11:00 AM Good day. This morning's class with H-Sol went well because she translated everything I said bit by bit for the 2nd-graders. We can't often do that because the kids have to try to understand the English first, but today it went well. I was temporarily mortified because I had translated one word into Korean wrong and H-Sol pointed it out to me, but it was good to know so I could fix it for the next class.
Inbetween classes, I called Jiwoong over to talk with me for chocolate. It didn't take too much convincing and we got some facetime in, which is important since I'm trying to reconnect with Jiwoong.
That was 3rd-grade Jiwoong I was talking about, but shortly afterward a friend of 2nd-grade boy Afro-Jiwoong came in. Little Keunho is an A-level 2nd-grader and he came into my office all by himself, which is almost indescribably brave for a little guy to wander to the office where the big guys hang out. He parked himself on the stool and asked for "the questions" since he'd witnessed Afro Jiwoong running through them all yesterday. I was really pleased to be talking to a new kid.
3rd-grade class was great. Byeonghyun and BY are charmers as always, and I got to do the dialogue with Yeongjoon because he had no partner. I think that might have been by design actually, because by now they know that if you don't have a partner I'll run the lines with them. They were all funny and sharp and I got to hear Puppy-Joonhyuk speaking. Until Yeongjoon drew my attention to him the other day, I didn't even know I taught him--he's just one of those students that blends in until you can appreciate him.
--------------------------------------------
1:40 PM: Got an iced coffee can from Mr. B who is just the nicest person. I don't mention Mr. B as much lately, but I do see him every day and I appreciate him more than ever. Last year it would have been unmanageable to try to handle the 3rd-grade boys without him. These days, he just sits in on my classes with the smart baby 1st-graders so he doesn't have to help me ride herd on the bunch of them.
These days, me and Mr. B have no stress in our work together so we can just talk together, about his tennis injury, about my weekend plans, about his family reunion, my new running hobby, etc. It took me months to be sure that he was a good person--working with older men is just frought with inherent difficulties--but now I know he is, so we can have helpful, supportive conversations.
All this to say that I'm working on the relationship with my other guy-coworker, NG-Teacher. I'm trying to make friends, and we're kinda getting there. I decided I would stop ignoring him in class (mostly due to my own illogical prejudice against him) and go out of my way to make smalltalk.
On Wednesday, I fiiiinally got a real conversation going while I was playing the Triple Class a video clip. I went to the back of the class to talk to NG about the film clip and we were just starting to talk like normal people do when Seungchan turned his little fluffy head around and cutely asked NG, "Sem Joayo?" or "Do you like the other Teacher?" whereupon NG had to go correct him for being rude.
I was seriously disappointed because Seungchan's interruption cut off my earnest attempt at connecting with someone I'd gotten off on the wrong foot with. In my head I was like, "Kid, if you spoil my overtures of niceness with your sassy ways, I will be most displeased."
But I was back in gear today, trying to talk. NG and I talked about the weather (cold, because it rained yesterday) and the weekend (he's not doing anything special, I'm going to Easter music services at my church). Then we joked a bit about Walk-to-School-Mingi because Mingi came up to NG and just clinged to him, staying in a hug. I told Mingi that I wanted a hug because I never get them (untrue if we're talking about 1st-graders). Mingi looked puzzled but I told him I was just joking. Ah it's a start, it's a start.
Last night, Artist Joohyun texted me to let me know he'd gotten 2nd in his class on the English listening test. You go, smart little artist! I was so proud of him. At first I didn't know who was texting because I have 4 students named Joohyun, but to confirm his identity he sent me a picture of the note I'd given him in December, which went along with his birthday present.
He's saved the note all these months. And it had numbers scrawled at the bottom--he'd written down my birthday on the note, so he wouldn't forget. I was so very touched by Joohyun's thoughtfulness.
Today, I went walking with one of the other female teachers whose name I can't remember. She and I had a good walk and a good talk and she told me that the atmosphere was good and that it had been a fun time for her, too. Swear I will get her name later. While I was waiting for her on the front porch, BY attacked me and nearly scared me to death. He thought it was hilarious and so did HH, who was watching and who might have encouraged him to do it. I told BY that I'd kill him for it, but I'd do it later when he wasn't expecting it.
Sat next to Jaehyung and across from Inha at lunch--the teachers had almost all moved out, so me and another lady let them sit by us and we gave them our extra desserts. I found out that Inha has been taking care of rabbits out behind the school--one white and one brown one. I saw the white one the other day. It has beautiful pink ears and red eyes.
Sleepy Moonshik asked for my number at the Lunchtime Games, as did Afro-Jiwoong and Myeongbae. I'm expected lots of vaguely-English texts in the near future.
Twin-Eunjae wanted to know if I had double eyelid surgery and Twin-Eungyo wanted to know if I dyed my hair. I told them that my eyes and hair just came this way. It's an American thing.
-----------------------------------
4:40 PM Great day! My last class was full of sweet babies (new kids: Jihoo by Jiyoon, and Giseong by Jinhyuk, Bin by Jongmin). I got the usual flirting from Jeongmook ("what color is lipstick, teacher?") and cleverness from Jongmin, who translated me for the whole rest of the class.
My afterschool boys Dongjoon and Jinhyuk are in this class, and I think we scooted our rapport ahead a few steps during. Jinhyuk had a stomachache, so I fussed over him. Then when the students were doing practice sentences saying "My favorite teacher is..." I did sentences saying "My favorite student is Jinhyuk" and "My favorite student is Dongjoon".
To clarify, I've generally stopped outright telling students they are favorites, because nobody really gets the joke. Sometimes I've had to randomly choose a kid for a game or choose one to give the right answer and when the others ask why he was picked instead of them, I joke "Because he's my favorite," but no one understands that I'm trying to be funny.
But anyhoo, Jinhyuk and Dongjoon were the only students who could hear me at the time and I wanted to say something special about them. So it went okay--they seemed to feel the warmth and nobody got offended at being left out.
Jiyoon, one of my most severe trouble-younguns in afterschool, did a good speaking practice with his partner and he said I was his favorite teacher because I'm pretty. I was also pleased at how many students said SG2 was their favorite teacher because she's beautiful, and according to one boy "because like an angel". Dude. That's pretty poetic for a 1st-grader. I also let Jihoo, Jiyoon, and some of the neighboring kids hold my hair, which according to them is "soft" and "amazing". This was a pretty sweet and angelic class, considering that last week I had to have them all put their heads down on their desks in punishment.
Little Bin in the front row really wants to be noticed. When Jeongmook said, "Teacher, I see you every morning," Bin said, "Me too! Every morning I see you! You not...hello! You not." So little Bin feels neglected because I don't yet recognize him in the vast throng of babies who walk to school near me. He said, "When see me, 나의 이름 불러줘요!" (say my name please!)
So today on the walk home when Jeongwook rode past and said, "Goodbye, I love you Teacher!" I said "bye Jeongmook!" and when little Bin rode his bike past, purposely slowing down to say "Goodbye Leigh Teacher" very carefully so I'd have time to see him and respond, I got to reply, "Bye, Bin!"
SG2 came to my office to ask me out into the hallway to double-check the Englsih exam she'd made up. It was perfect, and it made me really happy. She's such a delightful person and I feel like we're not many steps away from being real buddies.
During English-Questions in the office, I got tired of thinking of questions so I told the boys they had to ask me questions in English. The lower level boys did good, solid questions like how old are you, what's you favorite food, when's your birthday, where were you born, but to my delight the higher levels started gaming the system.
Because I didn't specify what kind of English questions, my awesome Gyuchan decide to ask ridiculously impractical questions. Such as: "I'm am a boy. Are you a girl? No..are you woman?" I haven't laughed so hard all week. It was just so unexpected, after everyone else had tried a direct information-getting approach. I never thought someone would do something funny, asking questions they already knew the answers to.
And the English-Questions are getting so fun. Differing groups of boys will circulate it, joking and helping each other figure out the English. I used to stop the high levels from translating for the low levels (thinking that it would keep them from learning for themselves), but then I noticed that if a High-Level translated for a Low-Level, then when the High-Level left the room, the Low-Level would translate for the next Low-Level.
They were actually learning. By listening to what the advanced students said, the less advanced students learned what "When did you wake up this morning?" and "what did you eat for breakfast?" meant. They laugh at each other's mistakes, but they also applaud when someone gets in a good answer, and it's just super fun. They are listening so carefully, waiting to hear what kind of question they will get, so they can be prepared.
Just got a small flurry of texts from beautiful little Sleepy Moonshik, who told me "hwaiting!" when I said I was working on English lessons. Encouragement is a grand thing.
----------------------------------
