Quote of the week

"I don't think that vampires are a problem in Korea because we eat so much garlic."
~Olivia, approximately 13 years old (Western reckoning).

Other fun things about my students: kindergarteners love me for my imitations and drawings. In one class I can get them to do anything simply by pretending to be a robot (or by giving them a ball to play with, etc. Kindergarteners are basically perpetually tripping and find the smallest things either fascinating and wonderful or unbearable). In my other kindy class I draw whatever they request on their workbooks when they finish a page. Often they simply want hearts, ribbons, and flowers, but they've branched out to include witches, dragons, and Batman (I draw the logo). I'm not much of an artist, but they think I'm amazing.

Pretending to be a robot and drawing half-way decently does not win over the affection of the older kids, but I think they like me alright. They often give me little snacks. The first time they did this the snack in question was a rice cake, and I was amused to think of this as the Korean equivalent of giving the teacher an apple. Rice cakes aren't standard, though; I've received things both quite foreign (orange-flavored crackers) and from my childhood (fruit by the foot).

My class of oldest students probably doesn't particularly like me, but that is likely due to their not wanting to be there. I don't blame them: I wouldn't want to be at language school in the early evenings on my winter vacation from normal school. The saddest example of this is the Winter Intensive class, which consists of five eleven-year-olds (or 'thirteen' year olds in Korean age) that meet in the mornings during public school break. There was wonderful irony in making them write essays about how they needed more leisure time (and I completely agree: they spend all day in school (or in cello lessons, etc) all year with only a few days of vacation. They spend all night doing homework. It's not as intense as college, but they aren't even in highschool.) My intensive class is pretty fantastic. We were studying recent civil rights leaders in various countries so they learned the word 'petition' so they petitioned me for stickers. All students can trade in 100 stickers for markers or something. I'm not entirely clear on it. It is sometimes surprising to see which classes care about stickers and which don't.

Anyway, my students are often amusing and I will try to remember to provide their funniest quotes each week for your amusement.