10 AM: First class was good.
It was with the Demon Class, 2-7, 2-8 A, but they weren't bad, and I'll be doggoned if they're not becoming some of my favorites. I met 4 new ones: Seunghwan, who is constantly teased about his weight, Sungtaek, who wears a green jacket and is quite studious, Seongwoo, who wears glasses and sits by Taehoonie and couldn't remember my name yesterday.
We did worksheets, then played Apples to Apples, and it all went okay. Fun-Hyunmyeong's a bit of a genius with English and he helps all his classmates. Hyunmyeong's still teasing me about my song, too--I think he's a musically inclined kid and singing really touches him. When asked what I should do if I became president of Korea, he replied with the perfectly thought-out sentence: "If I were you, I would make Korea better." Dawww.
Hyungmin, who used to be the worst trouble ever, sat nicely and talked with me about the paper. He put his sock-feet up on the table after I had moved on the next kids, and I came back to hold up my socked-foot as well, to compare sizes. Hyungmin smiled to see that my foot was much smaller than his and he announced, "Baby!" I have baby-sized feet, according to one Korean teenager.
KBR-Teacher still had to scold the boys for eating in class and making a mess, but I didn't feel disrespected. I feel like I'm with a bunch of rowdy boys that I care about. On the downside, I spent all my time with the precious troublemakers and didn't get to talk to Daehoonie or Ikgwang or Jihyuk or the nice boys. I'll catch you next week, fellas.
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2:40 PM: Next batch of classes went fine, if somewhat dull. Some weeks I feel like I'm running around like a gazelle on the Serengeti with so many activities for classtime, and some weeks there's lots of downtime. But I don't regret the slowed-down pace for this week--I need some recovery time, and it lets me conenct one-on-one in a way that the more boisterous lessons don't. On noisy weeks, everyone has fun but I don't meet any new kids or learn any new faces.
1-5, 1-6 B was fine. I know almost every child in there and it was good to see them. They really liked Apples to Apples.
Saturday Jeongmin was waiting for me before and after lunch and he sat by me at my computer and played the game again. I told him I was taking over the 1st-grade English afterschool and he told me wished he could be in it.
Played UNO and piano in the special needs room. Jaehyung's sunny as usual, Seongwonnie's not unhappy, but he's a smidgen withdrawn, and Yeongchang is always getting in my way so I can push him. He's not taller than me, but he is wider and heavier and has a lower center of gravity, so it's really only out of his own free will that he moves.
My 3rd-graders came to get me after lunch when I was playing computer with Jeongmin. Even without Yeonghyo as ringleader, Jaehwan, Jinhwan, Byeongkeun and Dokyung decided that gametime would continue, and they brought a new kid, Juseong.
We had a great time, playing spoon-cards and UNO by turns. When the boys would lose at spoons, they'd deal out a "punishment" and hit each other in the head with the plastic spoons with enough force to separate head from body. But the one time I lost, I extended my hand, palm up for spoon-punishment and they all gave it a delicate tap with their spoon, like I was made of dandelion fluff and would bruise from the slightest roughness. So sweet.
Jinhwan also decided to be my champion a couple of times--their were 5 spoons for 6 people and sometimes he would steal an extra spoon and hand it to me if he didn't think I'd be quick enough to get my own spoon and thus avoid punishment. They all kept accusing each other of smoking, and I'm fairly sure they've all been guilty at some point or other--it seems to be a particular issue with the C-class boys.
Jinhwan also gave me a shock by pulling out his phone and playing a song he was smiling over...I couldn't make out who the singer was until Dokyung and Jaehwan exclaimed, "Sem!" Sure enough, Jinhwan was playing video he took of me at the school festival. He wouldn't really let me see it, though. I was a teensy bit mortified.
There had to have been 800 smartphones in that audience, and plenty of the kids were close enough to get a decent recording. How many students' phones am I on? Is it uploaded anywhere? How do I get a copy of the file without giving the kids my number or email? Questions for the ages, right there.
2-5, 2-6 B was good and I finally met Jongin, the student that looks like Simyong but isn't Simyong. I found out that Taekyoon has some of the best English in the class and that Injae has a killer sense of humor. And Seongsu and Dongjin had to do pushups for ten minutes because of something they said or did around JY-Teacher. I didn't see it, but I know they deserved it. They liked Apples to Apples, also.
After class, 20 kids zoomed in for chocolate. I'm having way too much fun with the "what's my name?" question because there are about 5 ways to answer correctly--any one of my names or any mixture thereof will do--but some of the boys I've been teaching for 3 months still don't know any of my names. My favorite incorrect answers to "what's my name" are "Cinderella" and "Natasha". What do they call me when they're talking amongst themselves? Foreign-Teacher-Who-Isn't-B-Teacher?
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6 PM: Class with the 1st-grade babies was a success!
Though they aren't really babies. I walked into classroom 2-7 and thought I'd accidentally gotten a batch of 2nd-graders transported in, because not a single one of these kids is the tiny pocket-size that is reasonably common among 1st-graders. And I know 3 of them because they're in my B-classes--everyone else is A-class whom I haven't met yet.
I said if we all did our worksheet, we could watch a movie, so lots of dedicated writing earned them 15 minutes of film. They were well-behaved and I sat with a group of funny guys near the back how decided to spend all their time insulting each other and accusing each other of all manner of bad behavior. I just laughed and joked with them about how they couldn't stop laying blame. They were super cute and this was their way of getting attention.
They're also still new enough to me that they're excited by the fact that I can write in Korean, so that's fun. I hope to get to know them better this week because I wasn't able to keep any of their names in my head.
On the walk home from school, Junho walked as close as my giant coat and three bags full of school supplies would allow him to, and crooned the lyrics to "Joah". He's got a nice voice and I sang with him for a bit. I got called Junho's girlfriend three times today and I just smiled instead of replying. This whole back-and-forth with Junho brings joy to him and the other kids, so who am I to squash their fun?
While I was in my new afterschool room, Dongjun poked his head through the door just to say, "Hi teacher..." Sweet. Seongmo held out his arms to me in the hallway, as if to show how much he missed me. It's been one day, Seongmo-yah. I think you'll live.
Didn't see BH even once today. Got to talk to HH about four times today, so that's been good--he's happy that I'm taking a Korean language class. Sanghwa met me in the hallway to tell me that life is awful and Brenton hates him. I love you, you little whiner. Saw Jinseop on the walk home from school and told him I missed him. He smiled.
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