Cheolho is the undisputed artistic champ. We have a lot of talented artists, but not many people can draw a convincing dragon-attacking-a-boar-monster pictures.
Or tiger-fights-a-wolf-over-a-rabbit pictures....
Yechan, a bright and cheery fellow, drew this little gem when I had them write stories about potatoes:
Note The Handsomeness. This Root-Based Vegetable is a Stunner.
Also Yechan's.
The boys are really catching on to the "hero" and "villain" vocabulary I've been trying to teach, too.
Changho Knows the Easter Bunny is a Hero.
Then we come to Leader-Jaehoon, my beautiful sidekick. I couldn't figure out why he wanted to know "name of the smallest animals. Smaller than beetle and ants". I spelled out "micro-organism" for him, wondering how on earth he could work that word into a bunny story, but he did. He also manages a reference to April Fools, a holiday he was bent on celebrating with gusto.
Do You Believe This Story?
Intelligent-Eunseong from my Saturday did a great job, practically writing an essay:
And CoolGuy-Hyunseo was the only student to write a zombie bunny story. That takes chutzpah.
Glasses-Seongmin wrote about a rabbit with the ability to fly...
And he drew good illustrations on the back, too.
But my favorite story probably comes from little Hyungkeun, about a lying rabbit who steals a golden carrot from a king. The story has all the marks of a grand, dramatic fairytale straight from a nursery book and contains one of the most poetic lines ever, which is almost iambic pentameter:
And He Has The King's Golden Carrot Yet.
C-Jeongmin came by to give me gum and chat. He brought me a list of high-level vocabulary he's having to learn for hagwon. I think words like "medical" and "performance" when I had to carefully explain the phrase "you can do it" to him, but I'm super super thrilled that he thought to ask me about them. I'd love for the students to ask me more questions about English work.
And C-Jeongmin was accompanied by another kid I didn't know (actually, C-Jeongmin is usually being hugged by some other boy while he visits. All the kids are at least medium-affectionate with others, but C-Jeongmin is even more so, and I almost always see him wrapped within the arms of another student. They hold him upright while he talks with me.)
Anyhoo, this other kid couldn't quite place the relationship between me and C-Jeongmin and was quite surprised that C-Jeongmin was asking me about his homework, giving me candy, flipping through my poetry book, etc. He asked in Korean, "Do you like this sem?" which made me laugh. Then the kid himself laughed because he didn't know I could speak Korean and my laughter surprised him.
I explained that C-Jeongmin was my student and sort of gestured my hand between us to indicate that we knew each other well. In Korean, you might say we have "정"(jeong), something like "affection, attachment, compassion, familiarity".
Jeong is what I mean when I say that a student is "my kid". Or when I say that now I know them and I can't un-know them. It's the state of somebody really being on your radar. Maybe you don't always like them (me and Sanghwa, back in the day), maybe they're terribly annoying (lookin' at you, Jinhyuk and Dongjoon), but the empathy doesn't go away. Jeong is a lot like the love of Christ, in that way. I don't really understand divine unconditional love, not at all, but I do understand jeong because I feel it.
-----------------------
2 PM: Had a good two classes and a good lunch. Cool Guy Hyunseo in 1st grade told me I was funny, like it was the best revelation ever; "Teacher. You're funny." If there's one thing I like better than being told I"m smart it's being told I'm funny. That lights up my day. 1st-graders did a really good job of singing "My Favorite Things," too. We learned a lot about beats and rhythms in songs.
Before lunch, Jeongmin caught up with me and asked if I wanted to walk with him, just us, and pick flowers with him after lunch. I just can't. For one thing, I was going to be walking with the other teachers, and for another, I knew he was trying to get me away from the other 2nd-graders.
Jeongmin's gotten tired of sharing me with 10+ other students at lunch, but that was the whole idea, for me--that I could see a lot of students and check in on their lives, and Jeongmin could bond with other students, which he desperately needs because he must forge social ties.
But now he asks if I'm not getting bored playing the same games every day. Yeah, it's dull but I'm not looking for excitement, I'm looking to take care of people. To see if Hyo or Kyeongwon or Eungyo needs anything. Also, I can't go flower-picking with him because it is so clearly supposed to be romantic. And he's already doing as much putting-arm-around-teacher-to-lead-her-in-the-chosen-direction stuff as is feasible. I try not to shake him off, but I also don't follow his lead.
How to be his friend and part of his support system without becoming too important? How to set limits for him without getting annoyed? Gotta pray, gotta pray.
Came back from lunch to find Hyunho sitting in my computer chair, playing Solitaire. He and Jeongmin had a bit of a tiff in Sa-ban, which led to Jeongmin leading some kids in a Monopoly game and Hyunho leading UNO. I just observed both games for awhile and sang along with the radio that was playing from the school speakers, until Duck-Subin rudely asked me to stop. But I was so happy that the duckling spoke, I ruffled his hair and stopped singing for awhile.
Hyunho's just more assertive in general lately. After Jeongmin followed me most of the way to the lunch room, trying to hold my elbow the whole time, Hyunho dashed up after Jeongmin left. Hyunho patted my arm in front of all the 3rd-graders in the lunch line, saying "Teacher, thank you!" I asked what he was thanking me for, and he just kept smiling and thanking, before running away. Maybe he just wanted to remind me that were were supposed to play games today?
-------------------------------------------
9:30 PM Good day. I don't have time to really write, but the upshot of the day was this:
Cheolho in my afterschool is the most lovely child in the world. I was scanning the crowd while I played "Frozen" for the kids, and they all looked totally wrapped up in it, but Cheolho was the next step beyond--he was rapturous. I think I gave Cheolho another little slice of my hear after seeing his precious face smiling so happily at the antics of an animated snowman.
Little-Hyungkeun in afterschool seemed glad that I sat with him through the movie, and he summoned up his courage to make a prediction in English. As the cartoon character Olaf neared the fireplace, he told me quietly: "I think the snowman will melt." I patted his back and told him he was right.
Leader-Jaehoon and I now have a secret handshake. I can retire, now. I've reached the pinnacle.
When school was over, I told Jaehyung from the special needs room that we should walk home together. I thought he'd just run on, but after I changed my shoes I found him on the front porch, waiting for me. And it was a good thing too, because we had an unexpected cold snap and an unexpected cold rain, and Jaehyung didn't have an umbrella and I did. So we walked the 15 minutes home arm-in-arm, shielded from the gale-force rain my by industrial strength umbrella.
He asked me in Korean how to say "cherry blossom" in English, and he thought it sounded ridiculous. In korean the flowers are called "but-coat" which sounds dreadful to my ears. We sang "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and we had as much conversation as we could. I asked how his was, he said it was depressing.
While I was out at dinner, Daesung called me! We talked for a while, but phone convos are nearly impossible with language barriers this big. It was good to hear from my boy, though.
I saw my graduated student Heechan in town. Seems like a world ago that he was fighting with Wooseok over who got to sit by me at UNO. We smiled and said hi--he looks like he's doing well.
On my walk back to my apartment, I heard "Sem!" behind me. It was Yeongchang, one street away, waving and smiling. That's a nice sight to end the day on.
----------------------------------------------------------
