Kids, YouTube, School and I
I teach kids for a living. Not long ago, I heard about kids playing with imaginary phones.
A parent told me their 4-year-old would pretend to scroll on their “phone” and “show stuff” to other people by holding their palm out to them. Then they would use their thumbs and indexes to do a「」 to take imaginary photos.
The 4-year-old’s elder sister, who is my student, plays a game that their parents call “Tutorial”. It is just like playing house. The only difference is that when they are “making things”, they pretend that a camera is there and they are making a YouTube video. Sometimes the elder sister sets up her iPad and they make a video for real.
I was born in 1995. Even I found this story pretty wild.
My colleague who is two years younger than me heard me retell the tale. She paused for a bit and said, “We truly are living in the future.”
I teach little kids English for a living. And I have a problem — I can’t shake this feeling that 90% of what I do at work is fake.
Learning English = Learning Swimming
I love this metaphor I learnt from 阿擇 （Chaaak）(my linguist friend) that learning a second language is like learning how to swim.
