Adventures in Listening Dictation: Part 1

When we first started this job the school was brand new and therefore we didn't have full class loads and had more 'free time'. So we were given the task of editing some of the school's text books. Older students (well, A4 level and higher) are required to do something called Listening Dictation every day. This means they log onto the school website and listen to a recording and then fill in the blanks with the words they hear. It's designed to improve their listening skills.

Something you might not know about Korea is they don't seem to have the same copyright laws (or maybe they just disregard them?) as Canada or the USA. This means that in every book I have seen in any Korean school that they created there has been material "borrowed" from some other source but used as their own. This is extremely commonplace and our new school is no exception. I'd like to know who decided what would go into the final draft of these Listening Dictation texts since there are some pretty odd and age inappropriate stories/articles. We collected some of our favorites so I will periodically post them. Keep in mind that most of our students are about 10-14 years old. This one isn't necessarily age inappropriate but it is weird and kind of effed up.

Our dog, Bob

Our dog, Bob has killed twenty-eight snakes this spring. He knows how to kill a snake. He doesn't rush to do it. He takes his time and does the job well. I could see the snake didn't want to fight the dog. The snake wanted to get away. Bob wouldn't let it. I wondered why it was crawling toward a heap of black earth at the foot of the hill. I looked as the snake lifted its pretty head in response to one of Bob's jumps. "It's not a bull black snake," I said. "It's a she-snake. Look at the white on her throat." "A snake is an enemy to me," my father said. "I hate snakes. Kill it, Bob. Go in there and get that snake and stop playing with it."

Bob obeyed my father. I hated to see him take the snake by the throat. Bob grabbed the white patch on her throat. The blood spurted from her throat. Something hit my legs. Bob threw the snake down. I looked to see what had struck my legs. It was snake eggs. She was going to the sand to lay her eggs. Her body was still moving in pain. Bob threw her body back on the sand. She trembled like a leaf in the lazy wind, then her body lay perfectly still. The blood colored the earth around the snake.