JQ

My first class of the day was absolutely horrible.  They spoke English, but only to call each other names--"You're a monster!"  "You're a monkey!"  "Your head is a soccer ball!"  The giggling was neverending.  A little of that is fine, but when I tell them to stop--multiple times--it gets annoying.  I set them to writing lines and had to put Tim outside of the classroom to write.  When they finished writing "It is time to study" 20 times they still weren't settled down, so I sent Billy outside and set Ricky to writing the phrase 50 times.  We finally got some studying done. 

The next class wasn't much better.  So far I hadn't instituted the "English only" rule in there because their level is pretty low and often they say the Korean word and I know it and can teach them the English word.  However, today the talking was non-stop so I told them that they should speak only English in my class.  They were angry with me, and after being in the corner a few times Sera stopped talking to me in any language, yet did say goodbye when class was over.

I really needed the 4 PM break!  Sera and Elaine came in looking for Mona to help them with their homework, but she was in class so they asked me.  It was possessives, so pretty easy to explain (at least how to do it, if not the entire meaning of it).

The 5 PM middle school students were fantastic.  We talked 20 minutes about various things.  Luby again mentioned "JQ" and I asked her to remind me what that is.  잔머리 (jan mauri) is one of those difficult-to-translate-exactly phrases.  Mauri is head; jan has a zillion different meetings, and no dictionary gave me the two words together, but according to Luby it means something along the lines of a strategic and cunning mind.  They gave me a few examples.  One example was if a textbook has the answers printed in the back, then someone with a high JQ would use the answers instead of thinking for themselves.  Another example was having a "cunning paper" in your bag--I can't believe they said that to a teacher!  I asked them if they cheated, and Luby said she "rarely" cheats.  As in, sometimes she does.

I asked them about the camp the elementary kids go to.  All the students told me that they went swimming, had a campfire, and had candles.  At the candle time the teachers talked about and they had to think about their parents, and everyone cried.  I asked the middle school students why the teachers would remind the kids of their parents and make them cry!  The students explained that many children take their parents for granted (my words, but that's what they meant) and treat them like "money machines" and talk impolitely to them, etc.  So the teachers remind the kids that they should treat their parents well.  Edward said that when he went to camp, boys who didn't cry were forced to do push-ups.  Luby jumped in to say that someone with a high JQ pretends to cry when they're really laughing, in order to avoid punishment. 

About the time we finished that conversation it was getting really hot, so we checked the air conditioner.  It wasn't working again, so a student started out to ask the secretary to look at it, but when we opened the door we found the hallway dark and the whole school sweltering.  The Kiwi classroom has so many windows that we hadn't been using the light, so hadn't realized the electricity was out.  The next 30 minutes were pretty miserable, as it got hotter and hotter, with virtually no wind.  Six kids complaining and miserably fanning themselves doesn't make for great study!  At first I thought it was perhaps a rolling blackout because of too much electric usuage (another hot day today) but then I saw Mr. Kim fiddling with the fuse box and suddenly everything worked again.

At 7 PM I saw first-hand the blue vs. green problem.  In the past (maybe still today) in Korea the word for green and blue was the same.  The lesson was on describing people, especially what they are wearing.  The girl said her friend was wearing a blue shirt.  Blue??  No way, that's light green!!  She looked confused, but didn't argue with me.

Spencer (from quite a while back) has joined my 8:30 class just for the summer break.  With Cynthia and Haley also in that class temporarily, it's up to 11 students in the 7th~9th grades now.  Spencer has apparently not been to English academy in a long time, but only studies at Ipshi Academy (the multi-subject place).  His ability was still fine.  He's grown even taller, I think, and his voice has deepened more.  When I started teaching him he was a lanky 5th grader with hands bigger than mine.  Now he's a more proportioned 7th grader.  Kids grow up so fast!!

After class finished I talked with Tanya a bit in the kids' computer room.  Lucas was there writing his English diary, and tried to keep from laughing at our horrible Korean pronunciation (comparing the Korean and Chinese numbers, among other things).  Tanya asked him for help with a couple of numbers.  I could see him watching us out of the corner of his eye; it was obvious he was listening, trying to understand what he could of our conversation.  I pointed out a couple of problems with his diary before leaving.  It was pretty good considering the short time he's been studying privately.  He wrote "Today was so hot.  I taked a shower 5 times."  I try to guide the kids rather than give them the right answers, so told him to take a closer look at the past tense verb.  He corrected it on his own.  Another sentence he forgot the subject so I asked him who was doing the action, then had to correct the place in the sentence where he put it.

This week went by so fast.  Wow.  A weekend, a week, then summer vacation!