This Is What I’m Teaching…
This is page 112 from the grade 5 national English textbook for Korea. Nami is asking Peter if he wants to play soccer this afternoon. Peter’s lips are relatively tame in this picture. They’re often really pale (like Nami’s skin colour) or bright red, so he usually looks like he’s right out of a 19th Century minstrel show. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a picture of him playing a banjo somewhere in the book.
When I teach one of these full-page illustrations (which are accompanied by a short cartoon on the cd-rom), I usually start by asking basic questions about who is in the picture, where they are, what they’re holding, etc. I have one class that hasn’t bothered learn Peter’s name, so when I ask “Who is this?”, the answer is generally “Black people!”
The takeaway? I need to work with them on the distinction between singular and plural. I feel like the ingrained racism is the system failing them, but not knowing whether to use ‘person’ or ‘people’ is all on me.
