tupac

I've already told you about the fact that I have a student who gave himself the English name of Tupac. Well, here's more about him.

He's one of my middle school students, 15 years old. He picked Tupac as his English name because Tupac is his favorite "singer", as he says. I have an affinity for him because had the 15 year old version of me been put in the same situation, I'd have picked a similarly absurd name. But, I think the hilarity of his name is lost on him.

He's not quiet. Some of my students are quite timid and hesitant to use the English that they know. Tupac freely speaks, which is good for me because he's one of only 3 students in the class that I have him for. However, he has a pretty funny voice. All Korean speakers sound "funny" to an extent, because their natural dialect interferes with common English pronunciation, but Tupac has a high-pitched inflection which makes his English less discernible and more comical. The point here is that he in no way attempts to emulate, whether in speech, manner, or dress, his namesake.

These past few paragraphs (and this one, I suppose), are but a preface for a fiction story that Tupac wrote. He didn't write it for my class, but for one of my co-teacher's who promptly showed it to me. Upon reading it, I made a copy of it because I knew I had to reproduce here for more to see. The title is Red vs. Blue. The author is 2Pac. Yes, he has begun writing his name as "2Pac". The alterations I have made to the original text extend no further than the insertion of some commas and capitalizations, for the ease of the reader.

Many kangaroos live in a big field in Australia. Australia is the kingdom of kangaroos. Australia is separated by the Westside and the Eastside. Westside's kangaroos and Eastside's kangaroos often fight each other.

Westside's boss is Red Kangaroo and Eastside's boss is Blue Kangaroo.

By the way, Red Kangaroo and Blue Kangaroo love Green Kangaroo.

Green Kangaroo always says, "I love a strong kangaroo." Red Kangaroo says to Blue Kangaroo, "I will fight you, Blue Kangaroo, you should strain and maybe you die." Thereupon Blue Kangaroo says, "Strain? You say to me 'strain'? Ha ha, maybe you don't know but I am Eastside's boss-- Blue Kangaroo. Now say again. What?"

Thereupon suddenly Red Kangaroo's punch hits Blue Kangaroo's nose. Thereupon Blue Kangaroo's nose breaks. Blue Kangaroo is thrown into confusion. Blue Kangaroo says, "Wait, wait a minute, oh my nose, oh blood. Sorry Red Kangaroo, please forgive me. In fact, I don't like Green Kangaroo, I give up don't hit me please." However, Red Kangaroo is crazy and he doesn't stop punching. Thereupon Blue Kangaroo kneels down and dies. So, Westside's kangaroos are very happy but Eastside's kangaroos are very nervous. Red Kangaroo is the winner and Green Kangaroo says to Red Kangaroo, "I like a strong kangaroo so I will marry Red Kangaroo."

Red Kangaroo says, "Let's go to the Westside, my kangaroos and Green."

Westside is doing a party now but Blue Kangaroo's brother comes to Westside. He is very angry, so he looks like he wants to kill Red Kangaroo. He runs to Red Kangaroo and he says, "Red Kangaroo, I will kill you, I can kill you, you will strain."

But he dies too. Thereupon Blue Kangaroo's mother comes to Red Kangaroo in the Westside and she says, "You killed my sons, I will never forgive you, come on." But of course, she is killed too, because of Red Kangaroo.

He says to his friends, "Blue never wins from Red."

And that's it. Simple, yet profound, he's a young Korean Chekhov. If you have any comments or criticisms for Tupac, I'll be sure to pass them along to him.