The past few weeks I've been substitute teaching. And I don't know how many times I've heard kids randomly yelling out "I've played these games before!" Particularly at the elementary schools and the middle schools, there's always a few kids every day who will yell this out during class. (Often the kids will yell it out in response to being asked to do an activity that they've already done before, but it seems to me that they are just as likely to yell it out without any apparent context.)
I had no idea what they were talking about. So eventually, I got curious and Googled it. And now that I've figured it out, I thought I would make an Interesting Random Facts entry out of it, because I'm assuming most other adults have no idea what it is. (Or am I wrong? Is it just me? Am I just out of it? Quick straw poll: How many of you out there have heard of "I've played these games before!"?)
Apparently then it went on to become a common meme on Tiktok among gamers, which is why kids are always yelling it out now.
In the course of researching all of this, however, the thought occurred to me: the kids are always yelling out something.
Now, granted I've been outside of the United States for most of the past 24 years, but I've been teaching kids in Japan, Cambodia and Vietnam, and in all these countries, I've noticed that there's always some slogan or catchphrase that the kids are constantly yelling out.
When I was in Japan, it was the catchphrases of Hard Gay that the kids were always yelling:
...it used to really annoy me at the time, because I'd be trying to get the class to listen to me while I explained the next activity, and then some kid would just randomly yell out one of Hard Gay's catchphrases, and start thrusting his pelvis.
At the time, I remember a Japanese friend telling me that Japanese teachers really hated Hard Gay, and I could see why. Although, even at the time I realized that if it wasn't Hard Gay, it would just be something else. The kids are always yelling out something.
Anyway, if you're thinking to yourself, "Hard Gay? That sounds like a really offensive stereotype."
Yeah, yeah I know. Well, what can I say? Japan has different ideas about political correctness than the United States does.
A character (introduced in 2002) developed and portrayed by Sumitani is Hard Gay (ハードゲイ, Hādo Gei). The term "Hādo Gei" is a Japanese reference to American gay subculture in similar fashion to "punk". In Japan, gender subculture with distinct dress style is referred to as "Gei ゲイ". In turn, the term "hard gay" became the reference to more masculine oriented "drag" seen to be prevalent in America. The fact that Hard Gay does not portray any Japanese gay subculture also explains why the sketch was allowed to be aired on Japanese TV, which has its own code of political correctness.
The official name is Razor Ramon HG. Dressing in a tight black PVC gay fetish outfit, he performed acts of charity (yonaoshi, “social improvement”) for unsuspecting bystanders while performing trademark pelvic thrusts and vocalizations, often accompanied by "Livin' la Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin.
According to some accounts, the name "Hard Gay" was the suggestion of Sumitani's senior comedian in the Yoshimoto Kogyo group, Kendo Kobayashi, in reference to his hard dancing. The name has also been described as a pun on 芸, gei, which means "skill" or "art." However, to develop his character, Sumitani visited gay bars in Doyama-cho, Osaka’s biggest gay area, and his costume, which consists of hot pants, a small vest, and cap, all in black PVC, along with aviator sunglasses, was purchased at a shop called VFTQ in Minami-Horie, Osaka, which specializes in gay fashion. Hard Gay makes regular use of a number of catchphrases in his act; he usually makes his entrance in front of the camera shouting "Dōmō Haadogei desu" ("Hello, it's Hard Gay"), with arms thrust out and a spin afterwards. His self-introduction is then followed by his dance moves. He often shouts "Hoooooo" (フゥ～!) or "Foohhhh!" (フォー！), a running joke in his performances. He often stops people saying unfavorable things to him by shouting "Sei sei sei sei sei" with his palm in front of the person's face. Whether this means anything is debatable, although Sumitani has commented that "sei sei" is something that comes out from his mouth when he is not happy, and that he does not mean "say" as in to speak something, although one might compare this action to the "talk to the hand" gesture. A possible interpretation might be that the origin lies in the word urusai (lit. "noisy," meaning "Be quiet!"), which is often pronounced urusē うるせー in Kansai dialect, shortened to sei. Another theory is the word sei written by kanji 静, meaning "quiet."
Sumitani's supposed homosexuality was exposed as a gimmick when he was caught in the midst of a date with Japanese actress and swimsuit model Anna Suzuki, whom he has since married. He has been criticised for his stereotypical depiction of gay men and for building a career on using bizarre and extreme antics to "parody" a social minority. A spokesperson for the Hokkaido Sexual Minority Association Sapporo Meeting, a support group for gay, lesbian and transgender people, has said: "Hard Gay’s acceptance by the Japanese public shows me that there is a strong tendency here to see homosexuality as something to be laughed at. That is sad."
....Over the years, I've forgotten most of the other catchphrases and fads that were popular in various countries I've taught in. (It may come back to me later, in which case I may update this post.)
The only other one I remember off-hand was from teaching in a university in Vietnam a couple years ago. During the first day of class, the students were supposed to prepare a presentation about their group for the rest of the class. Among other things, the students were supposed to talk about their hobbies. One group said their hobby was Bing Chilling. I had no idea what they were talking about, but they mentioned it like it was just a common thing everyone knew. So I asked them what it was, and they didn't really explain it at all. (There was a communication breakdown going on, because they were assuming everyone knew what Bing Chilling was, and so they couldn't understand what I was confused about. They kept saying, "You know, Bing Chilling." And I kept saying, "But what is Bing Chilling.") After a few back and forths, and several follow up questions, I eventually got the explanation story out of them.
So, there's this video of John Cena in which he shows off his ability to speak Chinese by talking about ice cream. The Chinese word for ice cream sounds like "Bing Chilling".
...apparently, it was popular in Vietnam a couple years ago for people to memorize the whole speech, and then film themselves reciting the whole thing, and then they would upload it onto Tiktok.
In November 2022, John Cena's script went viral on TikTok after a series of creators began making videos delivering the dialogue in near-perfect Mandarin. On November 14th, TikToker[4] @giapaoohehe posted a video that gathered over 4 million plays and 300,000 likes in nearly four days (seen below left). On November 13th, TikToker[5] @alfallis posted a video saying the dialogue as well, gathering over 13 million plays and 2.7 million likes in nearly three days.
The trend soon grew popular, with various creators making videos repeating the phrase, oftentimes mimicking Cena's particular pronunciation rather than an authentic Mandarin tone. Other creators discussed how Cena's videos inadvertently altered the way they speak Mandarin as their native language.
So there you go. I'm assuming this is something that was just for the kids, but how many adults out there knew about this?
*********************************
So, if indeed the kids are always yelling out something, I guess that begs the question: What did we yell out when we were kids?
Well, I've been searching my memory banks on this one. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was of course tremendously popular among nerds. If you were a bit nerdy in high school, I'm sure your group of friends quoted from that movie all the time. (I know mine certainly did.) But I don't think it ever got much beyond the nerd circles.
When I was in middle school, I remember people constantly quoting Wayne's World, and probably "Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!" was the most frequent thing being yelled out by my classmates.
Some other SNL catchphrases also had some popularity.
And of course, The Simpsons. Everyone quoted The Simpsons. Particularly in the early 90s, Bart Simpsons catchphrases "eat my shorts" and "don't have a cow" were ubiquitous among middle schoolers.
What else am I forgetting?
Addendum: March 10, 2025
As I wrote above,
Over the years, I've forgotten most of the other catchphrases and fads that were popular in various countries I've taught in. (It may come back to me later, in which case I may update this post.)
...well, a few more have come back into my mind recently:
1) For a couple years after the Black Panther movie came out, in Vietnam it was common for the boys to shout "Wakanda Forever". This was one of the rare cases when I knew exactly what they were referencing, and so I wasn't confused about it.
2) For a while in Vietnam, around 2016 or so, it was common for students to be constantly referencing the Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen song. (See Wikipedia article HERE and Know Your Meme article HERE).
I've just asked my sister and brother-in-law if they had ever heard of Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen song, and they said no, so maybe it was more popular in Asia than in the U.S. But then, by their own admission, my sister and brother-in-law don't spend a lot of time watching memes online. So once again, dear reader, let me know what your take on it is. Had you heard this song before?
Recently, I've decided that one of my goals, as I build up my archive of materials, is to have no undefined terminology in my teaching materials. (Some terms which I have been using, and which I think are obvious, might not be to new teachers.)
In a few - recent - posts, I've mentioned "concept check" or "concept checking questions" without defining what that is. So here we go:
In a traditional grammar or vocabulary lesson, there are two essential parts for teaching the meaning of a new grammar or vocabulary item. First, the meaning is conveyed. Second, the meaning is checked. The meaning is checked with what are called "concept checking questions" (often abbreviated as "CCQs".)
So, first the meaning is conveyed. This is usually done through some sort of context (a situation, a picture, a short story, etc.)
Take, for example, a recent lesson on the Future Perfect that I did. First, I found a video online that had a dialogue that made use of the Future Perfect. (If you can't find anything online, you can always make up your own story. But if you can find something usable online, so much the better.)
(Actually in this case, the video is a bit overkill. You don't need 7 minutes of the target language being used. Just a couple examples is plenty to convey meaning.)
The situation is first processed for meaning and general understanding. So, after establishing what the situation is (high school students imagining what they will have accomplished by their 10 year reunion), I then have my students predict what the accomplishments will be, and then listen to the video (first 2 minutes only) and check their predictions. And then, you could play the video (first 2 minutes only) a second time, and give the students some general comprehension questions (e.g. "What job will he have in the future?").
Then, once the students have understood the situation and the dialogue, you want them to notice the target grammar. I often do this with a gap-fill listen-and-check.
Now at this point, the students should probably have a pretty good idea of what the meaning of the target grammar is just by working it out from the context. (i.e. the meaning of the grammar has already been conveyed by the context.) But just to drive the point home, you want to use concept checking questions to make sure that they've got it.
So, you take one sentence from your context. (Just 1 is usually sufficient.) And put it up on the board or projector.
So, say we focus on this sentence:
By the time I finish college I will have mastered all of the skills I need to succeed as a pro-player.
Possible concept checking questions could be:
* Has he finished college now? (no)
* Has he mastered all of the skills now? (no)
* When will he master all of the skills, now or in the future? (future)
* When will he finish college? (in the future)
* Which is first? Will he finish college first, or master all of the skills first? (master all of the skills)
The teacher asks the questions, and the class supplies the answers. Hopefully at this point in the lesson, everyone has a good idea of the meaning, so they can supply the answers easily, and these concept checking questions just act as a final confirmation to show everyone that they understood.
But, sometimes, the concept checking questions might reveal that the class is still confused about the situation. (It happens sometimes.) In which case, then the teacher has used this check to determine that the class does not understand, and the situation will need to be reclarified or explained.
(In cases like this, in which the meaning of the grammar item is dependent on a sequence of time, concept checking questions are often used in conjunction with a timeline. The teacher can write the timeline, and as they write the timeline ask concept checking questions. e.g. "Does he finish college now or in the future?" Class answer "future", teacher then makes a mark on the timeline in the future section to indicate a point in future time where college is finished.)
It's considered good practice to not use the target grammar itself in the concept checking questions. So I wouldn't want to say, "Will he have mastered all of the skills?", because the target grammar is the future perfect, so I don't want to use the future in the question. (Although in my personal opinion, this is only a rule of thumb. Every so often, I find it useful to use a concept checking question which includes the target language--depending on the target grammar or vocabulary.)
As you can (hopefully) see, the general idea of concept checking questions is pretty simple. First you convey the meaning of the grammar/vocabulary, and then you ask a couple questions to check that the students got it.
The next fade I'd like to complain about is the trend of teaching critical thinking skills in English Language teaching courses.
If you're in the industry, you'll know all too well what I'm talking about. Teaching "critical thinking skills" has been integrated into every textbook and every curriculum.
If you're outside of the ELT industry, it may surprise you to know just how many English language teachers also consider themselves experts in critical thinking skills (*) (**)
I'm not sure how this plays out in other parts of the world, but in Asia (where I've been teaching for the last 20 years), teaching critical thinking has developed into an evangelical mission. As in: "these Asians don't know how to think critically. That's why we, the white people, have to come in and teach them how to think critically." And so every Western English teacher believes that they are on a mission to teach the Asians how to think critically.
There's a widespread belief that Westerners know how to think critically, and Asians don't, and therefore when we have young Asians in our classrooms, we have to make sure we teach them critical thinking.
I believe this view is flawed for several reasons.
1). Western teachers mistake lack of civic engagement for lack of critical thinking
It is true that if you ask a typical Asian teenager what they think about current political issues, they'll just shrug their shoulders (***) and say that they don't know. And a lot of Westerners mistake this for a lack of critical thinking ability. But it's actually just a lack of political engagement.
If you introduce an issue that is personally relevant to the students, they will have strong opinions on it, and they will be able to defend their opinions using all the same critical thinking and persuasive skills that their Western counterparts use.
If you're currently teaching in Asia, then go ahead and try this out as an experiment. Introduce some sort of new rule in your class that is disadvantageous to your students. Tell them that they are going to have more homework. Or that the lateness policy is going to get stricter. Or that they can't bring snacks into class anymore. Or that they can't use their phones in class anymore. Or whatever it is. Introduce some sort of rule that your students don't like. And then, try to defend that rule against the objections of your students. Watch as they careful analyze, and then dismantle all of your justifications for that rule. Watch as they produce counter-argument and appeals to logic in order to defend their positions.
They can actually think critically just fine when their interests are at stake.
2). Western teachers mistake diversity of opinion for evidence of critical thinking
The range of political opinions is often greater in Western culture than it is in Asian culture. And so Westerners often believe that this is evidence that Asians don't know how to think critically.
But, in fact, the wide range of political opinions in Western countries is not always evidence of critical thinking. Within any one of these ideological groupings is quite often a remarkable conformity of thought to their specific political tribe.
Westerners think that they know how to think critically, but they are just as susceptible to logical fallacies as everyone else. Within their political tribe, they are susceptible to cognitive biases that favors information that supports their preconceived opinions. They are also just as likely to fall into group think, or defaulting to their perceived experts within their tribe.
People who actually know about analytical thinking, logical fallacies, and how to critically evaluate sources are very rare. They're just as rare in the West as they are in Asia.
So, my prediction... actually it's more of a hope than a prediction, but my hope is that in 20 years' time, the English Language Teaching field will abandon its infatuation with teaching "critical thinking skills" and we'll all look back on this period of ELT history with a little bit of embarrassment.
And in future Delta courses, it will pop up briefly in "The History of Methodologies" section. Something like "...in the early 21st century, it was widely believed that in addition to teaching grammar and vocabulary, language teachers were also responsible for teaching their students critical thinking skills. Now, most English language teachers didn't have any specialization or training in critical thinking skills themselves, but they believed that the basic 4-week training they received on a CELTA course qualified them to teach critical thinking skills in whatever country they travelled to. It was widely believed at the time that the local people of these countries were not able to think critically themselves, and needed the intervention of Western English teachers...."
Or something like that!
3). Western English teachers quite often don't realize their own lack of critical thinking skills.
Oh, the stories I could tell you about the English teachers that I've known over the years. Perhaps the very nature of the field makes it more likely to attract eccentrics and kooks. I don't know.
Now, I should stress that all of my current co-workers and managers are very reasonable people. I'm talking about people I worked with in the past, and not my current employment.
But in the past, I once worked with a New Zealand woman in Cambodia who believed that global warming was a hoax. She was also responsible for teaching critical thinking to the Cambodian students, because it was part of the school curriculum.
One American guy I worked with in Cambodia dedicated a whole English class to teaching his Cambodian students about how September 11 was orchestrated by the American government. He was also responsible for teaching critical thinking.
I've worked with several teachers over the years who have believed conspiracy theories about common vaccines. They were also responsible for teaching their students how to critically evaluate which news sources were credible.
In all of these cases, people with terrible critical thinking skills themselves believed that they were qualified to teach critical thinking to the Asians.
Now, part of this might be the Dunning-Kruger effect (W). But I also believe that part of this is neo-colonialism. They believed that they were qualified to teach critical thinking, because we Westerners know how to think, and these Asians don't.
Addendum:
I don't have a problem with teaching critical thinking skills per se. What I object to is the widespread view in the industry that English teachers are qualified to teach critical thinking just by virtue of being foreigners.
Actually part of the problem isn't even the neo-colonialist mindset. The problem is that everyone thinks they themselves are critical thinkers and its the other people who are the problem. But people are unaware about how much their own hidden biases are actually controlling them.
If you want to teach critical thinking, fine. But get some proper qualifications first. Don't assume that you can think critically just because you're an English teacher.
For years now, I've also been annoyed by the use of "Critical Thinking" as a buzzword in ELT. For precisely the reasons the TEFLologists mention. Not only in Japan, but also in Cambodia and Vietnam, the buzzword is often used in ELT to imply that Asians have no critical thinking skills, and need to be taught critical thinking by their Western English teacher.
(**) And okay, yes, yes, I know what you're thinking: You're thinking I'm a hypocrite because I have designed my own materials for teaching Critical Thinking lessons in the past (here, here, here, and here). But that was because the critical thinking lessons were already in the textbook, and I was designing lessons to supplement the textbook. I wouldn't have introduced critical thinking lessons on my own initiative.
(***) Okay, technically they won't actually shrug their shoulders. That's a Western gesture. But you get what I mean.
