私の必携アイテム　その2

2009年08月07日

「Georgie」

Hello, my name is Ted Quock. What do you carry with you every day? Some people carry lucky charms. Other people carry things with sentimental value, like jewelry given by their mother or a souvenir from a trip abroad. As for me, I carry a duck.

This is no ordinary duck. His name is Georgie, and he comes from Davis, California, where Keisen University’s Department of English Communication has a one-month homestay program every spring. I met Georgie in the bookstore of the campus bookstore at the University of California at Davis, where our students take English classes. We became friends immediately, and he has lived with me ever since.

Since Georgie is used to living with human beings, he has a very human life style and human tastes. He likes sushi and pizza, but most of all he likes M&Ms. He likes singing and dancing, and of course he likes girls. As a matter of fact, Georgie is quite a playboy. He has many girlfriends, especially among my students at Keisen. You see, Georgie is always with me when I teach my lessons. Some students say that he is our mascot, but if you ask Georgie he will tell you that he is a university teacher. What does he teach? Ducklish, of course!

You might wonder why I don’t keep another kind of animal. I’m Chinese-American. My Chinese name is 郭達民. My family name “Quock” comes from the Cantonese pronunciation of 郭, but it can be spelled in other ways like “Kwok” and “Kwouk.”

When I was in elementary school, I went to a school for Chinese-Americans, and my classmates had family names like Wong, Lee, and Fong. Quock is not as common as those names, but it is not unusual. High school was the first time I was the only Chinese in my class, and most of the other students had never heard of such a name before. Like other schools, the teachers called roll to check our attendance. But whenever the teacher said, “Mr. Quock,” the other students immediately called out “Quack-quack!” At first I didn’t understand, but I gradually realized what they meant.

Can you draw lines to match the following animals with the sounds they make?

CAT 　　← 　　　　　→　Arf-arf!

COW　　←　　　　　→　Baa-baa!

DOG　　←　　　　　→　Meow-meow!

DUCK　←　　　　　→　Moo-moo!
    
PIG　　　←　　　　　→　Oink-oink!

SHEEP　←　　　　　→　Quack-quack!

Yes, “Quack-quack” is the sound of a duck! My family name is “Quock,” not “Quack,” but for young American students who don’t know Chinese language or culture at all, it sounds almost the same. I was a little angry when I first understood what they were doing, but since they were my friends I decided to use it by adopting a duck as my sign.

Georgie is not lonely—in my home, I have hundreds of other ducks from places like China, Canada, France, Australia, and Germany, but Georgie is the most important one. Please come to Keisen and meet him sometime!

英語コミュニケーション学科　教授　Theodore　Quock
担当科目：コミュニケーション実践他

• 
•