English Please

Communication gets interesting when you decide to up and move to a foreign country. There are so many instances where my co-teacher and I will have to get out our phones to communicate with one another. Sometimes it can be humorous, but most of the time, it is quite annoying. And heaven forbid don't enunciate, use big words, use slang, or throw in an idiom or innuendo here and there. The head tilts to the right, and then to the left before he will say "Award, what means award?" I could spend 30 minutes explaining what "Award" means in hopes that he might understand, but why would I do that when I have my telephone? I just say 조금만요 which means "wait a minute," and rush to my telephone and search for the meaning of the word in Korean. One can only imagine how long our conversations much take to get one another's point across. Patience really is a virtue. But when it comes to six graders, its a virtue I don't have. They are loud, rude, disrespectful, and drive me crazy.

Having ten different classes twice a week makes it hard to keep a consistent discipline regimen. Its as if I have to start over with every class, which is exhausting and often causes me to give up. I take away their pencils if they are writing while I am talking, and make them stay after school to clean all of the desks if I catch anyone writing on them. I think they respect Min Chan Teacher more, and I think he is getting the hint that a forceful tone of voice must be used in order for these kids to get it. Maybe they wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't 35 of them in each class. And the boys are definitely worse than the girls.

I think I am getting tired of teaching. I don't sleep well, I don't eat well, I never exercise, and so I don't feel well. Everyone is kind to me, but when all 400-some students say "Hello" like robots to me in the morning, I'm not always in the mood to respond. Regardless, everyday, I wave with smile all 400-some times. There are 10 minutes between class in which you would think I could have peace, but no....there are students that come into class screaming 5-7 minutes before class starts. I tried talking to my co-teacher about this, but apparently they need to come in and "prepare" before class starts. I'm not sure what this means. They leave their bags in cubbies in the hallway, and just bring a pencil and their book to class. Perhaps my co-teacher doesn't know what it means either, and is just making excuses to allow the students to come into class early. I just want my peace sometimes. They are so loud. In general, among friends and co-workers, Koreans speak quite loudly with one another and frequently talk over each other.

Is it wrong that I'm not looking forward to English camp? I don't feel like teaching anymore. I have summer-itis and I want a break!! Next Tuesday is the last day of school, but I will come in Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to plan for summer camps. Summer camp begins the following week and last through the second week of August.

I finished testing students!! Approximately 30% made an A and 50% made a B. I went to a stationary store today with my co-teacher to buy some award paper. Wow....this is a story all its own! There wasn't enough, so we had to order some more. It should be here in a week, which is ok, because they won't be given out until next semester, which begins on August 30th. However, I will have to work on them from home because trying to operate Microsoft Office 2007 in Korean is quite difficult. I will then bring the A award and B award files to my co-teacher. He will put in the name, class number, and print them out on the fancy paper. My co-teacher has never really done this award thing before, so I'm not quite sure he understands what I'm doing.

Testing was difficult for me. I wanted so badly to create a well-rounded, non-bias exam that would test them, not only on speaking, but the use of vocabulary as well. I never counted off for incorrect grammar, because I teach conversation. Besides, almost all of the students answered the questions grammatically incorrect. If I could understand what they were saying, then they have accomplished the point of a conversation. There were eight questions covering chapters six, seven, and eight. The test was as follows:

1.) T: Finish my question, "I'm hungry;............"

S: May I have some ______?

2.) T: Finish my question, "I'm thirsty'............"

S: May I have some _____r?

3.) T: My mother is a nurse. What does your sister do?

S: My sister is a _______.

4.) T: When is your sister's birthday.

S: My sister's birthday is ____.

5.) T: How old are you?

S: I am 13 years old.

6.) T: What are we learning about in lesson 8? (book with lesson title is in front of students)

S: We are learning about summer vacation.

7.) T: What will you do this summer?

B: I will ________.

8.) T: What is your dream? What do you want to be?

S: My dream is/ I want to be a(n) _______.

I may get answers like "My sister birthday is June 2nd," but I would count it as correct. I also might get answers like "I will do swimming," but I would count that correct as well. Approximately 13% of students didn't answer at all, leaving them with an F.

Grading students with only eight questions was making me sad. The score would be 8:100%(A), 7:88%(B), 6:75%(C), 5:63%(F), 4:50%(F), 3:38%(F), 2:25%(F), 1:13%(F). So, instead of giving a majority of students an F, I decided to change the scale: 1-2 (D), 3-4 (C), 5-6 (B), 7-8 (A). This brought those that had an F up to a B or C, and those with a B or C up to an A. I'll let you know how making, printing, and giving 225+ awards out to students goes.