Letter to a Bugo Student

One of my students puts my blogging to shame, which isn't difficult to do, I know.

Jun Beom maintains an awesome blog in between his insane study schedule (and playing the guitar!) that helps captures the essence of our school and serves as a source of information for prospective students. I highly recommend it, if only for the pictures: http://blog.daum.net/trafalgar. The entry between 49. and 50. also features an interview that he did for the school's English newspaper.

Last week I asked Jun Beom a few questions about his blog, simply because I was curious. We had a brief conversation about it, and yesterday he handed me a 13-page letter. He had used his free time during computer class to write a little bit about his blog for me in English and then translated one of his entries for me. He even re-read it to correct grammatical errors and add points of clarification. It's one of my favorite things that any of my students have ever given me.

Here is the letter that I wrote back to him:

Dear Jun Beom.

Thank you so much for your letter. It means a lot that you took the time to write to me. I have never thought that you were rude; I thought that you probably were just shy or under too much pressure to speak to me in English. I worry sometimes that I confuse students by suddenly talking to them one-on-one in English.

Your thoughtful translations were much appreciated. I confess that I’ve gotten a little lazy in studying Korean, but reading your blog has inspired me to continue my studies with more devotion. I read the Korean in your letter out loud for practice – it’s very difficult for me to pronounce Korean sentences fluently, so it was good practice but humbling. :)

Sometimes when things are translated into other languages, the meaning or the sense of humor is not always clear, but I can tell from what you shared with me that what you write is often funny and insightful. I’m very proud that I have a student who doesn’t just focus on studying but also uses his energy to create something that other people can enjoy and use to learn. You are a credit to Bugo.

Something that you might like to know is that when I first learned that I was going to teach at Bugo, the school’s name was longer than ANY of the names of my friends’ schools. I worried that I would never be able to learn how to say all fifteen syllables of the name correctly. I was so relieved when I found out that the school had an “official” nickname: Sadaebugo. As I spent more at the school, I learned that the students call it “Bugo.” I love calling the school that because it’s something that my students taught me.

I know that I have a lot to learn from you and other students at Bugo. Thank you for taking the time to teach me with your blog and your letter. I’m very grateful to be your teacher and so glad that I will be at Bugo for another school year.

Cheers!

Ms. Morrow

Letter from a Sadaebugo student: Can You Hear ME?

My first blog post in months comes on the night when I have fifteen articles to edit for my students' English newspaper. Sounds like perfect timing to me! Out of the the half-a-dozen blog entries floating around on my computer that were never completed in a manner timely enough to post, this is the one that will finally land me at the top of Josh's list of blog links.

The following is an exact rendering of a letter that one of my freshman students gave me tonight during her self-study break. I have omitted both her name, her classmate's name and their class number. It should be noted that her classmate is fluent in English after studying in the US for a number of years.

To Samantha teacher.

Teacher, hi. I am ****** in class #-#. I think you may already know me, don't you? If you don't know me...I'm the person who sits next to ***** in [your class]. I have some agonies about my English abilities, so I would like to talk about it. Can you hear me? I know you are too busy to read it. But I need your help. ㅠ.ㅠ Actually, until in 2010, July, my English grades were great and enough to have no concerns about it. So I stopped my English studying (especially listening). And I went to hear, Sadaebugo, my english grades are dropping now. I think I lost my feeling of English and can't listen to English exactly. I make some mistakes during listening. Also, as you know, I and ***** are really indeed friends and we are roommate. Because I lost my confidence of English and my friend who has great English skills sits next to me, I become to dislike learning English. I know it's just execuse, but it's my real mind and thought. I want to take your advices and befriend with you. Can you be my real friend and magician who will solve my worries? I'll look forward to receiving your answer with happiness.

From *******

While this letter is significant in a number of ways by itself, I'm especially struck because this student is not alone. Earlier today I had another student from a different grade approach me with a similar concern. He told me about how he feels his English listening abilities declining despite regular listening to Harry Potter audio readings. Two weeks ago, I spoke with a student who is passionate about learning languages. He takes Japanese as a foreign language at school, is teaching Italian by himself for fun and has aspirations to master Arabic in the future. But he confessed that he has problems listening when others speak to him in any language. He feels bad for his friends because he has them repeat what they say over and over again and is even more worried about his English listening score on standardized tests. I actually wondered if he has a mild form of an auditory processing disorder. If he did, I know that he would never volunteer to be seen by a doctor to be diagnosed. There's such an undeserved stigma attached to disabilities in Korea that even suggesting this could be insulting to him, but that's another blogpost.

Obviously, I'm going to do what I can to help these students improve their English listening. But I can't fully express how much their permission to listen has meant to me. I'm not shy about approaching my students and asking them questions about their school life and hometown. Some answer my questions much more willingly than others. Other students will come to me to practice their English (or in one case, his Spanish) with sessions that revolve around them asking me questions about life in America. This is great, too, but these students who are willing to confess their struggles with language remind me that my job as the teacher, and as a person, isn't just to speak and teach, but it's also to listen.

I wish I wouldn't have started my classes off with a PostSecret lesson featuring the vocab word "anonymous." I really don't want that word to set the tone for my class. Instead, I hope that my students know that I do know them, I do HEAR them, and I want to keep listening.

P.S. Don't worry too much about the slighted articles; I'm supposed to read them over with my co-teacher so that we can check them together. She doesn't expect me to read them tonight. ^^