More Red Mask

Friday again. After thinking about it several times this week, I finally got around to ordering a Mother's Day gift online. I was worried that it would be too late, but since it comes from a local florist, no problem.

We had our teachers' meeting today. Well, sort of. What's-her-name sent Sandra a text message that she and Nathan weren't coming--TEN MINUTES before the meeting was to start. Then Gloria didn't show up at all, and the new guy (the 500 pound one at the school WAY out near the airport) probably wasn't told about it. So Sandra, Julian, and I had our meeting. Was Sandra ever upset! She has a lot to get done in the next few weeks before she goes home, and she could have gone to the Canadian Consulate in Busan to start work on the paperwork for her wedding. I got a couple of good tips from her. (The topic was pronunciation.) I work on word stress a tiny bit with the students but hadn't ever thought about sentence stress and how important it is to speaking and understanding English. Saying "I did not steal your red bandana" gives a good example of how the stress is SO important. Emphasizing different words in the sentence COMPLETELY changes the meaning!! Later when Mr. Kim learned of the meeting turnout he wasn't happy. He excused Gloria because it's her last month here. Well, it's Julian and Sandra's last months, too!! Nathan and what's-her-name should have been there, though.

The poor middle school students. In the 5 PM class Laura looked horrible after only 4 hours of sleep. They had tests yesterday, today, and tomorrow at school, then another test at the special English class tomorrow night, then OLT test on Monday. They need more sleep! At 6 the High Impact book had a particularly hard reading passage. We worked mostly on pronunciation since the words and sentence structures were too difficult for their level. At 7 PM Paul (5th grade) and Beth (4th grade) told the best version of the Red Mask Ghost yet. They made it really scary, and I understood well. When they finished telling me the story they finally asked me the question that I had been eagerly waiting for. "Teacher, what floor do you live on?" Well, I live on the second floor, in the fourth apartment on that floor, and my bed is under a window. Their jaws dropped. They looked at me, looked at each other, and then looked back at me. They had worked hard to make the story as scary as possible without knowing where their teacher lived! Beth recovered first. "Don't worry, teacher! The ghost doesn't hurt babies or . . ." She struggled for the word so I helped her, "adults." "Oh, yes, not babies or adults, only children." Then Paul jumped in. He didn't say it perfectly, but what he meant was: "But if the ghost DOES happen to find you and rip your face off, I'll do Jaesa (the annual memorial service bordering on ancestor worship) for you." !!! I'm not sure if he thought I was scared and was trying to make me feel better, or if he wanted to scare me by making me think the story was real. As he said it he patted me on the shoulder in a reassuring way. Paul is just the funniest boy. His attitude has really improved, and with it his English, as well. I hope he does well on the test.