Last Friday was the first day of the 2012 school year, so I have a whole new group of first graders (14 year olds) and let me tell you, they are SO CUTE. Some of them are extremely tiny, and there is nothing cuter than a tiny Korean boy in glasses, a tweed suit, and tie. They are bug-eyed and fearful of middle school, which makes them even more lovable because they are too scared to cause trouble (yet). They're tremendously excited over the lunchtime movies thing, and I've had a huge crowd the past few days. One of the littlest, cutest ones who screws up his courage to say hi to me in the hallways gave me a thumbs up and "Yeonghwa good!" (yeonghwa = movie) Sadly, my new co-teacher is a first grade homeroom teacher, and she said one of her boys was so scared he didn't go to the bathroom and ended up peeing himself in class. Poor kid!
I've given my first day of school speech about fifteen times by this point, and it's getting old. I'm going to crack down on tardies and swearing this semester because I have absolutely had it with their perpetual lateness. The school has bells, but it's like no one goes to class until after they hear the bell, including the teachers. I'm pretty sure I am the only teacher in the school who is actually in the classroom waiting for the kids to show up, though to be fair I stay in my room and everyone else travels to the kids. Anyway, because the teachers are always late, I feel like the kids don't care about being on time. Well, I do. Even my co-teachers stroll up several minutes late. I don't really care because I will just start class, and I hope they don't feel uncomfortable that I'm starting without them, but I don't want to just stare at 30some kids waiting.
I've also had it up to hear with hearing, "Puck-uh you!!" "Teacher, he say puck-uh!!" (There's no "f" in Korean, so f=p.) Other words I've banned from the classroom:
stupid
pig
loser
I've been using students to demonstrate being in your seat when the bell rings, so I ask the kids, "What's this?" "Chair!" Then I point to the student and say, "Who's this?" and today's third grader was a chubby boy, and some unkind student decided to say, "Pig!" Now, to be fair, I've been told by a Korean teacher before that the word pig isn't as offensive as it is in English... it can mean chubby and cute, but I don't think this boy meant it like that. Then all the students laughed. I didn't want to freak out on him, but I did give him a glare and made sure to tell the students "pig" was on the list of bad words they were not supposed to say.
I've distributed questionnaires to the new third graders. I don't really follow the textbook for the third grade, so we kind of do whatever topics I feel like, so I decided to have the kids fill out a survey to find out what kind of stuff they'd like to do. It was pretty extensive and was in both Korean and English. There was a topics section (what would you like to learn about... slang? History? Korea? America? Movies? etc), a learning section (I like to learn by a) speaking b) reading c) writing d) listening.... I learn best by a/b/c/d.... I learn best working a) by myself b) with a partner c) in a group), a circling section (I like/don't like English) and a free writing section (anything you'd like to tell me?)
After tallying two classes, I've found that about 16 students like English, 52 don't, and six don't know how to circle an answer. Movies and food are overwhelmingly popular subjects (the kids probably think we will eat food and watch movies, haha). Sports is less popular than you'd think, though it's up there. This semester we're also having a competition for each grade to win a pizza party. Korean kids have pretty good stone faces, so I can't tell if they're excited or not. My best feedback was one third grade boy who used his free writing section to write, "I want pizza!"
I have several new students, and one of my new third grade boys used the free writing opportunity to tell me this:
1. How do you do, my teacher?
2. Nice to meet you.
P.S. I love you, lol.
I'm not sure about the "lol" bit, but the manners in numbers one and two are encouraging.
On another note, my principal used to be an English teacher, so once a week I go to her office and we chat for about 45 minutes. Today I went in and I was telling her about my trip home, and I mentioned how my mom made salmon for me because I really like salmon. She got excited and went to her mini-fridge because apparently she has a friend in Alaska who (somehow) sent her home-cured salmon. It was basically fish pieces in a plastic bag, aka the exact opposite of everything lovely about American-prepared salmon. I politely declined, claiming I wasn't hungry because I'd just eaten lunch, but she insisted I take some. Yet another instance in the eat-food-I-really-would-prefer-not-to-but-will-do-so-in-the-name-of-politeness-and-cultural-sensitivity saga that is my life in Korea.
We had about 50% of the teaching staff change for the new year, so there are lots of new faces. I have three new co-teachers who all seem like nice ladies. Nothing too much to report there. The strangest thing is a lot of the new teachers appear to not only speak pretty good English, but I've actually had three of them seek me out to speak to me, which is completely un-Korean of them. Usually I find out after about three months that people speak English. They're just really shy. Anyway, I'm reserving judgement on one of them. He's the hanja teacher, so I will refer to him as the hanja teacher. Basically, back in the day Korean used to be written with Chinese characters and it wasn't until King Sejong (don't remember what year) dispensed with that system and made up a new Korean alphabet, which is what they use to this day. It was kind of like when they changed from writing stuff in Latin to writing it in the common man's language in Europe (or at least, that's how I look at it). Until King Sejong (who is a big deal here in Korea), most Koreans were illiterate because learning those Chinese characters was for the upper class.
Regardless, the kids still learn hanja. I don't really know why, other than it's cultural? So, the hanja teacher. He wanted to talk to me, which was fine, but basically I am unsure as to if he is possibly a madman. He seems like a perfectly nice person, but just a bit... off. We have a school-wide IM system, and yesterday he sent out some message that I popped into Google Translate and it came up as something weird, like he was talking about a rumor spread around the school and something about him being married or getting married? Google Translate is really spotty though. But then today he sent out another message that said basically that yesterday he had a really hard day, but got through it with the love of the other teachers and he was especially grateful to the principal and vice-principal for their support, and with that in mind he had attached some special music for everyone. He'd attached like 30 songs ranging from Korean to English to French to instrumental... Yeah, it was a little bizarre. I think it's a joke, but I'm lost in literal and cultural translation here. Or maybe he really is just kind of a strange guy. We've got a teachers' dinner tomorrow, so I'm going to try and avoid being seated by him just in case. Keep you posted.
A new teacher sits across from me, and she doesn't speak any English, which doesn't stop her from trying to talk to me anyway. The problem is she's using way too many words I don't know and is speaking really fast, so I just nod and say "Yes" a lot. Works like a charm.
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