10-15-13 Heekyu's Name, Watching Soccer, and Skit Practice

10 AM: 2-7, 2-8 A went okay. They didn't pay much attention, but I connected with several of them.

In there: Peter-Pan-Taehoon, Grumpmaster-Jiwoong, Diamond-in-the-Rough-Seonghyun (afterschool boys), Sparkly-Daehoon and Kind-Jihyuk, Helpful-Ikgwang, Sharp-Sujin (helped with his paper)

In there, the boys mostly decide to use Korean instead of English, so I think that except for a few geniuses like Daehoonie, Jihyuk, and Helpful-Ikgwang and Diamond-Seonghyun, they don't process a lot of the language. Thank goodness I knew a few new words or we wouldn't have gotten very far because KBR-Teacher was dealing with some kind of crisis and couldn't be in the room with me.

I was only mildly frustrated with not having the attention of the back of the room, this time. Some classes, I'm just not going to get it, so I'm trying to enjoy the discussion that comes with the kids in the front. And eventually the other kids joined in a bit. Jiwoong shouted out some answers during Scattergories, and Taehoon did his worksheet with me and also came up at the end to tell me his favorite color and thus get candy. It was all good.

KBR-Teacher talked to me afterward and I told her not to worry about not being there--the class and I were okay, and whatever she was dealing with was important. She has her hands way more full than mine. She also asked why I didn't text her on Sunday, and I felt so apologetic because I was supposed to message her so we could meet up, but I got back late from church and had my mind full of naps and lesson plans. KBR-Teacher and I said that we want to do a Bible study together, or maybe she can come to church with me sometime. We'll hang together somehow. :-)

Piano-Jaehyung wandered into the English Center because he saw me packing up my bag after class. He asked why I was there and I told him I'd been teaching. I gave him candy and asked if he knew my name. He said, "Park Geun Hye!" Again, the current president of Korea. I told him I was Leigh-Sem and he repeated it. I'm happy that we're to the point where he feels like he can talk to me whenever he sees me.
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10:50 AM Went to the special needs classroom and played UNO with Piano-Jaehyung and Little-Byeongsu. Jaehyung's a natural and Byeongsu picked it up quickly. I learned the Korean words for "green" and "yellow" since the game was conducted mostly in Korean.

O-Teacher thought the whole thing was awesome and hilarious, especially when Jaehyung shouted "Uno!" at the exact same time I did, when I was down to one card. Rules are, if someone says uno before you do, you draw two cards. Jaehyung and I had a bit of a staredown, then I decided to pick up the two cards and just let him win. It was a lovely moment when I realized that Jaehyung was not just deciding which of his own cards to play--he was monitoring my cards the whole time, too! That means he's got two lines of thought going at once, plus he kept turning aside to explain the game to Byeongsu. Jaehyung's pretty sharp.

Inha and his friend Spritely-Youngchang came into our final game, only to be ousted 5 minutes later when O-Teacher ran in to say that they were supposed to be in class. I had assumed they'd stop playing and go to class on their own when it was time--ha ha, silly me.

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1 PM: 1-5, 1-6 B was lurrrrrrvely. It was so lovely, I thought someone else was teaching.

The kids were so VERY invested in the games and the lesson, their creativity and participation looked like the picture they paint for you of what teaching a foreign language would be like. They were inventing sentences for "You should..." advice sessions. They were cutthroat in thinking of countries that started with C. One kid went to the supply closet and found his geography book to cheat off of, but I made him put it back.

And in this class is Frontrow-Heekyu, who I greeted by name as soon as I walked in. He looked moonstruck, then he said, "My name...you...remember my name? Me?" I said yes, I did. He smiled and said, "Thank you." Many boys seem happy that I remember their names. Some boys preen a bit and show off the fact to their friends. Some are indifferent--what does it matter if I know who they are? But this is the first time I've had a boy seem so deeply affected by it--enough to thank me for remembering him. Heekyu's clever and sweet and deserves all the love and attention he can get.

Acapella-Hyunho had a great class and said a bunch of clear sentences. He's my baby, so I have to make myself skip over him to call on other students sometimes.

At lunch, I sat with JY-Teacher and as we were finishing, Need-You-Junho and We-Go-Date-Danhee walked up to a nearby table and started professing their love again. I just smiled and said, "Thank you, thank you..." On the walk back to our offices, JY-Teacher said, "The student who said he loves you, he is the strongest in all the second grade. The teachers say he's a leader."

I wouldn't have thought it of Need-You-Junho. He's very tall, but it looks like he's all bone, so I'd think the strongest 2nd-grader would be Shottputter Jinseong. But now that I think about it, Need-You-Junho hangs out with Shotputter Jinseong and with several of the kids who seem to have power, so it does kind of make sense. I asked JY-Teacher, "Is he like...a jjang?" -"Yes! Like that." The jjang of the whole 2nd-grade is in love with me. Yippee-ki-yay.
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2:40 PM 2-5, 2-6 B went well. Tons of yelling and lots of happy faces. We had a good time. JY-Teacher was in there with me and she announced in Korean that, "There will be no more love confessions to Leigh-Seonsangnim. Don't say "I love you, I need you, I want to marry you, be my girlfriend," or anything like that." I about died laughing, because I understood every word.

And it had precisely no effect. On S-Line-Dongjin's paper, he wrote "If I were rich, I would buy pretty girl like teacher," and outside in the hallway, when he and Snappy-Seongsu told me their favorite heroes and I gave them candy, Seongsu said, "Love you so much, my girlfriend." Saying weird things to me remains one of the funnest parts of their day. But I'm happy with it, because we're talking in mostly-English and the boys are being friendly more than anything. Now, they're seeing me as a person to talk to AND a source of candy, so I've broadened my identity.

After class, Simyong walked up, and he's one of my favorites, though I never teach him because he's in 2nd-grade C-class. I walked him through what he could say to get candy, word-by-word, and he looked like a cat in the sunshine because I called him by name and coached him on his English.

In the hallway, while I was dispensing candy to Seongsu, Danhee, and Dongjin, Shotputter-Jinseong came by and I gave him candy for telling me his hero. He was thrilled, and I was glad for the chance to interact with him.

I handed my laptop to Seongwon to carry, and he pretended to hold it hostage in exchange for candy. He and I walked down the hall together to go play another quick game of UNO with Jaehyung, between class periods.
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5:50 PM  For the first time, I allowed a real, regular schooltime class to just do nothing.

3-3, 3-4 B had no Mr. B to help me--he had a prior commitment, and I walked in to find 20 teenage boys sitting on desks and standing on windowsills, looking out the open windows at the exciting soccer match being played out on the field below. It's a cold, windy overcast day and the boys are still a teensy bit fried from exams, so I knew there was no earthly way I could get them interested in English.

So I didn't. I watched the soccer match with them and asked questions in mostly-Korean about which team was best and whether we ever played other schools. We don't. Interschool sports are not big in Korea--we pretty much play against ourselves.

I saw one small, quiet 3rd-grader not looking out the windows, but sitting by himself with nothing to do, so I played my word game with him. His name is Minhyuk. It took a look of patience because Minhyuk is shy and he doesn't have a lot of English, but he really enjoyed the word game, especially when I started writing Korean words that he had to translate to English.

Then I moved to play the word game with a smart boy named Jaebom who helped me set up my computer and who was reading "The Life of Pi" in Korean, and well as a book called "The Map of the Mind". I told him he was smart and he said no, he was having a hard time reading the books. He's a sweetie, and I'll remember him now.

For that class, I was just glad that nobody tried to escape. They were happy as clams, crowded around those cold windows, and I connected with two quiet boys I never would have noticed (or had the patience to wait for) during regular classtime, so all's good.

For afterschool, me and my crowd played UNO again while everyone else had their phones. I really want to find a way to open up the game to more people...I guess that's a task to address later, another riddle to solve. But today I did bring in easily-overlooked Jinseop, who had the time of his life playing the game. Byeonghyun and Seongmo and Seonwoo and Seonghak and Seongyeol had fun, too. We laughed and bonded further, which is always awesome.

And I learned the the number-counter-word for cards is "jang" not "gae" like I'd been saying. In Korean, all numbers have special counters. In English, we have counters for some things (mostly animals)--a flock of sheep, a gaggle of geese, a bunch of grapes. In Korean, there is a counter-word for everything and you always use it. For people, it's "myeong". I couldn't say "se saram" for "3 people"--I'd have to say "se myeong". It's complicated. The counter for bottles is "byeong" and the counter for random stuff in general is "gae".

And now I'm sitting in a nearly empty, nearly dark school waiting until Insung, Daehoon, Geon, and HH are ready to show me their skits for performance tomorrow. I thought I'd be helping them all last week, but instead they preferred to practice alone--aiming for perfection, if I know them. I understand the feeling.
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5:57 PM Doggone it, no I don't understand! I just got a note from KBR-Teacher that the boys want to start at 6:15 instead of 6. Good grief, boys. I'm cold. It's dark. I've been told that pizza is coming, but I"m hungry nowwwww. What part of your skit are you going to perfect in that extra 15 minutes?

I hope the rain stops. Saturday-Jeongmin came by my office a half hour ago and said he was feeling bad because he had forgot his umbrella. I gave him mine, telling him that I had a spare, which is true on most days but isn't true today. I had to work for a while to convince him to take it. Saturday-Jeongmin's a gentleman, and he couldn't stand the thought of leaving me in distress.

He asked to see my spare umbrella, to prove I was going to be okay, but I told him not to worry. I put a candy in his hand and a purple umbrella in his other hand and sent him off. I told him that he was my student and I was going to take care of him. And what else could I do? Jeongmin's my kid--I couldn't let him go without while I'm fine and dry, not any more than I could let my baby brother go out unprotected.
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