Selected Student Diaries

I asked Mr. Kim about the visa again.  I don't want to make a pain of myself, yet it's a really important issue!  He said he went to the immigration office today, but has to return next week to pick up the card.  Without the card, I have to trust that he did everything that needed to be done to keep me here legally, and that I'll have the hard proof in my hands next week (in the form of the updated resident ID card).  What's another week of going around without my Korean ID?  Actually, no ID--I don't carry my passport on me, and my American driver's license is with my important papers.  In my wallet I have non-picture ID.  For going to Seoul, I'll add my driver's license in case I need a picture ID for anything.

The day went by really quickly.  Overall a great day.  Again, lots of absent students.  I had to read the OLT test several times for students who were absent yesterday.  The two Can You Believe It? classes that I teach back-to-back on Fridays are awesome.  Their speaking ability is skyrocketing, and they easily use the idioms correctly (most of the time).  Luby asked me to bring her a present back from Seoul--uh, what?  I was surprised to hear that several of the students have never been to Seoul.  Sure lots of people in the USA have never been to Washington, but the U.S. is a huge country.  Seoul is not more than 5~7 hours from most people. I did a marathon of correcting English diaries this morning--somewhere between 2~4 hours, I lost track because I was doing other things at the same time.  I came across several great diaries to win the prize for diary-of-the-month.  Nice and detailed and long.  On the other hand, when Cleo gets back I may have to kill him.  His diary:

HI CRAZY SITE. CRAZY SITE. CRAZY SITE. CRAZY SITE. CRAZY SITE. VERY CRAZY. 겨우 숙제 다했는데. ALL ERASED. CRAZY SITE. CRAZY SITE. CRAZY SITE. CRAZY SITE. BYE CRAZY SITE.  

What's the Korean say?  I've barely finished all of my homework????  In the comments section, I wrote: 

This is unacceptable.  You can't repeat the same thing again and again.  : (

 
I also told Kara about it, so she can scold him, as well, when he gets back from his trip to China.  He's been studying English privately for at least 6 years and is in a really advanced book.  But he is extremely lazy.

It's weird when they write about one of the teachers or our classes.  I'm not sure the entire meaning of what Tom wrote:

Today is Monday.So Beth class.I like Beth class.Why? Because I have many,many score.Miro teacher,Beth teacher to study hard.But I study with Beth class I have many score and everyday English speak. But I study Miro teacher gave me the score,Beth teacher to litte.two teacher small score give me.So I study hard

Mary is in the first book where they write a diary.  While she is one of the quietest in class, can she ever write!  Some kids I strongly suspect that they've copied from somewhere else, but she uses simple sentences and has a consistent writing style.  Miro suggested that "snake-strawberries" means "wild strawberries."  Notice how she even uses things like quotation marks correctly!

We ate bulgogi. It tasted good. Mom said you ate very fast. so I felt good. I ate very much. I ate with stop playing. I was thirsty, so I drank a lot of water. I was full. Then mom said " Yearin, Are you very full?" I said "Yes.” Father said, "Let''s eat corns". I ate a half corn. It tasted good. And then, I watched TV. My sister said, "Do you want to go to the mountain? I will go to the mountain." At that time, Mom wanted to go there. After we changed our clothes, we went to the mountain. It was very hard. We climbed to the path. We ate mountain-strawberries. Father picked them. It tasted sour. After climbing, we went to the playground in my school. I wanted to play there. But Mom said I couldn’t. So I went up to stairs. I didn''t eat snake-strawberries. Because father said I must not eat any snake-strawberries. I saw inside snake-strawberries. Its color was white. At that time, Father said, “I went to go.” Then I saw a little frog. It was not pretty. I jumped and hid. When we got to the top of the mountain, we went inside small cabin. It had many flies and bugs. I saw landscape with a telescope. My sister wanted to let her look with a telescope. So "Wait until I see birds. Wait until I see our house." ^^* There are many frogs there. When we came back on our way, we saw two big dogs. We were scare of them. But My father is very good at scary dogs. So father protected us. I think Mom loves Father very much. Because she always says father is the best in the whole world.

So that's a selection from this week's diaries.  Five days vacation, two days back at work, then another weekend.  WOW!  I mostly like the job, but it's nice to get a break.