Hey Travis, Don't Eat Yellow Snow! (almost)

Having switched to the afternoon language classes, schooling is a lot different. Instead of spending our mid-morning tea break talking with our friends from various missions, it is often just us and a handful of Amharic teachers tipping back the tea (there are not many students in the afternoons). One of the morning students we miss most is a friend named Adrian. Adrian, like us, takes learning language VERY seriously and yet at the same time enjoys the lighter side of language as well. So although we no longer get to hang out in the mornings, we still have a means of passing messages to each other. You see, Adrian’s teacher in the morning (Yenesaw) is also our teacher in the afternoon and this particular guy loves to learn English idioms or slang phrases. It’s hilarious whenever Yenesaw rips out an English phrase with an Ethiopian accent like “Oh, she is foxy!”, “going the whole nine yards”, “like icing on the cake or the cherry on top” or “a few fries short of a Happy Meal.” No there are no McDonalds here, nor do they have cherries, nor do they play American football so as you can imagine these idioms take some time before they sink in correctly.

 

So late last week, Yenesaw “jumped into the deep end” with a new idiom, yet didn’t quite get it exactly right. Having said our goodbyes after class, Andrea and I started walking away when Yenesaw got a rush of inspiration and decided to debut his new phrase, “Hey Travis, Don’t Eat Yellow Ice!”  We couldn’t help but laugh at his attempt to send me off with the classic advice written in Jr. High yearbooks. Now in his defense, Amharic does use the same word for “ice” and “snow,” so it makes sense why he loused it up, but as usual, it needed polishing. That Sunday, when I saw Adrian at church, I mentioned it to him, to which he buried his head in his hands…“man, we worked so hard on that phase that morning and he messed up – YELLOW ICE? He knew it so well just a few hours before!” Our English idiom/slang student had disappointed his teachers once again, but nevertheless, it was funny. I know the laughter goes the other way around in our Amharic, so we’ll be gracious this time.

 

During yesterday’s tea break, Yenesaw asked me a question about the English word “legitimate” so I naturally taught him the phrase “too legit to quit.” I even gave him a good in-class scenario in which he can use it this coming Monday. Let’s just say I don’t have high hopes for him remembering it all the way until Monday and then using it correctly. Now if I could only get an MC Hammer video to help burn it into his mind! But then, I might have to convince him that hammer pants are no longer cool!