enough to smoke at their age, and tough enough to listen to loud, angry music, they're probably also just pretty insecure and rather direction-less.
Tut, not even able to think of proper insults, for heaven's sake!
Although that's probably good, come to think of it. :)
It makes me wonder if that's the kind of youths I'll be facing in my classes, and the odds are high that I will be. Now, how do you broaden someone's horizon without being the cool ideal Mr. Keating-teacher type?
Everything worked out alright during my internship, not one kid like these anywhere to be seen. But then, the school in which I did my internship was Poppenbüttel, a rather privileged upper middle class suburb. There are some problems, but they are absolutely marginal compared to those which teachers in the centre of Hamburg have to deal with on a daily basis. These range from serious drug addiction to children whose parents suddenly get lost due to troubles with Hamburg's underworld, to schools in which free school lunches had to be reintroduced so that the kids would get at least one meal per day.
I may be eager to work with kids, but I am pretty sure that however rewarding it might be to work in St. Pauli, it is not something I could do for long without cracking.
Even with these kids in this comparatively average income-area... Now, I am not a Cool Person, and I doubt that I'll ever be, and if they're like the guys in my class they'll only listen to Cool People... but all the same, there must, must, must be a way to get them interested in something.
Hm, wait, that's a bit rich coming from someone who doesn't have any real hobbies, so maybe I could start getting some hobbies myself before I think about making a change in the lives of innocent kids.
Many hugs!
Seriously, what's up with kids these days?
In the past, when people shouted names at me, it was something fairly insulting, the whole "Fat Cow!" - "Slimy bitch!" - routine. No, nobody's reliving their sad childhood, I am not traumatised, everyone probably has gone through that. The thing is - in the past, when I got shouted at, it was something insulting.
Today, all they can manage is a chorus of: "Lesbian!"
Now, seriously, how do they expect me to react to that? I thought the aim of calling someone names was to make them mad or make them cry, but what on earth are you supposed to say to that?
"Yes, actually, well done for figuring that out."?
So, what's next? "German!" - "Student!"
Things you shout at people from the comforting midst of your group of friends are normally taunting, are normally insults.
They did not even use a derogatory term. Apparently, "lesbian" is considered bad enough. Probably, I benefit from the fact that most people don't bother learning the appropriate derogatory terms, it's only men who get called names, gay or not. Does this leave me glad because it means that I get to feel superior due to the supremely lame tauntings, or mad because they think that "lesbian" is a derogatory term? I mean, I know that "gay" tends to be overused especially by young males to describe anything they don't like, resulting in sentences as meaningful as "Man, this traffic light is so gay! It's never green when I'm here!" - but I didn't know that the same applies to "lesbian".
I've been thinking a lot about those guys lately, seeing as I have seen them nearly every day. Most of them look as though they could be a bunch of rather nice, if bored kids who have nothing better to do in their free time than walking up and down Dumbarton Road.
Seriously - whenever we are out shopping, there they are, skulking around at the parking lot of the supermarket, smoking. Is that considered a hobby among cool youngsters today?
On the weekends, they girls are in full war paint and matching attire and they hang around at the bus stop opposite the library. Makes me think why they're not in the library, it must get cold out there, especially if you're only wearing mini skirts, or baggy jeans and friggin' T-shirts.
It's January, guys!
They seem to have nothing better to do whatsoever. They might as well go somewhere by bus, since they are waiting at a bus stop, and yet, there they are, just standing around that bus stop, smoking.
It is strange, there are two more packs like that, once consisting of about six boys around fifteen, and a group strangely consisting of five girls and one boy, who looks much younger than the lasses. I have never seen them actually do anything, but I see them at the same corner nearly every day on my way home from the university.
What makes them interesting apart from the fact that they use non-derogatory terms for insults and like shouting at me is that they are the age group I'm going to teach, and I wonder what could be done to get these kids something to do. Well, apart from homework.
They puzzle me. Seriously, they seem to have nothing to do, but even though they're always hanging around in front of it, I've never seen them in the library, and I've been there pretty often. But then, maybe I've been unlucky.
How can you get these kids interested in something, how can you make them do something instead of hanging around at a bus stop in the cold?
Even watching TV and eating would be a positive change, some of these girls look as though they'd snap in two if you bumped into them...
A lot of them seem like the guys in my school, and that'd mean that even though they're all tough and dare calling people names in the face - provided they're not alone, and tough enough to smoke at their age, and tough enough to listen to loud, angry music, they're probably also just pretty insecure and rather direction-less.
Tut, not even able to think of proper insults, for heaven's sake!
Although that's probably good, come to think of it. :)
It makes me wonder if that's the kind of youths I'll be facing in my classes, and the odds are high that I will be. Now, how do you broaden someone's horizon without being the cool ideal Mr. Keating-teacher type?
Everything worked out alright during my internship, not one kid like these anywhere to be seen. But then, the school in which I did my internship was Poppenbüttel, a rather privileged upper middle class suburb. There are some problems, but they are absolutely marginal compared to those which teachers in the centre of Hamburg have to deal with on a daily basis. These range from serious drug addiction to children whose parents suddenly get lost due to troubles with Hamburg's underworld, to schools in which free school lunches had to be reintroduced so that the kids would get at least one meal per day.
I may be eager to work with kids, but I am pretty sure that however rewarding it might be to work in St. Pauli, it is not something I could do for long without cracking.
Even with these kids in this comparatively average income-area... Now, I am not a Cool Person, and I doubt that I'll ever be, and if they're like the guys in my class they'll only listen to Cool People... but all the same, there must, must, must be a way to get them interested in something.
Hm, wait, that's a bit rich coming from someone who doesn't have any real hobbies, so maybe I could start getting some hobbies myself before I think about making a change in the lives of innocent kids.
Many hugs!
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no subject
Date: Sunday, January 15th, 2006 06:17 pm (UTC)An deiner stelle würde ich mich auch fragen, wie um Erus Willen man sowas motivieren kann, inder Schule vernünftig mitzuarbeiten. Traurige Antwort: wahrscheinlich gar nicht.
Und das tolle Schimpfwort "Lesbe!" durften Lena und ich uns ja auch schon anhören o_O
no subject
Date: Sunday, January 15th, 2006 07:08 pm (UTC)When they're not too old you might still get them encouraged to do something in school. I'm working in a sixth year at the moment, and although they start to show this kind of behaviour, they're still impressable and thus work. I don't know about the elder ones, though...
Do you really need hobbies? I don't know how you manage to get all your studying done and admire you greatly for doing so well - I honestly couldn't.
Ah well, even I got called a Lesbian... when I went to the movies with my mother o_O but some people truly consider that as an insult...
no subject
Date: Wednesday, January 18th, 2006 01:37 pm (UTC)Sadly, the youngsters do not stay that impressionable... I wish they could always stay that small! Well, or as old as 9th grade. Isn't there some way just to cut out the years in between? :) But then, I guess they're most rewarding, sooo better not.
Yeah, I need hobbies. And I do not manage my studying... there is STILL a paper I need to post to Germany... I can only pray that she'll still accept it... *gulp* If not, I have to repeat a 5SWS course, meaning that I'm pretty screwed. :)
no subject
Date: Thursday, January 19th, 2006 12:15 am (UTC)Oh, that paper thing doesn't sound good. I hope she'll still except it!
no subject
Date: Monday, January 16th, 2006 03:39 am (UTC)I meant that in a good way!! :D
no subject
Date: Wednesday, January 18th, 2006 01:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, January 16th, 2006 10:04 am (UTC)I’ve had a random stranger say “NOT very obvious eyebrows!” to me in the days when I used eyebrow pencil instead of eye shadow to darken them. I’ve even had a (rather confused) school kid call me “Paki!” (OK, so I had dark hair at the time and have a slightly Indian look to my face – but he clearly wasn’t that au fait with cultural diversity!)
I think it might be because we are often raised to feel that it’s bad manners to point out anything about a person & so I guess it feels rebellious to do so.
As for the habit of hanging around on the street, it’s common for youths everywhere I think. Where I was at Uni (a small village in the middle of Cheshire) the place to be for anyone of teen years was outside the chip shop. Never understood it myself – stand out in the cold when you could be at someone’s house watching TV in the warm - but then I guess I never had masses of friends at that age, plus I never smoked so didn’t have anything to hide from my parents!
no subject
Date: Wednesday, January 18th, 2006 01:33 pm (UTC)Apart from the hanging-around thing, which seems to be a European trend, your post reminded me once again of something I love about this country: what is considered rebellious behaviour.
Here: Stating the obvious at strangers.
Germany: Insulting people or spitting at them.
Here: NOT wearing a school uniform!! Like some of our youths here. Boooy, they felt daring.
Germany: Kicking in a phone booth or a bus stop or other random damage of property.
The list goes on and on. Sigh.
I soo like it here.