Goguma

My students are always giving me weird nick-names. I had one student call me "Outer Space" for a few weeks until two weeks ago he decided he wanted his name to be "Outer Space." Last week one of the little boys in my class said "Teacher, you are Goguma!" and with that, he ran around the room laughing hysterically and shrieking with delight. When I repeated the word, "Goguma?" all of the other students joined in the laughing and shrieking and jumping up and down. As I've mentioned before, my Korean language skills are lacking, so I had no idea what this "goguma" meant. Beyond that, I had no idea why every time someone said the word "goguma" everyone in my classroom would leap out of their seats, screaming and laughing their little heads off.

After two days of this business, curiosity got the best of me. I finally worked up the nerve to ask my Korean teacher what the word meant (I was terrified it would be some horribly insulting word and that I would have to tell her my students were referring to me as "goguma"). Much to my relief--and total confusion--my Korean teacher told me that "goguma" means "sweet potato" and that there is nothing insulting about the word whatsoever. Oh good. But why are my kids calling me "Goguma"? I still have no clue.

The day after my "goguma" enlightenment, I marched into my class and said to my students, "Annyong heseyo. Cha nin Goguma im nida," which supposedly means, "Hello. My name is Sweet Potato." All of my students' eyes grew wide and they jumped out of their seats and went running around the room shrieking, "Goguma Teacher! Goguma Teacher!" and lauging hysterically.

So I am no longer referred to as "Liz Teacher." I am now known to the student population here at Kookje Foreign Language School as "Goguma Teacher." And it's still a mystery....