This is a picture of my classroom, without all the student of course.
I knew one day I might become a working professional. It was inevitable I suppose. I was bound to be referred to as Ms. Miller, Ma’am, hey you, but I never imagined my professional identity would be ‘teacher.’
My students are great! They range in ages 5 – 16 with varying abilities in English. I enjoy working with the jr. high students most; they’re boisterous and clever. I have a few classes maxed out with 10 students, which may not seem like a lot, but it’s more than enough when they’re rowdy.
I tutor both of Mr. Shinn’s kids, a 5-year-old boy without an English name, and his 12-year-old daughter Julia. I failed to mention who Mr. Shinn was in my last blog, but you probably surmised he’s my boss, the director of Sky English Academy.
Julia has studied abroad for 2 years so her English is probably better than mine. Her accent is British, which is a load off for me since she can distinguish r/l’s. It’s hard to believe she’s lived in 2 other countries and is only 12, and this is my first time away from home and I’m nearly 30. I dont have the heart to tell her I hated Twilight, so I pretend to know what she talks about.
All in all, I really enjoy my students. The girls giggle a lot and the boys like to show off. They are exactly like Americans, except perhaps better educated. Every student goes to school from 8:30-3, then go to ‘academy.’ English academy is normally 3 days a week, though they may have another academy for math or science. I even have a few students in an academy to read Korean fast.
Funny things happen in class all the time, the latest was last night. We were reading a lesson about different wedding celebrations and one of the discussion questions were, what do the bride and groom do after the wedding? I paused for a moment thinking the answer couldn’t possibly be what I thought. A few of the girls started to giggle at this, then one of the boys said, ‘teacher, you turn red.’ It was my turn to laugh. As it turns out, the question was referring to the honeymoon.
I knew one day I might become a working professional. It was inevitable I suppose. I was bound to be referred to as Ms. Miller, Ma’am, hey you, but I never imagined my professional identity would be ‘teacher.’
My students are great! They range in ages 5 – 16 with varying abilities in English. I enjoy working with the jr. high students most; they’re boisterous and clever. I have a few classes maxed out with 10 students, which may not seem like a lot, but it’s more than enough when they’re rowdy.
I tutor both of Mr. Shinn’s kids, a 5-year-old boy without an English name, and his 12-year-old daughter Julia. I failed to mention who Mr. Shinn was in my last blog, but you probably surmised he’s my boss, the director of Sky English Academy.
His son is really playful and enjoys spelling and touching me with his sticky hands. In this picture he's really excited by a dragonfly Mr. Shinn is holding. He’s a rambunctious little guy, and when he wants to play a game he says, ‘ready... set...’ then something in Korean. Could it be ‘go?’ He already knows all his letters and the sounds they make, so really my job is just to play with him and teach him new English words. We did purple, family and bugs, and then crawled around on the floor pretending to be different bugs (grasshopper, bumblebee, butterfly etc.) It was a fun tutorial.
Julia has studied abroad for 2 years so her English is probably better than mine. Her accent is British, which is a load off for me since she can distinguish r/l’s. It’s hard to believe she’s lived in 2 other countries and is only 12, and this is my first time away from home and I’m nearly 30. I dont have the heart to tell her I hated Twilight, so I pretend to know what she talks about.All in all, I really enjoy my students. The girls giggle a lot and the boys like to show off. They are exactly like Americans, except perhaps better educated. Every student goes to school from 8:30-3, then go to ‘academy.’ English academy is normally 3 days a week, though they may have another academy for math or science. I even have a few students in an academy to read Korean fast.
Funny things happen in class all the time, the latest was last night. We were reading a lesson about different wedding celebrations and one of the discussion questions were, what do the bride and groom do after the wedding? I paused for a moment thinking the answer couldn’t possibly be what I thought. A few of the girls started to giggle at this, then one of the boys said, ‘teacher, you turn red.’ It was my turn to laugh. As it turns out, the question was referring to the honeymoon.I had an evaluation with Mr. Shinn at the end of the week. It consisted of me proofreading a couple of essays and discussing how my classes are going. I think they are going well, so that’s what I said. He agreed. The students have told him I am a good English teacher they enjoy my class, and he’s overheard his daughter and her friends saying good things about me. Phew! What a relief!
Over the weekend I went to lunch with Mr. Shinn and his family at a traditional Korean barbeque restaurant. It was amazing! I didn’t care if it was dog, it tasted so good (though I was told it was beef ribs.) I think the Shinn’s like eating with me because I’m not afraid of spice. Or domesticated animals for that matter.
And no food market would be complete without....
That little boy is adarling! And the pig faces are so cute.... Hi Ms. Miller. I miss your guts. Nothing to esciting my ass, you are in a foreign land learning the cultural idenity that you represent. That is exciting stuff!
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