10:45 AM: Had two good classes.
2-1, 2-2 A was beautiful. We played our forest game--well, mostly Euigi played it--and everyone was pleasantly going bananas. There was such shrieking and wailing, mostly from Byeonghyun and Seongmo, the former of which tried to scare me by grabbing my shoulder and saying "boo". Byeonghyun, you forget that I have brothers.
At the end of class, I hung around for a few minutes to let Artist-Joohyun play the game for two minutes. I offered it to HH, who had been kicking up a fuss over Euigi getting picked to play instead of him, but he opted not to. Joohyunnie had fun and said he'd come to my office during lunchtime to play.
But Saturday-Jeongmin's already coming to play at lunch. And the 3rd-graders will be wanting their UNO time. I'm triple-booked for lunch.
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12:00 PM Holy moly, there has been a schedule change. The class I taught at 11:40 has been switched permanently to 10:45, meaning that on Thursdays I'll teach three classes back to back. Oy vey. But the good news is, I have the rest of the day free!
At 10:56, Hunmin from 2-5, 2-6 A came to get me, telling me there'd been a schedule change. I went upstairs to find my B-class boys sitting alone in a room with no coteacher, even. I went downstairs for my materials, and we played our forest game.
I got new names, too: Jeongho is the twin in this class, Jonghoon is the bespectacled kid who told me he was an "English ace," Kangjae is the big kid who was so rude to KBR-Teacher he had to have detention, and Munseong taught me how to say "I love you" in Korean, though I knew how to say it already. I thought Munseong was just repeatedly telling me "I love you," but then he followed it up with "saranghaeyo" and it became clear that he was trying to teach me Korean. So. Cute.
In 1-9, 1-10 B, Seonghoonie and Governor-Yunho were the main players for the forest game, and everyone had a good time.
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12:50 PM Ate lunch early so I could be here when Jeongmin and crew came by.
One really smart 3rd-grader named Hobeom played the forest game in the break between classes. He's got good English, and I was looking for an excuse to talk to him.
Jeongmin and crew came to my office and played the game for a good 15 minutes. It was wonderful, 6 1st-graders crowded around the desk, getting more and more invested in the game as time passed.
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1:30 PM Played UNO in the math room with Jaehyung, Byeongsu, Myeongchun, and one kid who insists on saying that his name is No Comment. We had fun, then the 3rd-graders came in, looking betrayed that I'd been playing with other kids. I had hoped that we could all play together, but I should have known that the hyungs would kick the underclassmen out.
Well, they did let Jaehyung stay in the game, and Myeongchun stayed in the room, observing. I could have gotten the other two boys to stay, but I could tell they'd rather be elsewhere. Sometimes the age gap between boys doesn't matter, and sometimes it's a wide gulf.
We had a fun couple of games, though I had to prod Tiny-Mimic-Jaehwan to use his "yo" ending with me, because he was speaking too informally. Did the same thing this morning with a 1st-grader who was saying "na! na! na!" to get my attention. "Na" is the informal way to say "me," and as soon as I raised an eyebrow at him, he changed it to "jeo! jeo! jeo!" (formal, polite "me"). 'Twas funny.
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2:40 PM: Jinhwan and Jaehwan were in the hallway quizzing G-Teacher, a young Korean English instructor, about how to ask me for chocolate. Since they asked sweetly, I gave them some.
Still showing C-Class Jeongmin and Spritely Youngchang how to play Canon in D. I think it's a month-long sort of project.
Governor-Yunho, Bossy Dongseok and two other B-class 1st graders came by the office to play the forest game. Then 3rd-grade Hobeom came back for another round. It's the game of the century, according to the student body. Had to remind Dongseok yet again to call me Sem, not "hey man".
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3:30 PM Played UNO in the special needs room and was part of a serious ongoing discussion about my hair. I often let Yeongchang play with my hair because he's still young and because it makes him happy. But he does get it just a teensy bit tangled, so this time I brought him my hairbrush and O-Teacher showed him how to use it. Yeongchang proceeded to brush my hair for ten minutes, happy as a clam, while I played UNO with Inha and Jaehyung and Seongwon.
Yeongchang said "Hair..your hair. Is my toy." He learned that grammar form from Inha, who is fond of saying that his friends are toys. It was nice to see Yeongchang applying an English phrase he learned to a situation that warranted it. The boys said I have "saja meorikaragi"...it translates to "lion hair". Daesung wanted to know if we had lions in America. I said only in zoos.
Also, some other kid was standing nearby (Yeongshik?) and that kid said something about "waygookin..." which means foreigner. I don't think he was trying to outright label me as a foreigner--which is not an insult, because I am a foreigner, but it's a tad dehumanizing--I think he was pointing out the difference between Korean hair and foreign hair. But Yeongchang just went off on this kid in Korean: "What did you say? She's not 'foreigner,' she's 'Sem,' okay?!??" It was such a kind thing to say. I haven't taught this boy a single time, but to him, I'm his teacher.
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6:10 PM Good day, all around. Offered to let somebody play the forest game in afterschool, and Jinseop leaped at the chance, since he didn't get to play it during his own class during the week. Sanghwa was quite interested in watching the game play and asked me to turn the volume up.
I spent a lot of time talking with Byeonghyun about the logistics of the game, and also about where the 2nd-graders are going on their field trip tomorrow. Some famous mountain with beautiful scenery all around it. When I told Sanghwa to have fun at the field trip tomorrow, he said "No fun." I said, "No, you'll have a good time!" He replied, "No, no good time, not this, no." Sanghwa's too cool for mountains.
Saturday-Jeongmin met me at the bus-stop corner and offered me a bit of his fish-cake-on-a-stick. I obliged, and it was really tasty. He said he'd see me tomorrow and Saturday, but then I had to break it to him that I'd be gone on a business trip on Saturday and someone else would be teaching him. Baby boy was not pleased at this turn of events. But still, I get to see him tomorrow.
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