9 AM: Back at school, whee!
So so so glad to be back. On the walk to school, A-Class Minwoo, Confident Hyunjoon, B-class Hojin and a few others greeted me. Dongseok, the only kid I'd seen while walking about town by myself yesterday, rode his bike close enough to brush my coat sleeve. Walk-to-School-Mingi was walking to school ahead of me, but I didn't call out to him for fear of making him late.
School's looking good. We've got electric lights in the hallways and new marker boards in the lower rooms. It's quite spruced up. Everyone's smiling and my lunch coordinator hugged me. I tripped up with my Korean when she asked me on what day I'd left for America, but I regained my footing. YH-Teacher has a cute new haircut. I haven't seen any of the teachers from the 2nd and 3rd floor offices yet.
I went right to the special needs room and saw Chanyeong, who is very autistic but who usually greets me. He was at his computer looking at pictures of dumptrucks because he has a very strong fondness for large vehicles. He didn't say anything to me, so I kept up a steady stream of Korean, trying to engage him:
Me: 찬영아, 안녕! 잘 지내? 무슨 그림 봐? 인사. 아니야? 졸려? 오, 덤프트럭. 이거 마음에 들어? 크다. 노란색.
("Chanyeong-ah, Hi! Have you been doing well? What kind of pictures are you looking at? Greet me. No? Are you sleepy? Oh, a dumptruck. Do you like this? It's big. Yellow.")
And what does our boy say to this flurry of words?
Chanyeong: 한국말. ("hanguk-mal"="Korean language.")
He doesn't once look up, but he begrudgingly grunts that I sure am using a lot of Korean lately. Which must be rather surprising for a severely autistic boy--the fluttery foreigner that nobody but Jaehyung can understand is back from vacation and speaking Korean a mile a minute. It's as if your cat went away for Christmas break and came back with the ability to talk to you.
I studied Korean for a few hours every day of my trip to America, and it's paying off in little things I can say.
I had ever-so-slightly better luck with Joonsung. When he got to the room, he wanted to type up a document full of students' names he was getting from a textbook, but I offered to read him the Dr. Seuss book I had brought with me. "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut" held no charm for Joonsung, but instead of just ignoring me, he went over to his piano and began to play "요름"--"Summer"...my favorite song, the one that helped me through a stomach virus.
I sat by him and la-la-laaa'd along with the melody while he played. And I thought; he can't possibly know this is my favorite song. I never told him, did I? And even if I did tell him, how could he understand and then put two and two together to figure out that the best way to get me off his case with the English book was to start playing it. But in any case, it was sweet. :-)
Daesung yelled good morning to me from the 4th-floor window. Got to greet Inha and Yeongchang already.
Heh. And BY was cleaning around my desk without announcing himself, so he could try to read my blog over my shoulder. Good try, sugar. I told him I'd pray for his foot, which is still mending.
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11 AM: First class down. The room looked gorgeous--the first grade wing was made in the 1950's, so it looks really rundown and institution-y, but now the entire front of the classroom is transformed and refinished with new walls, new markerboards and new cabinets. The only downside? All this remodeling has disconnected every last wire and switch, so I spent five minutes trying to hook up a movie for the boys, only to discover that it was unhookable, due to the projector cable having vanished.
So I asked who wanted to play Monopoly and bitty-baby Hyo volunteered immediately. I had to call in Giant Hweeyu and Necktie Jangyeop, but they were more than willing to play once they'd been singled out for fun times. Yosep from my Winter Camp was there, occasionally overseeing the game that he knew inside and out. Kibeom came by to boss everybody and tell them what they should be buying.
Me and the boys were quite happy, and I was using more Korean. I did have to tell baby Hyo to stop cursing in English because it wasn't proper around ladies. The super-darling A-class boys (including Jaewon from Saturday class) rolled in shortly after class was over, requesting goodies. Saw Wintercamp-Yoonmo in the hall and asked if he was doing well. His C-ban buddies seemed impressed that we knew each other.
Walked through half the 2nd grade hall and got enthusiastic fistbumps from two kids I don't really know. One of the first-graders yelled that I was beautiful and he loved me. This first-grader is someone I know I've heard yell this before, so I need to figure out his name. If you're going to be doing love confessions, they should at least be non-anonymous.
Saw KBR-Teacher coming up the stairs--barely got to say hi. She was swatting Peter-Pan-Taehoon's backside at the time, which I'm sure he had coming.
Daesung used his English to ask me how my vacation went and I used my Korean to answer him.
I went in for a high five with Teddybear-Deokryong, but he held my hand and said, "You are cutie. I like chocolate." He'd be getting chocolate without all the theatrics, but I'm strangely impressed that he's stepping up his chocolate-obtaining game.
Saw Fussy-Jaehee exchanging what looked like several five-dollar bills with Soccer-Minwoo. When they saw me watching them, they just said hello and didn't act suspicious, and neither boy seems like the type to be part of the school racketeering and money-stealing that goes on, but you never know. S-Line Dongjin was already in the office this morning, hauled in by Mr. B, meaning that he's in trouble already, and it's just our first day back!
Saw my beloved little boy Seongwon. The first time, he walked past and poked my arm, but the second time I was going to to the special needs classroom and he opened his arms for a huge hug, and held on tight the way a kindergartner does. He must have really needed the love. I brought my desk calendar to class and asked him for his birthday, so I could be getting him presents. He has two birthdays, but that's a story for later.
I noticed his hands were dirty, so we went over to the special needs' sink and washed his hands, which was an epic endeavor because the water was slightly busted and was rushing out at an unholy speed. Somehow in all the renovations, the water pipes in the special needs room went kaput. But I got most of the dirt and grit off (some of it's just engraved in his skin) and I got his hands dried on a towel. Then he went to the piano to play Heart and Soul for me while I talked to Jaehyung.
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3:45 PM The kids are all a-rushin' home, but I'm at the office for just a bit more.
My 3rd grade class also had no power cable, so I let the boys play with the magnetic chess board while I chatted with Mr. B. It was a really good conversation, though I just barely had time to assure Sungjae that he was a very cute person despite the unflattering photos Hyunjoon had taken of him on his phone. And time to notice Sooncheon's new-NEW haircut (totally unlike the new haircut he had last month) and fuss over the change.
One thing that's happened after winter vacation is that all the boys have new haircuts. Some of them have perms ( which come in three varieties: the top-curls; the artfully-styled-bedhead, the careless-waves). Many of them have dyed their hair or put a rinse in it, lending their hair a fresh hue (still-almost-black, chocolate, tan-brown, nearly-blonde, hint-of-strawberry, magenta-red-which-does-not-occur-in-nature).
And I have to verbally make note of each and every one of them, because they want their hair to be noticed. They want to be told that they look special. For many, but not all, of them they are every bit as emotionally fragile about their appearances as girls are. When I taught high school classes in America, I didn't understand.
I always assumed that boys didn't care about their weight or face or hair or clothes because the boys I went to school with never indicated that they gave these things a second thought. My American boy students didn't betray any of these visible insecurities, so I figured they didn't exist.
Not so. Teaching all boys for a semester has shown me another side of the equation. And sure it's true that Korea seems to care more about appearances than America does; but cultural acceptance of extensive male grooming aside, I see a bit of these boys' hearts.
I used to praise every little thing about my girls' appearances because I know what's it's like to be a teen girl and to be always feeling just a little bit ugly. I wanted my female students to get all the affirmation I could give them. Yes, your brain is more important than your exterior, and your heart for others and your love for God are the most important of all, but your outsides are just grand, too. You are lovely. There's nothing wrong with any part of you.
To a lesser extent, I'm learning to do the same for my boys. The language gap is always there, but I try my best to acknowledge them and let them know they're appreciated. Even though some of these newfangled hairstyles are decidedly less cute than the simple stuff they had going on before, they have all responded positively to kind words. You're all super-cute, guys. You're perfect, no matter how much or how little you mess with your hair. You're going to be just fine.
Jeongmin's back from Canada! After my 3rd-grade class, he found me in the hall, then after lunch he played chess with me. I only asked a little about his host family and his trip because I was distracted by the game. When Jeongmin had to go to lunch, Daesung came over and finished the game. I gave Daesung an American dollar bill, which he treasured, and some Japanese coins I got in the Narita airport. We worked on his English colors a little--he knew red, green, blue, yellow, black, but not white, pink, purple, or brown, oddly enough.
For 2-9, 2-10 B, I played two-person Monopoly then chess with none other than Fussy-Jaehee! This child has always rubbed me the wrong way and I've had to work not to resent him, but he insisted that he and I and no others were to be playing the games. I didn't even know we were friends. And I got to ask him in Korean about the money he gave Minwoo! It was the class collection to buy pizza. And since I saw pizzas floating around everywhere, I believe him, too. Whew!
In 2-7, 2-8 B, I sat around with darling Joonwoo and Changyo and two of their friends, who enjoyed Monopoly as much as kids ever have, while the smart dudes in the center of the room made use of the chess board.
I told myself that this week, there would be no Candy Panics, but I was wrong,.
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