Much ado about nothing

While walking to the bus stop yesterday I was flagged down by three of my 석성 Seokseong students: Sienna, Lucy, and Victoria. It was really cute - they were out of breath from chasing me down because I was listening to my iPod so I couldn't hear them calling me. Apparently they were at some computer class after school, which is why they were at 석양 Seokyang.

So there are really no updates since yesterday, but since Mr. Kim just gave me this news three minutes ago - "The extracurricular class is not," I have until 2:30 to do nothing really until we leave for the teachers' bonding/hiking/picnic/dinner. We just ate a giant lunch, so once again I don't know why we're going on a picnic then dinner. Classes have even been rearranged so that we can leave at 2:30 instead of 3:30.

Speaking of lunch, the Korean food is really growing on me. I think the main problem can really be linked to the smell, which usually ranges from inoffensive (rice, bibimbap) to tolerable (seaweed soup) to completely horrendous (tofu soup). Often the cafeteria simply REEKS, and this was what was really turning me off during the summer. But now I can usually eat/tolerate most of the cafeteria food. There's always rice, soup, kimchi, and two side dishes, and typically I can eat three or four of these things. Recently we've been eating a lot of what I privately refer to as "garbage soup"... that is, they've just taken everything they have in the kitchen and thrown it into a bowl and added water. This means tofu, bean sprouts, Spam/some meat, mushrooms, egg... you name it, they've got it. It's not too bad. Yesterday we even had a potato-type soup with vegetables. Sometimes when I'm out to eat I get this as a side dish: 물 국 (mul gook) aka... water soup. Yep, it translates directly to "water soup." Yummy, right? It's just broth, really, but the name cracks me up.

Yesterday the sixth grade was absolutely awful. Some days they're okay, some days they're really good, and some days they just don't want to do anything. Monday they irritated me by not paying attention, so they had to sit and do kkamji (writing) until the end of class, then I assigned them homework of writing a sentence for each vocabulary word. I specifically said to make REAL sentences, not "This is chalk. This is a pencil." etc. So yesterday I made a seating chart for their after-school classes because by now I know who talks, who knows a lot of English, who never says anything, who's friends with whom, etc. This went over like a ton of bricks. I've never heard sixth graders whine about anything so much. So then I look at their homework, and typically a bunch made sentences like, "My pencil. My eraser." I was like, "I told you this isn't good."

Then after I checked their homework, a bunch of them packed up their stuff and just left! I asked Mr. Kim what was going on, and apparently since this is an after-school class, participation is voluntary and they didn't feel like participating (likely because of the assigned seats). Great. So the rest of the class kept working, and maybe half of them were still being obnoxious. I went around and picked out the handful of kids that were actually working, and then I told everyone else to just get out. They looked really confused, and I pointed at the door and said, "If you don't want to pay attention and work, then get out. Leave. The students who want to learn can stay." Well then they're all, "Sorry, Teacher, I want to stay!" Then they shaped up. But this one girl and boy were playing on her cell phone two minutes later, so I kicked them both out.

I had really had it up to here, and since this class wasn't mandatory, then I didn't feel they were missing out on important curriculum learning that they would have to make up at some point. If they don't want to learn, then they can get out. I know some teachers use a reward system in their after-school classes because that gives the kids an incentive to learn, but I don't really know how I feel about that. I don't want to bribe them to learn since they have already chosen to be in this class. I don't mind rewarding them for hard work, but I also want them to realize being in class is a privilege and they're not doing me a favor by coming and being disruptive. I think I'll introduce a system they can understand. They all really like soccer, so I think I'll start red- and yellow-carding them. Yellow for warnings, and red means they're ejected from the class. The sixth grade teacher is very helpful - she's previously told me I can send noisy students to her. Today Mr. Kim told me she said she was sorry her students were so poorly behaved and that she was punishing them by making them sit in the back of the classroom writing English kkamji for a week. It's nice that she backs me up. I think I just need to do a better job managing the classroom though.

The thing is, the kids really are great. They are just noisy and don't listen in class. They're so great outside class though (some even while in class). One of my third graders, Aaron, comes up to me every day now and says, "Hello, Miss Kretch. How is the weather today?" I think this is the only English he really knows. And in class he's always demonstrating the "be quiet" index finger on the mouth. They (try and) ask me how my weekend was. They applaud me and are impressed when I can write anything in Korean. They give me orange slices and follow me around. In short, they are just kids with attention span problems - in other words, just kids. Actually, my affection for them is a problem sometimes because I can't really get angry at them! I'll put on my teacher glare and it will crack because they do something cute or funny. Though I haven't had a lot of trouble with this in the sixth grade lately.

The kids at Seokyang refer to me as Miss Kretch, Miss Kretchy, or just Teacher. The kids at Seokseong refer to me as Theresa Teacher or just Teacher. Mr. Kim introduced me as Miss Kretch, but it's pretty standard here to be known by your first name + teacher. In Korean people are addressed by their titles rather than just Mr. or Mrs. For example, Principal Oh, Head Teacher Chung, Teacher Kim, etc. Additionally, in Korean these words are reversed, so you get Oh Principal, Chung Head Teacher, Kim Teacher - this is what's responsible for "Theresa Teacher" instead of "Teacher Theresa." Literally - Theresa 선성님 (seonseongnim).

Teacher Kim = Kim Teacher = 김선성님

It's very exciting that I'm learning to read Korean. Granted, I have no idea what it means, but I can read some of it! I actually recognize symbols and sounds - it's not all gibberish anymore. My newest goal is to learn Korean money. This will make my life five times better because as of now, I still rely on reading the cashier's computer or whatever is available.

At the moment I've gotten Mr. Kim to translate, "Thank you for your help," so I can thank the sixth grade homeroom teacher. This will probably occupy my time until we leave for the bonding.

당신의 도움여 감사합니다 = dangsin-ui doum-yo kam-sa-hab-nida

Yes, definitely going to take me a while.