Last week, Ken Jeong made his debut in the second episode of the new NBCs show Community, a comedy which follows the lives of community college students of diverse backgrounds. In the show, Ken portrays the self-described Spanish teacher, Señor Chang. In his first class, Señor Chang gives a nice little speech about him being a Spanish teacher: “Every once in a while, a student will come up to me and ask ‘Why do you teach Spanish?’ ” This reminded me of when I first started work and someone asked me – “Where are you from?” – and when I reply I’m from Massachusetts, he asked me “No, where are you really from?”
Why can’t Ken Jeong be a Spanish teacher? Of course he can be and that is what I love about his speech… Señor Chang then goes a little crazy and I worry he’s going to be a Vince Vaughn like character, but then acts normally – which I hope Ken remains, since in a lot of his movie roles, who often goes overboard, which can get tiring quickly.
