I live in space.

I was really tired this morning. At school I called Mrs. Yoon to ask her about Matt and Tanya coming. She confused me--something about there weren't enough students for an advanced class so maybe we'd do a private group lesson instead. Huh?? Where? When? How? Who? Give me details!

The first class was too crazy; the next was fine except for Tomas. At 4 I was on the computer and talked with Matt some, then did more evaluations.

At 5 Sally and Luby entertained me with a story from their other academy. Apparently they go there in the evening for several hours. After they finished one night they both left quickly so that the teacher/owner wouldn't try to keep them later. However, Sally lives near the academy so he called her apartment and told her to come back to finish studying (another hour, until 11 PM) while Luby didn't have to go back because she lives farther away. Another day apparently the academy teacher told Sally's older brother that she hadn't done her homework, so her brother's friends tease her every time they see her. She's the kind of person that makes a big deal out of things, so they probably enjoy watching her reaction. As she told the story Sally made the situation seem so terrible. I tried hard not to laugh, but couldn't help it--Luby was laughing too. The chapter in the book talked about jobs, and they said that teaching English is a safe job. I told them, "No, it's a dangerous job!" and went on to tell them about Andy last year and how he would hit and kick me. They were absolutely shocked and told me to hit him back and call his mother. I explained that it was last year, and he's better now (and not in my class!).

At 6 PM there were several new students, so I had them introduce themselves--5 sentences from each person. One boy was less than descriptive when he said, "I live in space." Linda is in that class now, so she and Jenny spent too much time whispering. I'll have to change their seats.

At 7 PM I gave my "You're in a high level now so must speak only English in my class" speech. They're only in Pink 1, but did a good job of remembering to speak English. At the beginning of class I gave them some helper phrases like, "How do you spell _____?" or "What does ____ mean?" to use when they don't know something.

At the break I had a leisurely dinner, then helped Mina's 7 PM class with their homework. They had to translate a whole story, and they're a pretty low-level class (Best Friends 2). They were working together and kept running back and forth to the online dictionary (since it was easier than looking up English words in the regular dictionary). Not that I know Korean that well, but I could explain some of the words in a way that they could understand, and sometimes recognize the correct Korean word when they said it.

In the 8:30 class they were OK, but a few minutes before class ended Glen's handphone rang. Then less than a minute later it rang again and he ANSWERED THE PHONE IN CLASS. That is about the rudest and most disrespectful thing that a student could do. He only talked for a few seconds, but STILL--don't answer it, just turn it off!! I told Glen to give me his handphone. At that point I only planned on keeping it until the end of class then giving him a stern lecture before returning it. However, he refused to give it to me. He probably thought that I would keep it for an extended period of time like most middle-school teachers would. His refusal only made me angrier, so I told him to follow me to the teachers' room, where I told him to sit down at my desk and write "I will not answer my handphone in class" 20 times. When we entered the teachers' room he started stuttering a combination of Korean and English. That made me even angrier (if you can imagine) because he has absolutely no ability in English despite many years of study. He doesn't try but always goofs off in class. The Korean teachers asked if they could help, but he couldn't even explain himself to them in Korean. Something about it being his mother on the phone and she was meeting him downstairs or something. Too bad, WRITE!! Mina called his mother to explain what happened and that he's not doing too well in class. The fact that he is persistently 20 or more minutes late to my class EVERY day because of another academy certainly doesn't help him, either!!

Evaluations

I taught FOUR Impact Intro classes today, back-to-back. At first I thought I'd be bored, but now I actually like it--it's a good book, and having that many classes in the same book allows me to prepare better and really get to know the material.

Throughout the day the stack of journals kept getting bigger and bigger, and finally tumbled down, mixing different classes' journals together. It's so annoying because I'm being paid less than before (less overtime classes) but am actually working more than ever before. Because of only having some classes once a week, I have more classes and students than in the past, and also more high-level students. That means more journals to correct--it's taking 2~3 hours a week now.

Today the Korean teachers were complaining to each other about Julian and his not having finished the evaluations. I mentioned it to him so that he would perhaps be more motivated to work on them and he said Joelle had mentioned them to him yesterday. Perhaps it was a mistake to tell him about it, because it made him more annoyed than before. I don't think the Korean teachers know how much I can understand of what they're saying. We thought grade-changing only took place at Samsan; well, Joelle changed one of Julian's evaluations from N to P (for the kid's poor attitude). He saw it, and was mildly annoyed. We grade the kids based on how they behave in our class. If the Korean teachers want the kids graded on how they behave in the their classes, then they should just do the evaluations themselves!!

On top of all the work I have writing evaluations and the journals, Mona had a problem with how I did Tim's evaluation. Sure his mother is a pain, but he totally deserved what I gave him. I gave him what equates to 2 C's (in reading pronunciation and comprehension) and 2 D's (for speaking and behavior). He misbehaves all the time, and when asked a question answers with one or two words, while most of the other students in his class respond with a full sentence. I wrote a long comment on him, thinking that that would justify why I gave him those grades. Well, Mona said I needed to write something good about him, too. Like WHAT? Like he socializes with his friends really well while I'm trying to teach?? I ended up writing, "Tim reads well" (a lie, he reads barely on his level) "but could be doing much better in class" (maybe, but he strikes me as a dunce) "if he made an effort." Then I wrote several more sentences. Tim's class is now really small (5 students) so hopefully he'll do better.

At 7 PM (now a huge class) I told them about the cats in the apartment across from me--how I meow and they meow back. They were amused, but now they all think I'm crazy. It wouldn't surprise me if the entire school knew within a few days. It made me think of my quirky professors and the rumors that went around about them! The thing was, most of them knew all about the rumors, enjoyed them, AND even fed them.

Jody called to cancel the Bible study because he and Holly are sick. Between them canceling and me being too busy to go, it's been several weeks since I've gone.

One of my classes (I think the 6 PM class) said the word 변태 (byuntae) during class (I don't know the context) and I recognized it from reading it on someone's blog. The foreigner translated it as "pervert," but when the kids thought I understood it they were rather embarrassed. I mentioned asking one of the Korean teachers about the meaning, and they begged me not to. Of course, that made me MORE curious, so I looked it up in the online dictionary. The meanings:

1. 변태 자
geek
2. 변태의
perverted
3. 변태적이다
unnatural, to be
4. 가학 피학성 변태 성욕의
sado-masochistic
5. 가학 피학성 변태 성욕자
sado-masochist

These were 6th-graders--how were they using the word, and why?!

In another class we were studying "Who's in your family?" and suddenly the kids started laughing. Well, when you say that phrase quickly it sounds a little like "whojin" (Whojin in your family?) which is apparently another bad word in Korean. Again the kids didn't want me to ask the Korean teachers. I tried several different letter combinations, but none of them were listed in the dictionary. I guess I'll resort to asking what it means, and being prepared for possible blushing and them asking me where I heard the word, if it's as bad as the kids made it seem.

Essentials When Writing English

Despite me still having a huge stack of evaluations to write, the kids dutifully handed in their journals today. Because more of the kids are in the higher-level books, there are more and more journals to correct. But just because they're in the higher-level books doesn't mean that they're at a high level of ability. It's painful to read many of them. How am I supposed to even begin to correct them?! With some students who routinely leave out important things (like periods or VERBS) I've started using my reddest red pen and marking a few or circling the place where the absent verb should be and writing in huge block letters the problem at the bottom of the page. If the handwriting is bad, I don't waste time anymore trying to read it, but just put a big "X" on the entire page and write, "I can't read this. Write neatly!" I also sometimes draw a frowning face just in case the "high-level" kid can't figure out written English.

I took a brief look at one kid's journal as he handed it in to me, saw not a single period on the entire two pages, and so gave it back to him. I told him to put the periods where they belong and then give it back to me the next day. That's my big thing now--punctuation. In Korean the verb is always at the end of the sentence so punctuation isn't important. When you get to the verb, that's the complete thought. But in English with all its varied sentence structures, punctuation is ESSENTIAL. Maybe I seem cruel, but I'm tired of them spending ten seconds writing meaningless drivel (often right before or sometimes even in class) and expecting me to spend time trying to figure out what they mean and then fix it. Other students get in trouble for not having written the journal as homework so their Korean teacher keeps them after class to write it. Of course they want to get away from academy just as quickly as possible, so you can imagine the wonderful quality entries that they write.

Monday evening Julian and I were discussing Jennifer--she wasn't at work on Friday or Monday. (We were wondering if she had gotten fired.) Well, she was back at work on Tuesday. I guess making such a horrible scene in front of the students isn't such a big deal here.

Today I reminded Mr. Kim that it was time to pay me--in fact, actually 6 days ago. I didn't check if he had paid me until Monday night, then he wasn't in on Tuesday. He had that sort of clueless look on his face like he thinks my payday doesn't fall on the same date every month but just randomly jumps around so he's justified in missing it EVERY MONTH.

I taught Sally and Olivia the definition of "brown-noser" today. We weren't even in class, but I was getting water and they came up and started asking me about Tanya, the new teacher. They said that she was pretty, but not as pretty as me. They went on to say what a good teacher I was, and thin, and pretty . . . I didn't bother telling them that I'm not writing their evaluations this time; Julian is!

Unclear Expectations

Neither the laptop dude nor I understand exactly what Mr. Kim wants. On Friday night after finishing all of the speaking tests I was working on grading things when the laptop guy (I guess I should try to remember his name!) asked me if I could do something for a book that Mr. Kim is making. How typical. It seems Mr. Kim is always "making a book," yet his employees are the ones who actually do all of the work. His idea is to make a schedule book for businessmen, including an example of an English calendar. (My job is to TEACH English to children, not to WRITE a book that I will get neither recognition nor pay for!!) They wanted something on EVERY DAY of the calendar, even though I pointed out that most people don't have something on EVERY DAY because their schedule tends to repeat the same things over and over. But OK, they really wanted something on EVERY DAY.

He printed out a month's calendar and I spent perhaps 30 minutes on it. I included business-type things (staff meetings, call a client, meet with a client, prospectus due) and personal things (lunch with parents, fishing with uncle, several dates with girlfriend, shopping for friend's birthday gift, dentist appointment, barbecue with friends, typing class). Basically anything that I had ever done before in my life I included. But now it sounds like Mr. Kim wants NUMEROUS things on EVERY DAY. (On my schedule about half the days had two things.)

Today the laptop guy very carefully and diplomatically told me that Mr. Kim wanted more, but couldn't explain what more he wanted. He asked me several times if I was offended. Because of the way he told me, I was only slightly offended (I didn't tell him that, though). After all, it's not his fault that Mr. Kim is the way he is, although it is his fault that he asked me to do it before he was clear on what was needed. I told him that I didn't know what else I could include and didn't understand what they wanted. What more does a business man do? I've never been a businessman! Plus, is there a difference between an American and a Korean businessman? For now, they haven't asked me to do anything else.

The day was fine but tiring, as I have my seven 50-minute classes to teach plus 150 evaluations to write. By the end of the day soreness was setting in. I'll have to skip the push-ups tomorrow to give my arms time to recover.

In adult class Grace brought up the earthquake. While lots of people didn't feel it, Grace "got outside quickly" because she was scared. Possibly those on the upper floors felt it more, or possibly she was just over-reacting. She lives on the 13th floor, while another student lives on the 17th. Compared to my 2nd floor apartment, perhaps they did feel a stronger tremor.

Insanity

I got up a little earlier than normal this morning so took the bus to church. That put me there pretty early. After it finished John was there to drive me to Shinbok. I had lunch in their cafeteria--rice, spinach type stuff, sprouts/tiny shrimp mixture, and green soup. It was OK. Octavia wasn't there, and there were more kids there than normal. All boys--the middle school boy that's always there but also three elementary school students who were insane. As we studied (this week John 1:7-8) they hit each other or got off the subject and when we finished all out wrestling started on the stage.

John drove me home and then I spent a while looking for a pedometer online. I want to know how far I'm walking each day, but none of the cheap places seem to ship internationally. I went out for a long walk (75 min) and ended up with a fairly painful blister. The weather in the evening is perfect, and it's so green and lush near the soccer stadium. I was back home around 7:30 where I showered, ate dinner, and spent more time on the computer and watching TV. By 9 PM I was tired, but stayed up later so I wouldn't wake up too early tomorrow morning.