The Been Briefing

letter-writing for the little ones

i have been working with my little ones on how to write a letter. this is a big jump from constantly using 3rd person (he, she, it, they) to writing in 2nd (you), but they're starting to get the hang of it. if anything, these kids need lots of repetition, lots of practice. one thing the koreans understand and that's REPETITION...

lately, with the addition of another student, brian, they're level of loudness and naughtiness has escalated. brian is a good boy, but i'm wondering if it's just because there are 8 children cramped in that tiny classroom... there's bound to be some friction. i don't know. yesterday i told them - with the sternest face - if i didn't see improvement they'd be writing the 5 Classroom Rules fifty times. they sobered up pretty quickly. lol.

by the way... that girl sitting in the lawn chair, sipping a drink... yeah, that's me. lol.

how's this for a tear-jerker?!

and caleb. oh, caleb.

this week i made a decision that i haven't had to make here before. the majority of ERC's students are korean children - children who have never lived abroad. there are, however, a growing number of exceptions: children whose parents lived in another part of the world for a few years (usually because his/her dad works for samsung) and they come to korea with much better english. well, this week one of my intermediate students alex's mother recommended to two of her friends (friends from america) to enroll their daughters, as they JUST arrived from america and are afraid their children will lose their english immersed in korea. needless to say, i was shocked when christina and julia - two sweet korean girls - come into my classroom speaking flawless english and answering my questions immediately. let me just say i've forgotten what it's like for children to speak in rapid, complete sentences. most of mine take a few seconds to answer in a monosyllable.

in any case, after one class with julia especially, i told mrs. kim that i don't think it will be good for the class - and especially the korean students i already have - to make this a dominantly korean american class. i would basically be teaching english at a much more rapid pace to meet the level of kids from back home, and not to the koreans who really need the contact with a foreigner.

it's really hard sometimes to say "no" (at least until we can form 2 advanced classes) because i know that over time those girls' english is bound to deteriorate. alex and jun (2 of my intermediate students) left america ~2 or 3 years ago, and their english has lost a lot of ground, but i don't want to discourage the students i already have from talking- angela and mickey especially. i've worked too hard with them!

as for losing ground... even i have begun making mistakes in pronunciation (usually it's the /r/ and /l/ mistake), using the wrong preposition, or genuinely forgetting a word. holy mackeral!

this past wednesday was election day here in korea, which meant lots of blaring trucks, smiling and waving politicians and tons of color-coordinated assistants standing on the street corners doing coordinated hand motions. how quaint of korea, which has a history of military coups and political leaders tucking tail and running. it's amazing to me what this country has accomplished just by the sheer "extreme-ness" of their natures.

in any case, we had the day off from ERC, and so laura and i met up to make a day of traveling around and taking pictures of things distinctly korean. we got a few items checked off our list, but a few still remain. once we get the pictures developed, i'm thinking of doing a little scrapbook to try and capture for everyone back home the essence of korean culture. wish me luck!