More adventures with the Chechen
M usually takes the initiative in our class from the moment I walk in the door. Most days he's burning to grill me on some point of language -- God, I love this kid -- and such days always begin with, "Eric, may I say you question?"
My favorite was this one: "Eric, what does it mean, 'Fire in... the hole'?"
My first thought, for the fleetest of seconds, was that 15-year-old M was somehow a veteran of some monstrous streetfight in Grozny before he escaped, hurling Molotov cocktails at Russian tanks before diving into a sewer pipe, or something.
The truth, of course, is that M loves video games -- lives for them, really. His desire to explain to me the fine points of WarHammer 40,000 and Half-Life 2: Counter-strike form the basis of our study of English, in fact, and I'm not sure how I would fill ten hours a week without such halting (but fascinating) conversation.
(Once we were reading a book and a character appeared named Roger. "Eric, may I say you question? What does it mean, 'Roger that?' What does it mean, 'affirmative?'" The old cliche is that a generation of kids learned English watching John Wayne movies. I think we may have stumbled on the new cliche.)
So, evidently the digital soldiers of Half-Life 2: Counter-strike yell "Fire in the hole!" before launching their proton grenades and laser boomerangs and so forth. Now, let's be honest: I'm a nerd about both video games and the history of language. So I spent ten minutes explaining (with illustrations, of course) the origin of "Fire in the hole" -- my understanding is that it was a term miners used to warn each other, before evolving into a generalized warning of impending explosion. M seemed to agree that his video game pals usually used the phrase just prior to something blowing up. Learning the shop talk seemed really to thrill him.
The funny part was his original interpretation of "Fire in the hole." In the Chechen language, the words "fire in the hole" apparently sound like "garlic on your belt." When the little soldiers shouted that at each other, M thought the garlic might be some strange American weapon, like it was in the "Blade" vampire movies.*
* And don't tell me it's farfetched. You know Batman had shit like that on his belt.
My favorite was this one: "Eric, what does it mean, 'Fire in... the hole'?"
My first thought, for the fleetest of seconds, was that 15-year-old M was somehow a veteran of some monstrous streetfight in Grozny before he escaped, hurling Molotov cocktails at Russian tanks before diving into a sewer pipe, or something.
The truth, of course, is that M loves video games -- lives for them, really. His desire to explain to me the fine points of WarHammer 40,000 and Half-Life 2: Counter-strike form the basis of our study of English, in fact, and I'm not sure how I would fill ten hours a week without such halting (but fascinating) conversation.
(Once we were reading a book and a character appeared named Roger. "Eric, may I say you question? What does it mean, 'Roger that?' What does it mean, 'affirmative?'" The old cliche is that a generation of kids learned English watching John Wayne movies. I think we may have stumbled on the new cliche.)
So, evidently the digital soldiers of Half-Life 2: Counter-strike yell "Fire in the hole!" before launching their proton grenades and laser boomerangs and so forth. Now, let's be honest: I'm a nerd about both video games and the history of language. So I spent ten minutes explaining (with illustrations, of course) the origin of "Fire in the hole" -- my understanding is that it was a term miners used to warn each other, before evolving into a generalized warning of impending explosion. M seemed to agree that his video game pals usually used the phrase just prior to something blowing up. Learning the shop talk seemed really to thrill him.
The funny part was his original interpretation of "Fire in the hole." In the Chechen language, the words "fire in the hole" apparently sound like "garlic on your belt." When the little soldiers shouted that at each other, M thought the garlic might be some strange American weapon, like it was in the "Blade" vampire movies.*
* And don't tell me it's farfetched. You know Batman had shit like that on his belt.
posted by Eric at 6:04 AM
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