Thursday, August 24, 2006

Kappa / Wretchedness / Etc



Felt wretched today. Thank goodness we moved furniture yesterday. The 302 bus is now full of students going to MiraCosta. We always get to chatting at the bus stop. I've mentioned the extra inclination towards small talk around here. "You look young to be a teacher." I always say, "Yes, I'm very young." or "No. I'm old."

Yesterday several of my students kept talking about "kappa." They would say "kappa" and giggle. Or they'd sing a song about kappa. When we played games we had Team Howdy and Team Kappa. One student looked up kappa in her dictionary and it said, "imp." Anyway, I've done some kappa research. Rather, I looked it up on wikipedia. Favorite kappa fact: cucumbers are the kappa's second favorite food, after human children.

I want my students to teach me the Japanese song tomorrow (the last day of class), but I don't know how realistic that is. Know any songs about kappa, François?

3 comments:

mike c said...

I know a japanese song. It's a song sister taught me when I was a kid. It's about rain, and sun, and making fists.

Jessica Smith said...

aw, the kappa is cute. i read the wiki entry, it seems like i've been missing out on a subtle but important piece of pop culture.

i think "imp" is a terrible translation. why can't they just call it a kappa? this is why picture translation dictionaries aren't just for children.

i wonder what this reveals about the secret life of kappa delta (which now sounds like a watery meeting ground for the little buggers)

François Luong said...

Sadly, no, I don't know any. I just remember fragments of stories involving kappa.

As for translations of the word, I think (sadly enough) that the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Compendium has the best translation (kappa).