10:15 AM: First class was dead boring, but it kind of had to be because I was covering the CD, and the CD is just...dull. But my favorites Daejeong and Geonhong and Soonhyuk were really feeling the love when I helped them with their "symbol-code" worksheets and I picked up 2 new names: Yeonwoo, a smart little guy who sits by Yongmoon, and Yeongjin, a friendly one who sits by Geonhong.
I love working with SG2-Teacher. She's so friendly, and she shares my opinion that the CD is absolutely necessary, but quite a drag to teach from because it's impossible to get the kids interested in it. Anyhow, my first class passed by pretty well. I have a killer game for them next time. I hope that makes up for things a bit.
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11:50 AM Bwa-haaa class was great. Holla!
It was another dullish little thing, but it was better because I had a good class with the new male teacher, NG, one who I had some tension with before. When I was sick, he said something I interpreted as being very harsh/cold. It was this incident that made me finally start crying on Tuesday, which led to KBR-Teacher witnessing the breakdown and eventually taking me to the hospital.
So in that sense, the Tuesday incident precipitated my getting better! I would have kept trucking on, sick as a wet puppy and taking insufficient drugstore meds, if I hadn't gotten emotional. And while I was recovering, I realized that I might have misjudged my new co-teacher.
Like my two new female co-teachers, this is his first school, which is stressful. Our school is also full of hormonal teenagers that sometimes act mature beyond their years and sometimes act like they belong in a maximum-security kindergarten. Teaching these babies is no walk in the park and our school is considered very rural/ghetto and a rather tough placement in general.
I realized that he is in a crazy new place, and unlike me when I got here 7 months ago, he is expected to land on his feet and automatically understand everything and do great with everything. And he has a dozen other responsibilities that I don't have to deal with.
In short, I'm not capable of understanding all the difficulties New Guy Teacher might be having. And it's easier for me to sympathize with H-Sol and SG2, because we're all girls and they are both a couple years younger than me, so we're on the same level and can chit-chat about our issues. I'd love to be friends with New Guy Teacher because he seems to have a good sense of humor, but I don't know how to go about friending him, because gender divides here are a little stricter.
But the end result of my thinking about his life and his problems is that I feel kindness toward him. Today, I was dreading seeing him in case he made another remark about how I was managing class, but I greeted him joyfully, like he was JY-Teacher or Mr. B, and he smiled back and we had a lovely class.
Our tension was almost entirely in my head, it appears. I took one statement and blew it out of proportion until I had almost made a mental enemy out of him, when we showed clearly today that we could get along just fine.
Additionally, I saw him kidding around with the kids! The first week, I knew so many of the boys and was making inside jokes and calling them by name. I wondered if he was getting to know the kids and if there were any he liked. Today, my little Yeonghan teased New Guy Teacher, saying mischievously that his name was "pretty," and New Guy Teacher tugged on Yeonghan's hoodie, jokingly threatening to hurt him.
I couldn't have been happier--I want New Guy Teacher to be happy, and it's easiest to be happy when you enjoy at least some of the young'uns. Class was a blessing today.
Also! I saw HH's mom again today! I didn't recognize her at first, because I stood up to go downstairs and saw a woman by the copy machine--someone who I thought might be one of the 1st-grade teachers. But she said hi then smiled so sweetly, I knew I must have made her acquaintance already. She had to confirm for me that she was HH's mom, and she said she was here to talk to his homeroom teacher about his future. I said I'd seen him in class last week and he seemed to be doing well.
I sat back down to get my materials ready for class, but before I left the office, I wrote her a note on pink paper with a caramel candy attached, just saying it was nice to see her again. If I see Byeongyoonie's mm this week, it will complete the list of moms I've talked to in English--not many. :-)
Eunchan followed me down the hall to get candy; rather brave for a 2nd-grader to invade 3rd-grade office land.
Jeongmin was trying to tell me about some kid slapping his face this morning. Eesh. Something about a cellphone. I hope that gets sorted--at least Jeongmin's my height now, so he's no longer bully-able on the basis of size.
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5 PM: Day was great! Nearly every spare second was spent preparing for the next class, but I was happy and the kids were happy.
For lunchtime games, I played Monopoly with Jeongmin and a new boy, Hyunwoo. Jjang-Jaesok came by the room to lean against a chair for a second and ask me in clear, unflinching English: "What do you think of me?" It's a phrase they're taught in every grade, one that's a conversation-starter, like "What do you think of foreign food?" or "What do you think of scary movies?"
I told Jaeseok I thought he was handsome, which satisfied him and pleased the kid he'd dragged along to witness my answer. That's a very precarious thing to do, ask a lady what she thinks of you in front of company, but he was confident that I wouldn't let him down.
In my second 2nd-grade class, I spent extra time with Hoodie-Woohyuk, the friend of Governor Yunho. Woohyuk used to not like me, but now we're staunch allies. I told him he looked like a cool rapper and and he greeted me happily in the hallways.
My 3rd-grade class was great. I could not stop cracking up over the little things Youngmin, Yoonseong, Soccer-Minwoo and Rockstar-Hyungmin were saying. Those boys are exactly my style of people--they make puns on everything, they make jokes in two languages, and if you say a word from a song they know, they start singing a line or two.
They are essentially ME in young Korean boy form. And it's soooo hard not to join them every time.
For example: KBR teacher said "Shi-keu-ro," meaning that they were being noisy, so Youngmin who was sitting in the back pretended he had misheard: "Shi-keu-rit?" (Korean pronunciation of "secret"), then beside him Yoonseong echoed "Secret," and in the front, Hyungmin said "Garden". (Not referencing the children's book "Secret Garden," but the Korean drama of the same name).
It's only funny if you speak some Korean and some English and know a bit of pop culture, but I do know those things, and I was biting my lip so hard to keep from howling with laughter. KBR was frowning at them and they really needed to tone it down, but how can you not appreciate that kind of spur-of-the-moment wit?
And then there was Seonwoo and Byeongjo, my awesome boys. We had so many jokes while working on their worksheets, and we also did an extended double-language joke on the fact that Byeongjo had read "army, navy" as "ah-reum-ee, nah-bee" which sounds like "areumdaun nabi" (beautiful butterfly), a famous Korean song. Languages be fun, y'all.
I cracked Seonwoo up when he said, "Teacher, hungry!" and I said, "No, I'm not hungry," smiling because what he said could be taken to mean "the teacher is hungry". He corrected, "Teacher, I AM hungry!" he knows how to say this stuff, just has to be reminded to do full sentences, not random declaration of nouns and adjectives.
Also, Computer Seonghyun accidentally-on-purpose taught Seonwoo and Byeongjo a creative new curse word in English, and I had to explain to them why we don't say it, which just made them say it more because it semi-bothered me. I finally told them they weren't getting candy later if they kept up this business. The whole thing made Euigi laugh hysterically in his quiet way.
Final class o' 1st-graders was beautiful. They shine and sparkle and they loved the Powerpoint game I made. 3 hours of work on that game was probably worth it, just for the happy. I sang them out the door again, with my rendition of "Let It Go". I patted one of them's arm in class, and I turned around a few seconds later to see him nearly swooning, excitedly whispering to his friends that I'd touched him arm. I keep forgetting they're not my 3rd-grade buddies, who are as used to me as they are to the walls and furniture.
Then! I was told my afterschool wasn't starting until tomorrow, but it started today. I went in to a room with 20 1st-graders, armed with only a marker and my imagination. We played hangman, then we had question-and-answer time. They wanted to know the usual things abut me: where I'm from, age, where I lived within our town. But there was a new question in the mix: "Teacher, your first love story! Tell first love story." O_o Really, boys? I decided not to satisfy their curiosity on that one.
On the walk home, Computer Jongmin caught up with me as we were about to cross the road to his hagwon, and he slipped a chocolate wafer bar into my hand. I had given him chocolate earlier today, so I get the feeling that he and I are going to keep up this constant food exchange. He's so quiet, you'd never notice him. I never once looked at his face until he gave me gum and carried my computer last November. I guess he'd had enough of being in the background. He may not be fond of talking but by golly, he can befriend people through actions.
And then we have Jeongmin, who comes into the 3rd-grade office now not just to see me but to see JY-Teacher and prod her for information about the Saturday program. He came in again today to ask about English afterschool. He lit up for a second when he thought I would teach him, only to learn that I had the 1st-grade babies and he is once again separated from me.
Me: "You're with B-Teacher."
Jeongmin: "NO." *his face bears the expression of Odysseus, the man of constant sorrow, whom fate will not suffer to live in peace*
Me: *eyes widen, looking over at B-Teacher, sitting 3 feet away*
Jeongmin: "I...I mean, he's good, too."
Me: "Yes, perhaps you should say that, since he's right here."
B-Teacher: *laughs*
Jeongmin: *to me* "Of course, it's good...but you're different. You play games with me."
Me: "I know, dear. I understand. It'll all be okay."
And anyhoo, me and B-Teacher will trade grades at some point in the year, so. There's that to look forward to. But for now, I'm going to appreciate the babies.
Tallyho!
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