8:30 AM: I shall have to accept that my life's just busier lately. With all the lesson planning I do, plus running immediately after school, then (usually) studying Korean, it doesn't leave as much time for writing as it used to.
Daesung called last night. We sorta-talked for 3 minutes, like usual. Becky and me went to the orphanage last Saturday, but they had sent all their kids off to Taekwondo class and so we had no one to teach. We rescheduled for not this Sunday but next Sunday. I told him I'd bring him a present of chocolate.
C-Yooseok just popped into the office right now to whisper a request for what I thought was "cho-co-lit". He was actually saying "jeo-ka-rak" or chopsticks. So I found him a disposable pair from our office ramen stash. I hope he's going to use them to eat breakfast, not to stab anybody.
Gave Leader Jaehoon my phone number yesterday. After class he said, "Teacher! Do you have Facebook?" No one had asked me that question before, so I just stared at him, stricken dumb by the horrific notion of friending my students on Facebook. He took my silent terror as an admission of guilt and said cheerily, "Me too! Teacher, add me. Add me." I told him we could use Kakao instead. Bullet dodged.
It's interesting that a phone number feels less personal than Facebook friending, but I only post on Facebook once a week and when I do, it's nearly always about the students. I don't even use Facebook for family or friends back home--it's strictly a social tool for acquaintances in Korea, so I can keep track of events and dinners and invitations. I post something cute once a week so people know I'm still alive, but that's it.
Saw Yeonghyo this morning! I was walking to school a little earlier than usual, at the time when more high school students are on the street, and I passed a couple of big high school kids. Then I heard a voice behind me say, "Leigh!" I turned around it was Yeonghyo, looking older and with longer hair than when I last saw him in February. I beamed and fussed over how good it was to see him again, and he told me that high school is horrible, which I expected. So good to see my former boy, the one who reached out to me and got the UNO games started.
Slow-jogged for 10 minutes yesterday. That's high endurance for me. I fully expect to be ready for a 5K by the end of June. Slow and steady gets the job done!
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10 AM: In the break between classes, a pack of boys came by to practice English. Heonmin (one of KBR's favorites), little Byeongji who I got to talk to yesterday but who I rarely see since he dropped to B-class, Puppy-Joonhyuk (so called because yesterday he was walking with Yeongjoon, who said Joonhyuk was his puppy before "selling" Joonhyuk to me because I had no pets), Youngmin (funny guy, tried to scare me with a 3-inch-long stag beetle on Monday), Face-Yoonjae (who is getting more interested in English lately), precious Joonwoo (polite, thoughtful, rarely see him these days) and my Wooseok, who will speak for trail mix and trail mix alone.
We had some great convos. I asked about their siblings and their dads' jobs--most common answer was 'businessman' but Wooseok's dad drives a bus.
The boys gathered around and Puppy-Joonhyuk wanted to know the word for their race of people. One non-offensive word for white person is "baek-in" so he wanted to know "hwang-in" (orange person) in English, but I told him they were called "asian". Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people are all Asian. Byeongji, Heongmin, Yoonjae and Joonhyuk all repeated "Asian..." like it was a big revelation. Byeongji wanted to know if Vietnamese people were also Asian and I said they were.
Yesterday, Face-Yoonjae hung around while I was talking to BY and he asked what we were talking about. Yoonjae has English that's a step above a lot of the other A-levels, but he still can't follow a full conversation. That was one of the first times I've heard a student actually ask "what were you talking about?" because sometimes they'll express envy of the high-English kids, but won't actually inquire into was was said. BY explained that we'd been discussing my plans for my afterschool kids, plans which involved feeding them chips. He'd been negotiating for me to feed the 3rd-graders as well.
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2 PM: Classes were good! 1st grade babies were doll-doll-dolls and the 3rd-graders were sly and funny. Minhwe tried to wiggle out of doing any work, as did Jinseo and Joonseok, but we got through things. Gyuchan was in fine form and he even hid in the corridor after class so he could scare me when I was locking up--except I saw him hiding and was waiting for it. Gyuchan's bigger than me, so stealth isn't his strong suit.
Lunchtime Games were great! I was a little late because me and the other female teachers went to walk over to the boys' high school and sit in their picturesque garden (our middle school is decidedly lacking in the ambient and picturesque categories). The high schoolers gawked at us from the windows and started shouting questions in English. Their native teacher is a guy, so they're not used to foreign women.
So since I was walking back later than usual, I ran across Deokryong! So he came upstairs with me. He wanted me to go to his homeroom, Gu-ban (9), but I insisted that we go to Sa-ban (4) because I was not throwing one more classroom into the mix after the Sam-ban (3) trouble on Tuesday.
It was so nice to have Deokryong in there with us. I've missed him so much. And there's a new student--Jiwoo--who is C-level and is very nice to me. We did Jenga with Hyunwoo and Jaewon, and A-level student who was in the Saturday English program last year. We had fun, and soon Myeongbae-n-Jiwoong came in.
I told Myeongbae-n-Jiwoong yesterday that they had earned chocolate but that they should redeem it today because I'd run out and needed to restock the supplies. So they followed me downstairs and got their treats, along with Deokryong and Jeongmin. And get this--the 5 of us sang "Let It Go" all the way down the stairs! Myeongbae and Deokryong love that musical and were more than excited to sing it all together. That was a special moment.
Upstairs, Deokryong had asked Afro-Jiwoong in Korean, "Don't you think Sem and Elsa are similar?" Jiwoong replied, "Not similar--exactly the same." That was cute because they didn't know I could understand them.
Downstiars, Myeongbae and Jiwoong wanted extra chocolate and they were willing to converse for it. They sat down on the stool without my asking them to and looked very excited to hear their English questions. Whether or not it started out that way, I have stumbled on something that makes kids eager to hear and respond to English questions. How fun!
And the older boys do the same. Duyeol rolled in this morning, sat on the stool and said, "Teacherrrr. Mission, please!" Meaning that the sentences I pose to them are their "mission" which they must complete to get the reward. Daww. Youngmin was so confident in his English skills, he came back for a second roundof questioning. Youngmin's definitely my boy now because he goes out of his way to greet and joke with me at every turn. At lunch, I caught his eye and he stuck out his tongue! But he's so funny, you have to appreciate it. I don't feel the slightest inkling of disrespect; such is Youngmin's charm.
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8:30 PM: It was raining on the way home from school, and Donggu rode his bike alongside me so I could hold the umbrella over both of us. I didn't even invite him--he just silently drove his bike under my umbrella, knowing I'd hold it over both of us. Sweet.
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