9 AM: Second day of exams. I didn't teach yesterday and I won't teach today because all the kids are being put through the wringer of academic evaluation. Poor guys.
Yesterday, I took my desk-warming time and fixed up a really good powerpoint that I think the 3rd-graders will enjoy. I'm getting a sense for how to alter other people's materials--I get some worksheets and powerpoints from the internet, then I delete, add, cut and paste until it looks like something my kids might respond to.
I barely saw any kids yesterday, but when exams finished I was returning to my office when a voice called out, "Teacher Leigh, Teacher Leigh!" from down the hall. Even before he ran up to me, I knew it was Saturday Jeongmin, the 1st-grader. Most of the boys call me Sem or Leigh-Teacher, but the only kid who inverts the order is Saturday Jeongmin.
He came up to discuss his exams with me in full, clear sentences. I ran back to my office to get him a piece of candy and he told me he liked it, in five different grammar forms. Jeongmin is so good at English for his age, and so excited to practice it, he often says every possible variation on the point he's trying to get across. I do the same in Korean, if I know how to say something two ways--I just say both for the practice and for the chance that I've doubled my shot at being understood.
This morning, I went to the special needs room to chat with O-Teacher. My smiling piano buddy Jaehyung is back from the hospital. Joonseong, the one who can get violent, was in a good mood. And I started talking to the big kid, Chanyeong.
Yesterday, I was leaving school at 1 PM because exams were over and the kids were leaving. Chanyeong was standing by the gate and as I left he asked me, "Eodigayo?" And it wasn't just a casual question; he wondered why I was leaving school at the wrong time. I said "Jib-e" meaning "I'm going home." He said, "Waeyo?" or "why?" But waeyo can also mean "what?" so I thought he was asking me to repeat the information and I didn't explain why I was leaving.
Today, I told O-Teacher that Chanyeong had asked me where I was going yesterday, and Chanyeong heard me talking about him; he hid his face behind a book. I asked O-Teacher what Chanyeong's hobbies are, and she said he likes to draw. He also likes memorizing the make and model of cars, then drawing the car.
I sat by him and commented on his drawings. He does layered drawings with several cars and buses drawn on the page in ink, then more cars and buses drawn in crayon, on top of and overlapping the ink cars. It's really kind of cool, in an artistic sense. Chanyeong kept hiding his face when I'd talk about his art, but he was smiling the whole time and I patted his head to let him know he was appreciated.
O-Teacher says he also memorizes the people who go with certain cars--for example, if Chanyeong saw you driving a 1997 Ford Explorer, he would be able to see you car in a random parking lot and say it belonged to you, but he'd also be able to see you in a crowd of people and recite what year, make, and model of car you belong with. She says he can do this for most people he has ever met. Kind of mind-blowing.
Seongwon is a 2nd-grader who hangs out in the special needs room, and this morning he sort of slapped my shoulder. He is even more desperate for attention than the average boy, and he gets hit and punched a lot by his friends, so all his actions tend to be demonstrative and extreme. The tap wasn't hard enough to hurt, but still harder than it needed to be.
I slapped Seongwon's shoulder in the same manner, then made an X with my hands to show him that he couldn't do that. Then I patted his shoulder, to show him how he could get my attention in a gentler way. Before he left the room, Seongwon stepped up to me and patted my shoulder, not because he had anything to say, but just to show that he could be nice. And probably to be proprietary. Seongwon has to connect with me somehow because he's C-class, so I'll never teach him English, but he's not special-needs, so I have no reason to teach him piano, like I do with Jaehyung.
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10:30 AM Hahaha! Just cracked my Vice Principal up by asking in Korean if he could speak Japanese. He said he can't. It was such a random thing to ask, but I spent all morning studying the grammar form, "Can you____?" so I wanted to try it out. He was much amused, and now I know that I'm saying the form correctly.
I also now sympathize more with my students asking me questions that relate to nothing in particular--it may be because they just learned a new word, like 3rd-Grade Yeonghyo yesterday asking me, "What's the economy like?" My knowledge of economies, whether mine or those of other countries, is pretty well limited. When I couldn't reply, Yeonghyo settled for asking me to read his friend's shirt. Taegyu (Japanese Soccer Kid, who is not in fact Japanese) was wearing a shirt with our school's name written on it, and when I pronounced it, I got applause from both boys. C'mon, guys. You know I can read! We have established this.
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4 PM: Like yesterday, I got to leave right after lunch and go to the gym. It's so nice to have the extra time. I ran across a tumblr blog that is full of animated GIFs that describe how native English teachers in Korea feel, and this overly enthusiastic ostrich and the accompanying caption match reality pretty well.
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When my school lets me leave early, I'm like…
