"Voca" is Konglish for vocabulary

This week we were covering some poetry terms in my class, including sestet, quatrain, octave and couplet. One of my students had an interesting idea for the definition of "couplet."

Me (pointing to "couplet" on the board): What do you know about this word?

Students: Couple!

Me: Couple of what?

Student: Couple tee! T-shirts couples wear!

That's right, my students thought our vocabulary word for the day was this:

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. ^^

"It is an impressive day!"

I taught my host mother the word “impressive” today, and we used it over and over. Even though I haven’t been great at this whole blogging thing, I feel that this is a Saturday I want to remember. There were no big whizzes or bangs, but it was sweet and wholesome and so good.

I decided to tell my narrative with some bullet points because I typed out my day until 4pm to find that it was already two pages. I guess I haven’t outgrown my wordiness yet.

• The day has an inauspicious start at 7:15 with my host mom knocking, panicked, on my door because she thinks I need to get ready for school. I remind her that I don’t go to school on Saturdays. She is apologetic and lets me sleep.
• I wake up 3 hours later, ready to face the remainder of my lazy morning with blog readings and music searchings, occasionally getting up to practice the dance combination I learned in jazz class this week. Then, with the apartment to myself, I do what I normally do on Saturdays at home or at school: blast my music and set to cleaning. Wanting badly to feel something familiar, I wash the dishes while singing along to The Bay City Rollers and hop-scotch to the roar of the vacuum.
• Lunch with mom = kimbab. WIN
• Mom agrees to help me get my bike fixed. The tiny woman then proceeds to nearly single-handedly shove my dirty, rusty, gigantic beach crusier bike into the back of her car. It requires twisting the front wheel entirely around and moving the kick stand in either direction to fit inside the door, but she manages handily. At this point, I teach her the word impressive. To complete this episode, the bike is unloaded by a adjussi (older man) at the bike shop with a voice like Mickey Mouse. He tells me that it would cost about $10 to replace the tire. YES.
• Armed with the word “impressive,” we head to the hipper side of town for the rest of our Mom and daughter date afternoon.
• I meet an English-speaking FILIPINA woman! She is actually an English teacher, and since I am easily identified as a foreigner (“your eyes, nose and skin” she explains), she dives into “Where are you from?” without the ceremony of a “Hello!” Somehow, just talking to this woman who is also a little bit of an “other” from my motherland, even though she married a Korean, makes me feel more at home while simultaneously reminding me of my mother in California and how much she misses me.
• Mom and daughter order drinks and a waffle at the 10th coffeeshop I’ve seen in Gongju so far. The waffle is not the plain but hearty Belgian I imagine, but a banana split on a hot and fluffy piece of carb-loaded heaven. We spend the rest of our coffee date talking about how happy we are to live together while I show her pictures of my Gongju friends on facebook.
• A stroll along the river gives us an opportunity to view the festival happenings and take pictures.
• We journey to the older, more central downtown area to buy gifts for Chuseok and some difficult to find items with my mom's help.
• Off to pick up bike from the shop and host sister from a field trip!
• Dinner at a “chestnut foods” restaurant finds me still full from the waffle and its trimmings, so the blandness of the chestnut gelatin does not bother me.
• Our happy family of mother and daughters traipses around the Gongju fortress. The historical site is decked out with lights and paper sculptures for the festival’s kick-off. The temporary bridge across the river isn’t finished, but we can still see the floating stage with a dozen models of Baekje warriors on horses. Camera battery dies. :(
• Market shopping and people watching the festival market! We wander through one of the many천완 (dollar store) booths and watch some of what my host sister calls “beggar shows.” One troup had an Asian Raggedy Anne vibe to it and featured a chubby young man in a wig and gingham dress that he stripped off to reveal a glittery swimsuit underneath. If this were not enough to gather attention, he kicks one of his shoes off at offending audience members who jump while a discreet elastic brings the slipper safely back to his feet. Other stages house Korean Elvis impersonators (later, he was also in a sequined swimsuit) and a woman in a rainbow gypsy costume. My sister laughs the most at a man in drag as a flamboyant traditional Korean peasant woman who cries for his mother and father. The song ends with his drinking soju and smoking at his parents’ make shift tomb on stage.
• We stop at Baskin Robbins for my first fresh ice cream cone since coming to Korea. While I love Goo Goo cones and milkshakes from CapriSun like containers, this is a cold scoop of home in a cone.
• Now, I’m watching Korean TV with my host sister and doing some long overdue blogging.

Impressive? Probably not. But it feels like enough days like this could make Korea feel like home.

Fish faces at restaurant near the riverfront

Let the Web Log begin!

Welcome to my Web Log for my time in South Korea with an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright commission!

As most of you are aware, I have yet to actually leave for Korea. However, before I embark, I want to establish a way for friends, and especially students, in the U.S. to stay in touch with me. Part of my proposed project outside of my teaching involves a US and Korean student "pen-pal" exchange via e-mail. This blog will help facilitate that communication and serve as a hub for students in either country to respond to common prompts and materials for their writings.

Feel free to leave a comment or sign the guestbook. I'll be sending out periodic e-mail updates.

Happy reading!