Judy; Cartoons by a Doting Student
These are cartoons by Judy, a cute little girl—maybe 6
years old...7?—who's enrolled at Joy, and who I get to teach in
a comparatively small class every two weeks or so.
Sorry; no picture of Judy! Maybe later.
Anyway, I think Judy had a little "crushy" thing on me, early in the
game. She started drawing pictures of me and leaving them on my desk
when I wasn't looking. I'll show you a few....
Judy's little puppy crush on me has pretty much abated; I no longer
get these cartoons. We do get on fabulously in class, though!
Some notes:
- You'll notice this () in some
of the pictures. That's actually writing in a phonetic symbol system
the Chinese use, called ju in fu hao ("jew-een-foo-how");
anglos affectionately call it bupumufu, after the first four
sounds in the phonetic character set; 'bpmf...'. It's used
extensively in teaching Chinese to kids in the lower grades, and I've
had to learn it in my studies. This system is popular for Chinese
"entry methods," such as typing on a standard keyboard, and typing in
text messages on cell phones.
Anyway, Judy is writing "ha!"; the
sound of laughing! Also note the downward slash; that's a falling
pitch shift, which is actually typical of laughter. These people are
laughing at me! Judy knows my weak spot...
- The references to "pig" all over the place relate to the fact that
calling someone a "pig" seems to be a friendly taunt kids use all the
time here; sort of like the innocuous American "you dog!" Funny how
that's backward: Calling someone a "dog" in much of the rest of the
world is pretty serious effrontery.
- Although Judy draws me wearing a tie, in fact I never wear ties in
class; in fact, I don't own a tie. It's no doubt an iconic
shorthand, arising from the fact that Western-style ties are generally
considered appropriate for male teachers at the "real" schools in
Taiwan.
WRT that last comment about the tie, it highlights the fact that Judy,
although she is very young, actually has good artistic sensibility;
her sense of line is quite mature, and she has a good understanding of
the importance of icon in graphic communication. Notice the crowd of
people in the background in the 3rd picture. Using the outline like
this is very effective; she no doubt saw this trick in a cartoon
elsewhere, but has the sophistication to objectify it and
appropriate it for her own work. Impressive for a very little
girl!