Progress

Teaching this week has been remarkable. First of all, on Tuesday I got my quiet class (even the Troublesome Trio of boys) to participate and talk in class by playing a vocabulary game. This class actually turned out to be pretty fun once you get them out of their shell.

Second of all, I've been doing report cards. I finished two of my classes' report cards last night-- it took me an hour to do each class. This proved to be challenging in some ways. It was hard to think of something to write for the students who don't stand out in my mind. It was also hard to think of a nice way to say that certain students were awful and deserve F's but our school can only give D's. I enjoyed doing the report cards for my good, favorite students.

I had to choose two "students of the month" which was very hard. At first, I chose Tom and Joan. Tom is this incredibly sweet 6th grader who is extremely smart, always does his homework, always answers in class. He is such a sweetie, always asking me questions about my life and seeking every opportunity he can to speak English. Joan is the "lifesaver" in my class of dead middle schoolers (the Stephanie Morel clone, actually)...she's the only one who talks so she always answers my questions, she's very smart and a very hardworker. So I turned their names in yesterday and today I was told that I can't have Joan because she was student of the month last month (I guess everybody loves her!). So I debated for a long time and finally ended up choosing Christina, one of my 4th graders. She is probably the nicest girl ever, always smiling, and she is so eagar to participate in class that it comes down to her standing up and jumping up and raising her hand. She has gotten perfect scores on all her tests too. So...I think she was a good choice. :)

Today we talked about why Koreans (or other people) come to America. There were the answers like "to study English" or "to work" or "because America is rich." My favorite answer, however, came from my student Jane who said, "Because that's where Melissa teacher lives, and she is very famous!" Cracked me up. This particular class is insane but so sweet. Another girl in class, Sarah, asked me about this exchange program that YES is putting on in Canada. She asked how close Ontario is to Michigan (my students are all convinced that Michigan is part of Canada)and I said that it was the province that was directly above Michigan and that I had been there many times. She got very excited and told me that she will do the program if and only if I'm back in America at that time so she can come see me. Ohhhh kids. Definitely made my day.

In my second class of the day, my students gave me my Korean name. My name in Korean is "Emily" apparently. Except it's pronounced "Eee-mah-ree." I don't know Korean characters on this computer, otherwise I could write it out in Korean. So that is what they are calling me now.

More of my lion-ness came out today. There is one boy in my first class that always talks to his friends instead of paying attention in class. Today I handed out the vocabulary test and told everyone to be quiet and work on their exams. This kid was playing with a little finger skateboard and totally ignoring his test, and occasionally turning around to talk to his friend behind him. I told him four times to turn around and work on his test. After each time, he would turn around and work on part of his test, then turn back around. Finally after the fourth time when he turned around again, I took his test away. Everyone else in the class was finished with their test by this time. He turned and his jaw dropped and he went, "Teaaaacccherr I'm not finisssshhhheed." I said, "Yes you are. I told you four times to work on your test and you didn't. So you're done." He pouted and said, "Teacher is bad." A few minutes later he was completely undaunted by this act again. Oh well. Hopefully this will teach him a lesson. Hopefully.

That's all the stories for today. :)

Pictures!

By request of my dearest "Apa" (Dad), here are some more photos.

The pictures of the food are just some yummy Korean dishes, the first one with the egg is "bibimbap" and the second one was just dumplings, multi-colored ones though!! The pictures of the buildings are the palace is Seoul, it was huge! And the last one is of me and Alison drinking Starbucks in Itaewon (the "foreigner" area of Seoul). Enjoy!

Settling in

I feel like I'm getting used to living in Korea. There are some things that are very different about living here, but I'm starting to forget about the culture shock of it all. However...here are some of the big differences here that I am not too fond of yet.

First of all, Korean drivers! My students told me one day that they heard that America has very strict driving rules, which I never would have thought about before coming here. It seems to me that the "rules" of driving in Korea are really just guidelines. Stoplights, for example. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to run red lights here. Today I went to this giant grocery store (Home Plus) with Alison and Patrick and we had to take a cab. Our driver was insane. Not only did he speed like a mad man, he went straight through every red light without even slowing down, he weaved in and out of traffic (including pulling into the other lane to pass cars), and he honked his horn at other cars who were driving normally. Patrick was sitting in the front seat clutching the "oh crap!" bar above the window and Alison and I were in the back trying hard not to laugh hysterically. I have never feared for my life more. Fortunately we got to Home Plus safely. Don't worry, Daddy-- most cab drivers aren't THAT bad and I'm generally safe in them. ;-)

I also am not a fan of the bathrooms here. I found that I have a place to put the hose in my sink so it can kind of act as a shower head, but I still have to bend down to get my hair wet. You know something is low to the ground when I of all people have to crouch to get under it. I'm getting used to it but I will not miss Korean bathrooms I don't think.:)

Actually, I think those are my two biggest grievances at this point. :) I went to an English-speaking church this weekend where all the "foreigners" were extremely kind and invited me to sit with them and eat lunch with them after the service. This weekend was Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving, so I had a nice long weekend. It's back to work tomorrow, but thanks to all this extra time I got caught up on all my essay grading. Yay!

The students...

The two classes that are presenting the most obstacles are polar opposite. The first class is my MWF class that I have at 4pm. They are quite the handful but they are great. It is hard to get them to be quiet which is great when I'm asking questions or asking for volunteers to read-- they especially are good at having class discussions about the reading. But when it's time for the quizzes or tests they still don't quiet down and they talk to each other during the test. So far, no one is cheating as I can tell from their quiz grades but it still isn't good.

My other class that is a challenge is my TR class at 7pm. This class...does not talk. Period. One girl in the class does all the question-answering and volunteers for reading. I feel bad because I have to ignore her hand sometimes and call on people. In particular, there are three boys in the back of the class who just don't talk in English at all, even when I stand in front of their desks and ask questions directly to them. Finally on Thursday, I got so frustrated because they were talking to each other in Korean and ignoring me that I assigned everyone in class a question to answer and made it a requirement that they answer. Two of the boys answered their questions right away with as minimal an answer as possible, but the other boy tried to get out of it by saying, "I don't know." I pointed him to a paragraph in the book where he could find the answer and he finally answered when he realized I wasn't going to let him off the hook. These boys also haven't done any of their homework so far, including the online essays that are worth 25 points.

There are definitely some fun things about class though. In the previously mentioned rowdy class, the girls give me notes and pictures that they drew at the end of class that say things like, "We love you teacher!" and "You are very kind!" and things like that. They also tend to draw things for me on the back of their tests, which is really funny. The boys in that class are a bit smart alecky at times, but it's more of something I can joke around with them about rather than a nuisance.

Starting my second week of teaching today. Here goes nothing!

Teaching

I teach five classes, three on MWF and two on Tuesday and Thursday. So far I am enjoying my MWF classes the most. My first class is really rowdy and a bit on the obnoxious side at times, but they're cute. Yesterday when the bell rang, one of students ran up to me and said, "Teacher, I made this for you" and she handed me a folded up piece of paper. I opened it and she had drawn hearts and smileys all over the paper and then wrote, "You is very good teacher!" It made my whole night.

My other two classes those days are quieter and more polite. Yesterday I had one of the classes write skits to act out in front of class, and they had a ton of fun doing them so that was good. I'm trying to figure out ways to make class more fun, you know, teaching grammar can be a little dry sometimes to people who don't understand how fascinating it really is. :)

The other teachers here are very nice and helpful when it comes to things like knowing where to grocery shop or where to go for internet connections. I got to school three hours early today (story there) and so I am using the free wireless here right now.

This morning, Alison and I went to the Immigration Office to apply for our Alien Registration Cards. We just got back our hospital results last night (good news, neither of us have AIDs or Tuberculosis...phew!)and so this morning we had to take those along with our Passports and some other paperwork to the Immigration Office. They took everything and told us to come back on September 18 to get our cards. One step closer to being a legal alien...

That's about all the news I have for today. The good thing is that I love teaching, so this year won't be awful...woohoo!