My students!

So, I know I haven’t updated my blog in forever and a day so please forgive me!

My students are a joy! Some of them are so smart it is almost unbelievable! In Korea you can’t carry a gun unless you are in the military or you are a police officer. I was telling them that in America we will never have adequate gun control because of the NRA. I proceeded to describe the process in which the NRA prevents the government from passing such laws and I heard a student say “lobbying”! I was so stunned I stopped the class and praised my student. He said he read that in a book. It made me so proud that he remembered such a simple word, and from that I knew that I was speaking in a simple way that allowed all the students to understand me!

This brings me to my next point. I have a male co-teacher who is forever underestimating my students ability to speak English! He claims that they have an “elementary level of English” which is simply not the case! Unfortunately this particular co-teacher used to make teaching such a chore for me! I believe in challenging my students to learn English where he believes that life is full of fun and games! According to him students learn English by watching Mr. Bean TV shows and playing games. He believes that education should be so laid back that he allows the students to sleep in class, something I do not condone! Through some conflict between this particular co-teacher and I the English Department and I decided it would be best if I no longer teach with him! This makes me SO happy! He just simply thinks that the kids are dumb and that simply isn’t the case…

When ever I run into my students on the street of the very small town I live in either through the most broken English ever or through the help of a friend they are always able to tell me what they are doing and what is on their mind!

Last week I noticed that one of my students hurt his hand. I asked him what happened and he told me that he was so mad at his girl friend that he hit the wall in a fit of anger! So his new nick-name is “Crazy Free Man” since he always tells me that he can do what ever it is that he chooses to do! In that same class, the students were able to tell me that one of the boys was absent because he became addicted to computer games to the point that he had to be admitted to a mental hospital. I have never heard of addiction to computer games before this!

My best class of last year High School students had a guest speaker last week. My friend JP in the Air Force located on a base 30 minutes from me came to speak to my students about his job! I had the class come up with questions to ask him about his job. We rehearsed saying his name, the questions, and thanking him for his time! My boys were so well behaved I could barely believe it! They ALL paid attention to him! And at the end of the class I had one person from each table tell him what he should do before he leaves Korea in February!

Apparently, they rarely have guest speakers at schools in Korea. I heard from other co-teachers that people do not come and talk to students about their job until college. Personally I do not see the logic in any of that! But there is a lot about Korea that I don’t understand and doubt that I ever will….more on that in the next post!