Student Becomes Teacher

There are few things more fun than teaching slang to a class full of Italian teenagers. My class had a free hour today, which I used to teach an impromptu class on American Slang 101. Vocabulary ranged from "Sup Dawg" to "Take a chill pill" to "bling" to "LOL". The once perfectly green chalkboard was a jungle of dusty white scrawl by the end of the hour, with slangy words jammed into every inch of the margins. Never before had I had more fun than describing what exactly "freaking out" and "chillaxing" meant. I schooled them in all the different ways to say yes "yep, yup, chyeauh" and brought them through the finer points of what in the world "ghetto" and "crunk" actually mean.

I also had the opportunity to have a little question and answer session with an eighth grade class - where I sat at the front of the class, feeling a little like I was on display at the zoo - Real Live American! Questions varied from what does Homecoming mean? Is high school in America really like High School Musical? (yes...but less musical). How is it, being able to drive at sixteen? What sports do I play? What music do I like? and...THE BIG QUESTION: Which do you like better, Italy or America? To which I responded with my best Rotary-inspired diplomatic answer: I cant choose. They're too different. One is my home, and I love it for that. One is Italy - exotic and exciting - and I love it for that too. But one isn't better than the other. If there's one thing I've learned this year, its that one thing isn't better than another - Its just different.