Hijos del Weenie

Last week I played a review game in all of my level 1 classes, to prepare them for the exams this week. I tell the students to break up into 2 or 3 teams, and to come up with a team name. Usually, I give them some sort of format, like Adjective+Animal, The Happy Pandas, The Crazy Monkeys, etc. But lately I've been letting them use whatever they want, with the help of a dictionary, which results in names that are far more interesting.

So in my 9am class (my favorite class, but don't tell the other classes I said that!) they break into 2 teams, and immediately Jehojarib Jareth (yes, that's his real name) exclaims that their team name is "Los Hijos del Weenie" ("Children of the Weenie" or "The Weenie's Children"). I asked him to repeat it, just to be sure, and then I wrote it on the board. The other team looked confused, but then their spokesperson (Jairo) proclaimed that their name would be "Los Padres del Weenie" ("The Parents of the Weenie" or "The Weenie's Parents"). I just started to laugh.

Jehojarib Jareth then complained that the other team didn't even know what "Weenie" is, so they shouldn't use it in their team name. So the other team asks him what it means, and he said he's heard his sister saying it before, but he confessed that he doesn't know. "Teacher, what does it mean?"

So I was faced with the task of explaining the many meanings of the word "weenie." In the end, I only gave them 2 of the meanings, I told them it was another word for a hot dog, which they thought was hilarious, and I told them that children also use that word to insult other kids, as in "you're such a weenie" or "don't be a weenie." I decided not to tell this group of 18 year olds, mostly overly-testosteroned boys, that it's also used as a term for male genitalia. :)