Koala Cooties

I mentioned before that I teach English to four Taiwanese 10 year olds on Saturday mornings. During the Chinese summer holidays I am teaching them for 5 weeks, every morning, Monday - Friday.

In order not to have either them or me climbing up the walls, I have been searching for fact sheets about Australian animals today. They simply cannot get enough of Australian animal facts, and I can't get enough of something that we can make at least a week-long project out of.

While trawling the internet I came along a site called kid cyber, which has great fact sheets about many native Aussie animals, presented in child-appropriate language.

But then I found this paragraph. I know it's a serious problem, but I literally snorted pepsi out of my nose when I read the last sentence:

Koalas in danger!
People have destroyed koalas' habitat by cutting down eucalyptus forests. Koalas also die in bushfires and many koalas are hit by cars on country roads.
Now a disease called chlamydia, say clu-mid-ee-u, which makes koalas blind and makes the females unable to have babies is harming these animals.
-Kid Cyber: Koalas

I can just picture myself teaching that to the children: "Now everyone! Say Clu-mid-ee-u!!"


"Duuude, she totally looked clean..."