Pliers

I apparently have a new across-the-way neighbor (the one whose veranda I can see from my window). Before there were girl clothes drying, but now there are big jeans and army uniforms. I'll have to be more careful about when the windows are open.

The day was slightly annoying. The first thing is we'll have a foreigners' teachers' meeting next Tuesday at 10:30 AM. All the schools that will be part of this new franchise are sending their teachers. Have I mentioned that? As of sometime next month (I think) our name will change from Oh Sung Sik English Academy (or OSS for short, named after a famous Korean educator) to Much Better Than English Academy (MBT sounds OK, but WHAT is 'much better than English?'). I can imagine some of the brighter students joking, "Korean is much better than English." So anyway, I usually teach the adults 11-11:50 on Tuesday mornings, so I have to call Annie and have her teach Tuesday for me and I'll teach Friday for her. That means I'll have 4 early/long days next week (and one holiday day).

Joelle videotaped a couple of Sandra's classes today, since Sandra is the best teacher on the face of the earth. It sounds like we might be watching part of it in the meeting, and/or new teachers will have to watch the video to learn how to teach. HELLO--there are different teaching styles that work depending on the class and the teacher's personality. What will they all do with Sandra gone for FOUR MONTHS?!

The kids were tired of working, but there was no time for play since tests are coming up. At 2 they weren't concentrating on reading so I had them write the dialogue instead. I actually had to put Tim outside of class to write since he was so distracted. The other Tim came to class in tears and wouldn't say what was wrong. I only made him do some of the writing since he's still having some problem with his arm (after breaking it severely several months ago). Instead I had him read it all to me, one-on-one. The next class was OK, then at 4 I corrected journals and got in a few minutes on the computer.

At 5 PM they remembered to remind me to practice for the speaking test. Thanks, kids! But first we did a couple of pages from the book. The topic was generation gap and the dialogue was about things that kids and parents might argue about. Edward always has to be different, though! He and what's-his-name worked together.

It should have been something along the lines of the following:

A: What's wrong?
B: My parents and I had an argument.
A: Yeah? What about?
B: About my hair.
A: Why? Don't they like it?
B: They think it's too long. (a boy speaking)

Instead, Edward took the easy route and only changed a couple of words:

A: What's wrong?
B: My parents and I had an argument.
A: Yeah? What about?
B: About my face. (Class erupts into giggles and takes a minute to quiet down.)
A: Why? Don't they like it?
B: They think it's too short. (More giggles as what's-his-name corrects Edward, "No, it's too ugly." It was all taken in good humor.)

At 6 PM (the same book) we also practiced a tiny bit for the speaking test, as well as some of the book. Harry was funny. The girls were a little talkative, so he very politely said, "Be quiet please. I want to study." Yeah, right! I'm so sure! We got onto the subject of my Korean ability, and I explained that I know a lot of words but that it's difficult to make sentences. Harry said, "For us, too." They have been studying a lot longer than I have, but I live surrounded by the language. Part of me felt like I shouldn't push them so hard, but the other part said that it's my JOB to be hard on them.

The next class was BAD BAD BAD. At the end I kept them all after to write, "This is a classroom. This is not a zoo, or a circus, or a playground. I must listen carefully and speak English." Especially with the older boys (6th grade), they know better. I wanted to strangle most of them!!

After dinner I got back on the computer, where Dave had sent me the outline for Sunday's sermon. In less than 5 minutes I had it up on the website. I remembered how to do everything perfectly! Last night I updated the movies (with a little help from the Ulsan Web, which has the HTML to make the scrolling work).

At 8:30 I again had to use pliers to painstakingly pull words from their mouths. Two of them didn't have books. Usually I'll make copies for them, but they were both late, so I gave them my book and told them to go make copies themselves. They've got to start being responsible! How hard is it to remember your book, especially at 7th-8th grade?!

Anyway, the weekend is here. I don't particularly want to go to Korean class tomorrow, but it's the last class of the session. I need to decide if I want to register for next session. Between the church retreat and the orphanage I'll only be able to go twice in June, then miss at least once a month the next two months. It takes up practically the whole day, and I'm not learning all that much. At this point, I'm learning more from just listening to my students.