Emotional attachment to students comes early.
John is my current favorite. He is a smart little cookie who knows the capitals, flags, and locations of pretty much every country in the world. He finishes the daily math worksheet as fast as I do. (He's technically only 6 years old.) When my teaching partner, Jeena, is out of the room, he suddenly becomes the interpreter/translator for the students who can't express what they need to in English. He might eat his lunch like a chipmunk, stowing massive amounts of rice and seaweed away in his puffy little cheeks, but I absolutely love him.
He was out sick today with a cold and since the school and all of Korea is completely paranoid about Swine Flu, his mom was instructed to keep him at home today. I find it interesting how all the Koreans I've met so far are total germophobes, yet you're expected to reach into a communal bowl at mealtime with the chopsticks/spoon you just had in your mouth. Just an observation.
I definitely could have used his translating abilities during lunch. The kids like to talk about me in Korean because I look confused and they think I look funny when I'm confused. I keep telling them that one day I'll know perfect Korean and then I'll get them in trouble for saying mean things about me. They always laugh and say, "So silly, Cally Teacher."
A typical lunch scene
(from left: Sally, Ethan, Dorothy, Belle, John)
One of the rules in the classroom is "English only" so whenever I hear someone speaking Korean (besides lunchtime) I say, "English only please! No speaking Korean." So whenever John tries, in English, to translate their Korean conversations for me during lunch, the others always shout, "Ohh! Hangul mal het da!" ("Ohh! You spoke Korean!") They love to imitate.
Musical chair?
Sally, Belle, and Ethan not wanting to be seen reading Animalia.
Today I had the chance to read an entry, and I'm noticing your pupil's names sound very western. Are those their real names or "english" names?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the exact thing as Giles. What western names! Sally? No one's used that name since 1968! So funny. Those kids are adorable!! The lunch photos is interesting; it looks like they eat a very healthy lunch. Is that a standard "school lunch?" It sure would help the obesity epidemic over here if kids started eating rice and seaweed....
ReplyDeleteAlmost every kid at the school has a western name to make it easier for the Westerners teaching their English classes to remember their names. All of the kids have Korean names, but they can choose to use a western name. Yi-Young's parents don't want her to have a western name, so she just goes by her Korean name.
ReplyDeleteThe lunches are generally pretty healthy. They always have rice and soup, then a vegetable, some meat, and one tiny piece of "junk food". Today the junk food was two pieces of General Tso-like chicken.
Now THAT'S funny: "junk food" is General Tso's like chicken - something Americans will eat by the plate full. Apparently we have something to learn about nutrition from the Koreans. This could make a good article about school lunches in Korea vs the USA. Have you noticed any kids with ADHD there yet?
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely kids that have trouble focusing. I also recently discovered that the food here is not nearly as healthy as it seems (see Lesson 25). The meat they eat is usually very fatty and there is high sodium content in a lot of their foods. Even if Koreans still eat unhealthy food, the overwhelming difference is, like the rest of the world vs. the US, portion sizes.
ReplyDeleteCally. its julia. i absolutely LOVE this blog! to tell you the truth... this is the first time I've looked at it. but I'm glad i did! your students are adorable and they seem to like you a lot. I'm jealous. i can' wait o see you and we all miss you here! i hope your having a good time! love you!
ReplyDelete