11 AM: Good day!
Walked into school with a cream-colored scarf over my head, and half the teachers say I look like a Barbie doll (Arctic Scarf Skipper?), while the other half think I'm sick because I've got my head wrapped up. No, not sick, it's just that my ears are cold.
Guide-Jaewan is still singing "Joah" at me in the hallway, and one 1st-grader who isn't even in my class said he should get chocolate because his name is Park Jae Bom (same as the singer of Joah). I didn't doubt it. Park is an insanely common family name, and Jaebom's not an uncommon first name--it's kind of like being name Josh Williams.
I spent about 5 hours last night putting together lessons for today, but I still got a decent amount of sleep, so we're okay. The first-graders of 1-7, 1-8 B were maaarvelous, dahling. We didn't even get to play the Apples to Apples game I prepared, because we ran out of time, but we got along well with our powerpoint and worksheets.
As I walked around the room handing out worksheets, I called each kid's name (almost--there are 4 of them I still don't know). Co-Teacher came up to me immediately afterward and said "You have an excellent memory." I told her I just think the students are important and that I want to remember them.
I sat with about 9 different groups, going over their "Should/Shouldn't" worksheet with them, and when I was talking to one group the others would listen in and offer advice. I used a lot of Korean, and the boys seemed to appreciate it, especially Hyunminnie. Taeho's pretty smart when it comes to English and didn't require much help at all. Hyo was out today. Wonder where he is?
I had the best time sitting with the boys. While Kibeom and Janghyeop were doing their worksheet, they had a huge debate with Taeho over whether they should use "he should" or "she should" to complete the advice sentence "my friend wants to lose weight, so ___ ___ exercise more."
The argument was all in Korean, but Kibeom was insisting that "he should" was the only option because the word "friend" automatically implied male. Taeho protested that a girl could be a friend without being a girlfriend, but Kibeom was having none of it. I said that "geunyang chingu"(just friends) was possible with a girl, and they all nodded and wrote "he" anyway. It was cute.
I started writing the boys' names in hangul on their papers, followed by "good job!" because it's special to them, seeing me write their name. Had a time figuring how to spell Hweeyu's name. At first I wrote it 회우, then changed to 휘우 only to discover that it's 휘유. Yeah, well, you can't win 'em all. But I gave Hweeyu's deskmate Minjoon a good laugh over my spelling errors.
Sleepy-Moonshik was really happy today because I called his name in the hallway before we were even in class, and I sat with just him for worksheet help, and he got chocolate at the end of class.
The A-class 1st-graders mobbed me after class, as usual, wanting chocolate and willing to exchange fluffy compliments for it. I explained to one tiny child that "You're so sexy!" was not a proper compliment, but that he could say "You're so cute!" He honestly wasn't trying to offend; he was just trying out new phrases. But my plan backfired because he just started referring to me by both adjectives. 1st-graders. Oy.
Greeted Saturday-Jeongmin in the hall, then was greeted by Tall-Jaewon from Saturday class! Jaewon's one of the "trouble" boys, though truthfully they don't cause problems--they're just more interested in their smartphones than in class, and who could blame them? This Saturday, I taught the kids how to write haiku poems and then we did art to match our nature haiku.
The trouble-boys didn't want to write anything, but when I sat with them and helped them brainstorm about topics, they wrote about dangerous sharks and foggy mornings, and Jaewon wrote about his pet white cat. It was the sweetest little haiku about his cat, whose name is Kelt. I asked him where he heard the name, if it was taken from a comic book or a computer game, but he said he thought it up himself. That's when I knew that Jaewon was creative and terribly thoughtful.
I've never paid attention to him before, but on Saturday, he became important. After Jaewon wrote his haiku, he drew a picture of his cat in a field. I got out a paintbrush and a set of watercolors for him and he added white fur and green grass. It was really pretty and I took a picture. So when Jaewon met me in the hallway with a smile and a request for chocolate, I stopped for him and gave him one, and asked about his cat. It was a sweet moment.
Met Wooseok, a sunny 2nd-grader who I'm pretty sure is C-class, in the hall. I tried to coax "May I have chocolate please?" out of him, but even though we were alone in the hall, he was so embarrassed about speaking, he couldn't do it. He explained in Korean that he's no good at English, but I held his puffy coat sleeve and wouldn't let him walk off, on the hunch that he really did want to try. Sure enough, he could repeat "May-may I-I have-have chocolate-chocolate please-please" and seemed glad to have said it. Language can be scary, sometimes, especially when you worry about failing and being judged for your failure.
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8 PM: Fifty twelvety billion things happened. Let me try to recount them.
On the Junho front, things have escalated. Today on the walk home, one 2nd-grader I don't know bid farewell to me thusly: "Goodbye, Junho's Girlfriend!" Good grief. Junho is gradually altering reality to fit to his internal vision. And I made matters worse by replying "I am NOT" to the kid, who promptly repeated himself. I'm going to just relax and enjoy the adorableness from now on. And I will remember that my days would be far less entertaining without Junho.
3-5, 3-6 B went fine. We just watched a movie because that's what we do with 3rd-graders now. I played spoon-cards with Yeonghyo and Jangwon. Jangwon hasn't been one of my boys until now, but he was the first kid to cry during a speaking test, and I comforted him and talked him down from the ledge of tears. It's okay. Don't worry. Just one more sentence. Jangwon is the oldest of three boys and his two dongsaengs are in elementary school.
At lunch, the 3rd-graders are the first kids to eat, along with two-thirds of the teachers. I don't even see the 1st-graders at mealtime because they eat dead last. But while I was sipping veggie soup, Saturday-Jeongmin came frolicking into the lunchroom. Now, I was semi-alarmed to see a baby 1st-grader out loose among the big kids, and I figured he must be there to tell me something. He was. He came to tell me it was snowing!
I stepped away from the table and Jeongmin led me to a lunchroom window, which he opened so we could watch the snow. It was so lovely and puffy and exciting, because snow is such a novelty for me. But then in a later class, some of my boys told me that in Korea, the first snow is a romantic thing and you're supposed to walk in it with your girlfriend/boyfriend.
I would say that there was no such mental connection in it for Jeongminnie, but he has never before been in the lunchroom at the wrong time, and he also informed me that when I was done eating, he wanted to play the forest game. I assumed he meant to play it with his whole crew of 1st-grade friends, as has been the case in the past. But when I left the lunchroom, Jeongmin was waiting in the hall by himself. I said I was sorry he had to wait and he replied, "Oh no Teacher, I was only waiting for fifteen minutes. It was not long." O_O
I let him play the computer game and we had fun talking, but now I wonder how to keep him from doing these showing-you-the-special-first-snow and waiting-indefinitely-for-you-in-the-hallway type of things. He's my boy and I want him to be happy, but I don't want him to...go out of his way for me? Or something like that? I have also been praying more for this baby boy because on Saturday I mentioned that I was a Christian and asked if he was, and he said no. Now I'm thinking about his soul and asking the Lord to show himself to Jeongmin in some powerful way.
So after we played our computer game, I went walking outside in the snow, observing Inha, Yeongchan, Yeongshik, and Jeonghyun trying to slide down a steep hill of dirt and weeds on a broken desk seat while calling it "snowboarding". My C-class 3rd-graders came and found me outside, because apparently I need to be fetched. The overly patient look on their collective faces said that they understood that womenfolk will just go off wandering any old where, and we have to be brought back indoors where important events like UNO-time can take place.
We actually played spoon-cards and had a lovely time of it, me and Jaehwan and Jinhwan and Yeonghyo and Dokyung. And we were joined by a 2nd-grader, Sunny-Wooseok, the boy I laboriously walked through the chocolate-please speech earlier. I was glad for the chance to speak to Wooseok some more. I corrected him for cursing in Korean and he told me he was merely saying the Korean word for "shoe" (they sound similar. you have to be careful how you pronounce the word "shoe" and the word "18" or children will snicker). Sure you were, darling. Sure you were.
First class was with 2-9, 2-10 B and it was quiet, but I had an amazing time working with the kids. Braces-Donghyuk is a crack-up and he had me laughing until I nearly cried. Though he has almost no English, I could understand what he was saying in Korean to make fun of B-Class Seonwoo, and it was a riot. Who knew that Donghyuk was such a charmer? And Athletic-Woonki was pretty funny, too.
Huge-Eyes Jeonghee took Afterschool-Jinseop's shoe and gave it to me as a "present". I wore Jinseop's flip flop and my own shoe around the room for a couple of minutes, and Jinseop was laughing like crazy when he finally asked for his shoe back.
Then came 2-7, 2-8 B, one of my favorites. Again, we basically just did our one worksheet, but I got one-on-one time with so many of them. I met Hojin and Jaeseok, two smart boys who sit in the front and who I really should have met before now. I sat with them first and worked with them, talking and laughing. I told them that my favorite Korean actor was Song Joong Ki and Hojin said--get this--"Ah. Your rival (for his love) is 3 million people." Way to shoot down my dream, kid. But whoa, what excellent English! Hojin also said he loved my singing, as did a few other kids in class.
And while I was working with Hojin and Jaeseok, Jungbok came over! He completely left his side of the room, traveled over to us, pulled up a chair and became a part of the conversation. This kid actually cares about learning stuff, and that's so awesome. Rock on, Jungbok. When asked what he would do if he forgot his mother's birthday, he wrote "give coupon". I asked what he gave him mom coupons for--free hugs? He said no, "massage," then he drew a picture of a baby snowman massaging a grownup snowman's shoulders. So artsy and clever, this one is.
I spent plenty of time with Chansu and Danhee, who desperately wanted to play UNO, but we didn't have time. They also helped me translate for the kids behind them, Byeongwook and Cheolhoon, who seemed gratified that I had finally gotten around to spending time with just them. For the last thing, I went over Changyo to work with him, and Duyeol crashed the party, sitting in Changyo's lap so that he could lean over the paper and talk to me first, answering all the questions himself.
When 2-7, 2-8 B was over, my favorites swarmed close, doing the usual begging for chocolate. But the 2-7 A kids came in, too, and the 2-7 C kids, most of whom were trying to get sweets. Now it's been well-established that you get more chocolate if I know your name, and I always ask a kid's name before I give them candy, but Fun-Hyunmyeong took things a ladder-rung higher: "May I have chocolate please? I know your name!"
This was new. For the first time, a student is claiming that I should acknowledge them because they know me, not the other way around. Out of curiosity, I asked,
Me: "What is my name?"
Hyunmyeong: " E_____."
Me: "Oh, wrong order."
Jiwoong: "It's ____ L____ ____!" (side note: how in the world does Jiwoong know my whole name?)
Me: "Right." *bestows chocolate*
Hyunmyeong: "This Korea. In Korea, I am right about names."
Me: "Good point." *bestows chocolate*
Baby Minho: "Chocolate chocolate meeee. Please. May I."
In the hall, Taehoonie was trying to tell me something about today being the last day of afterschool, but he couldn't quite communicate it. Then I saw B-Teacher, the other American, and he said that because 40 class periods were up, we were now switching afterschools. He's getting my 2nd-graders and I'm getting his 1st-graders.
I was happy. I was sorrowful. Here's my chance to start over and get away from the nightmare of disorganized babysitting that is my afterschool class. But. Here's also me leaving my beautiful boys who I've spent so many hours with. I'll only see Byeonghyunnie and Seongmo once a week, and I won't be locked up with Sanghwa where I can feed him and talk around him when he's feeling uncommunicative. Seongyeollie won't set up my computer and make sure I've locked up the classroom. Baby Minho won't wander in for no good reason and stay for an hour, playing cards and making smalltalk.
The mixed feelings continued into afterschool class. We continued to watch Pacific Rim, and we played spoon-cards, which Seongmo gleefully said was the best game ever, because he got to hit Byeonghyun in the head with a plastic spoon when he lost. We laughed so much.
I told the boys that starting tomorrow, they'd be with B-Teacher. Byeonghyun sighed that B-Teacher doesn't let them use phones in afterschool, and I said that's why B-Teacher's going to be good for you. It will be good for you to have a man around, I said. I was thinking, "B-Teacher can actually discipline them. He can actually get them to do stuff. I don't have enough clout or respect to accomplish anything."
Then Byeonghyun, who obviously sensed that beneath my smile I was feeling all kids of failure-y, said "You are a good teacher, too." Oh, child. You don't know how much I needed that. At the end of class, Sanghwa was looking confused when someone said something about it being the last afterschool. I explained that a switch was happening and tomorrow he'd have B-Teacher. Sanghwa said, "B-Teacher..hate." The nature of Korean sentences is such that although Sanghwa was speaking English, I'm not sure if he was saying that B-Teacher hates him (unlikely, because he's a pretty chill dude) or that he hates B-Teacher.
Seongmo was in fine form for this last class. He was constantly singing "Joah" at me (I'll never escape that song, now. Never), and he opened class by asking me, "Teacher was is the meaning of this word "sweetheart"?" I thought he already knew because he was upset over me calling Minho sweetheart. I explained that in the northern part of the USA, it's like "jagi" or "yeobo"(honey/darling), but that in the south, women call everybody that. I said I call students that I'm fond of "sweetheart". It's true--it's only the ones I really care about who get it. I used to call people sweetheart in a sarcastic way, but I don't anymore. It's not kind or becoming in any way.
I told Byeonghyun and Seongmo that I'd miss them. I said if they need anything, please ask me because they are my boys.
In other news, today is my 3-month-a-versary in Korean. 90 days, whoop whoop! It's been a beautiful blessing and I thank God for all of it.
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