It's a damp, foggy day and I'm trying to keep my spirits up because I have boys to encourage. So what if there are some stubborn ones in the bunch? Is that going to stop me from reaching the people I can? No. :-)
Here's a cute thing--the boys keep arguing with me when they lose "10 Questions". The game is simple: I say I'm thinking of an animal, then they have to guess what it is. Sometimes, especially with the lower levels, they'll just say, "Is it a tiger, is it an elephant?" But others can narrow it down pretty far by asking, "Does it live in water? Does it eat meat?"
Several times now, a class has not been able to guess the animal, and they always protest. One of their clues for elephant was "does not have fur," but the boys shouted, "elephants have fur!" I think that's only loosely true--they have hair of some sort, but not like a mammoth. Then on Friday BY, the fluent boy who lived in America, objected to losing on "monkey" because I said it had 4 legs, and that was deceptive and threw them off. Well, technically, monkeys have four limbs, but I thought the distinction would be lost. And it would be, with any kid but Byeongyoon.
BY's another favorite, and not to be confused with Byeonghyun. They're both in 2nd grade (14 years), and both in A-level, but they're totally different. BY listens to everything I say, even from across the room, then calls me on it. If I say I like a certain band, I better be prepared to name my favorite member. If I overlook him during a game because he knows the answer and doesn't need to practice his English, I can expect him to protest the ill treatment. And he does it all with a smile--it's impossible not to like fussy people who smile!
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1 PM: First class went well! It was 1-5,1-6B, which has Munsu-Octopus, Hyunshik-Pig, and Jinho-Puppy in it--their choice of nicknames, not mine. It was hard to get them all to pay attention, but we had several bright moments. I changed the "Baby Sloth" video I had shown yesterday's 1st-graders to the "Assassin's Creed Parkour" video I showed to the 2nd and 3rd-graders. Needless to say, they were into it.
I also met some new kids. Hyunho, a spritely, sunny child who wants to volunteer for everything and who likes acapella music. Yongmun, a quiet boy who is very smart when you speak to him slowly. Heekyu, a clever loner who came up to me after class with a written question, related to a song we had heard--"What means "I knew you were trouble"?" All 3 names are written on my hand, so I keep them in my mind. I know I'll recall Hyunho, because he's also the kid who held my glove last week and said that he liked baseball. Hyunho also sang along to the "I Knew You Were Trouble" acapella video we watched--he likes Taylor Swift, and he was getting most of his English right. Darling, darling, darling.
My Hand Today (9-10-13): Hyunho, Yongmun, and Heekyu.
Saw HH before lunch--he was trying to give me a high five, but I accidentally left him hanging because I thought he was just waving.
Teacher's-Pet-Jeongmin came by the office to say hello. This Jeongmin also called out "Teacherrr!" on my walk home yesterday, when I was really close to my apartment. I shouted back, "Jeongmin, are you following me? Are you a stalker?" He smiled and nodded a hearty affirmative.
My lunch co-ordinator is really sweet to me. She's always bringing over extra bowls of meat or bottles of apple juice, telling me to eat more. I'm trying to learn more Korean phrases to say to her. Today after I ate, I managed to say "Da mogeosseoyo." Or "I ate it all!" I think nothing makes her happier than my using Korean and my eating All The Things.
O-Teacher and I have contacted each other on the internet--we're officially real friends, not just buddies-at-work friends! I would totally make outside-of-work friends with A-Teacher and JY-Teacher, too, but they're married with children, which cuts down on hangout time.
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2:30 PM -- Class went well for 2-5, 2-6A! Sad to say, I don't recall any of the boys in this class, but I know 5 of them by face. They are very happy and lovable. The internet cut out halfway through class, so I couldn't show them the extra movies I picked, and we had to play 4 rounds of "10 Questions," but everybody survived. Next time, I'll get names because this bunch are solidly amazing.
My vice-principal is teaching me Korean, and he's GREAT at it. I learned how to say "I have 4 classes today" and "I ate 3 meals yesterday". He explains it piece by piece, and I'm really enjoying the quizzes.
Now I must prepare for one last class of 3rd-graders, plus afterschool. And I think I'm staying after afterschool to judge a speaking competition.
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10 PM: Good day! Good day! Thank you God for your blessings! Sanghwa was good today in afterschool. What's more, I think I really managed to show him that I don't dislike him. For the time I was teaching class, I knew it to be true, too--I looked at Sanghwa and thought of him as one of my favorites, tried to treat him like he was prized. He still won't speak to me in English and uses another boy as an interpreter, but when class was over, I called him over to give him an extra chocolate piece because, as I told him, "you had a good day." I don't want the candy to be a bribe, but I want him to know that I see when he's doing right and I appreciate him.
My Taehoon, as always, wouldn't write a doggone thing until I sat by him and asked him to write. This kid does not know the meaning of the phrase "self-directed learning". I did finally outright tell him that he reminds me of my brother. I think he understood.
Our afterschool class topic, since I had exhausted zombies, was a debate: Is Psy (famous Korean pop singer), good or bad for Korea's reputation? To start with, the topic was failing. Fail, fail, fail. The boys all love Psy, so the negative side didn't want to argue against him. They didn't want to split into two groups. They didn't want to move to opposite sides of the room. It was like pulling teeth to get them going. Then at some point, after I went over to sit by Sanghwa and Taehoon, we started debating. Like a for real, knock-down drag-out debate. "Psy is bad because he cursing!" "Psy is good because unique personality!" "Psy is bad because he is a fat pig!" "Psy is fat, but he is also very cute!" The things these guys come up with.
Anyhoo, it was a rousing success and a good time was had by 75% of us, so yay. I gave a chocolate piece to every boy who contribute to the debate, which was most of them. They were pretty smiley when they left.
But my day wasn't done, because I still had a 2-hour English speech competition to help judge. It was long and tiring, but more than worth the effort spent because me and JY-Teacher and KBR-Teacher got in some great bonding time. We talked about so much--the kids we love, the kids that drive us crazy, the way we want to deal with bullying, the popularity of K-pop, the goodness of chocolate, the best way to learn Korean, the closest local churches--It. Was. Perfect.
The English speeches were actually skits, done by 8 teams of four kids. Saturday-Jeongmin was in the first team, and I just melted at his cuteness. BY, the kid who lived in America, basically ran his whole show and occasionally let the other 3 kids in his skit talk. :-) KBR-Teacher told me that a couple weeks ago, the entire school took an intellect test and Byeongyoon scored the highest. Not an English test, an intelligence test. Highest score. In a school of 1,000. I am dealing with a sassy genius.
Byeonghyun was in one skit, which was a very funny self-writen skit, but could have used rehearsal. Then HH and Daehoon came in and their group just sort of ruled the show. It was clear that the final team sailed away with the prize.
Main Co-Teacher drove me home since it was dark, so I met one of my buddies for dinner at Lotteria, the closest thing my town gets to McDonald's.
Closest, But Still Not Close. This is A Bulgogi Burger.
Then we got some ice cream at a Baskin Robbins.
Loving the Teeny-Tiny Cute Spoons.
I'm off to sleep, now. It was a lovely day
