Monkey Teacher

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Today is over. Thank goodness. Yeah, I guess that sums it up right there. I guess you would like to know though. It was really just one class that did me in. It happened to be the second one of the day out of 8, but nonetheless. I walked in and they were rowdy (which is definitely not uncommon around ELC or by the sounds of it, really any hakwon). I asked them to sit down and take out their textbooks, they did so with a bit of pushing on my part. Then it began....

"Teacher.... dark circles" as they all point and laugh at my eyes.
"Teacher two dark circles"
"Teacher... arms are hairy like a monkey" as they all laugh and take turns petting me.

Meanwhile.. I am trying to get them to turn to page 16 in their textbooks and it is not working at all. They just keep laughing and finding other things to talk about or point out.

"Teacher... hair on your face like a monkey" I guess the blonde fine hair that everyone has on their face is not known here. They thought that was funny.

"Teacher... fingers are wrinkly like monkey" I guess because I have big hand for some reason they look not normal to them and they called it wrinkly and monkey like. They had a good time with that one for sure.

I was in a bad mood after that. The rest of the day wasn't so bad, but I definitely was annoyed from that class. I didn't take it out on any other class, but I just couldn't shake the feeling of being made fun of for the same things that I was made fun of for in highschool by small Korean children who barely speak my own language. Gah.

Kyle is sick right now. He is achy all over. I wish I could make him feel better. But, working with the kids has gotten him sick again and it just has to run its course.

Also, this week, my school did a bunch of rearranging of kids and now I am much happier with the sizes of my classes and the fact that most kids are on the same learning level. Thank goodness for that with my 1-A class. The new ones still go on big tangents of Korean while talking to me and haven't figured out I don't understand them. I usually just assume what they are saying (and really, I am right actually about 95% of the time because of the context in which they are speaking and the tone) and I go out on a whim and say "yes" or "no". The Korean teachers get a kick out of it since they don't understand why I am right so many times and I don't speak Korean.

Anyways, just wanted to get that out there and blog again. I am happy I am picking back up on this blog thing and getting it going again. We miss you all very much and cannot wait to come home and see everyone again!!!