SOMETHING YOU WOULD NEVER EXPECT TO HEAR IN CLASS

As you get older you start to think at times that you’ve heard it all. Today I heard something that I never thought I’d ever hear spoken in a classroom. I know that when I was a student I never heard it. I never heard it when I taught in Israel. I never heard it when I taught in Gwangyang. It never would have occurred to me that any students would say such a thing.

Have I piqued your interest? I had a 3rd year class for the 1st time today. They’re 15 year olds. Class is 45 minutes and for my first time with each class I tell them about myself and make them tell me something about themselves. That takes up most of the time. With the remaining time I quiz them on what I’ve told them. I’ll ask things like, “what’s my oldest daughter’s name”? I tell them that I understand learning English can be boring and I’ll try to make it fun. I do a few word scrambles. And then times up.

Today I went through all that in 33 minutes so I had 12 minutes to kill. I was grabbing any questions that popped into my head and throwing them out to the class. “Will Korea beat France in the World Cup”? “What kind of music do you like”? I made it to the end of the class and the bell goes. No one moves. A student says, “we have extra time”. I say, “what extra time”? They say, “we have 10 minutes until our next class” and they wanted my class to carry on for those 10 minutes.

What’s wrong with these kids? Don’t they know the students union forbids enjoying a class or asking it to run overtime? I’m getting used to hearing the girls tell me they love me and that I’m handsome. It’s really weird to see the look of love in their eyes. But wanting a class to run extra time just because you enjoy my company? How very strange.

In this class they asked me where I lived. I said, “why do you want to know”? They said they wanted to come and visit me. I didn’t give out my address but one boy said where I lived. I have no idea how he knows. He was the one who screamed out at me last night from the car.

I asked the other English teacher if it was normal for students to have their teacher’s phone numbers and she said that it was. She asked me if that wasn’t done in America and I told her I didn’t think teachers gave out their numbers. She thought that was strange. However, she said it’s okay to not give out your address.

I had 3 classes today and 2 of the classes were with the same class. I did my introduction class in the first period and then in the 2nd period I gave them my 41 questions. It was depressing to see how bad their English and general knowledge was. There were two students who I thought did excellent, 18 who appear to be average, and 29 who come in at below average. How can you not answer “what’s your favorite color”?

I’m curious to see how the other classes do. It was quite pleasing when reading the papers of the kids who knew things. Out of 49 kids about 10 knew that Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. About 5 kids knew that Hitler was a German dictator who killed Jews. One kid put that he was the President of the U.S. About 12 knew that Edison invented the light bulb.

I put in 2 silly questions. One was, “how many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man”? I think only one student attempted an answer and that answer was one. The other question was, “what is elemenohpee”? That’s the sound we all made as kids when singing the alphabet song. It made l, m, n, o, p sound like one long letter. I was quite impressed because one student got that. (The other English teacher didn’t get it).

I think I’m going to have my work cut out for me in this class. They are a first year class and I didn’t particularly like them. Forty-nine kids is way too many kids in a class to handle. They’ve done the restructuring and starting Thursday there will be 3 first year classes instead of two. There were quite a few new students signing up today for this school so I expect class numbers to swell and more division of the classes.

One interesting note about this class is that one of the students studied in Toronto last year for six months on the student exchange program. It’s amazing how small the world is. He came up to me after the class and told me how happy he was that I was there because he had no one to speak English with anymore. I liked that.

The principal spoke to me today. I almost had the big one because he does not come across as friendly. I know it’s because of the language barrier. When I was leaving the school and went to get my bike he was outside grabbing a cigarette. He said to me, “cycle” and I said yes. I told him I hadn’t ridden a bike in 30 years and I hated it. I don’t know if he understood. He said, “how much” so I told him what the bike cost. He had a look at it and that was that. However, it’s a start.

My computer was at the school today as promised. I made the mistake of saying “my computer” which led to them telling me it was the school’s computer. I assured them I understood that and that it was just for my use at the school as long as I’m there. I have to be careful as I can be taken too literally at times.

I only had the computer for about a half hour before they took it away from me. It occurred to them that Windows was in Korean and all the programs like Word were the Korean version and it might be a touch difficult for me. They asked me if I wanted English. I said yes so I lose the computer until Wednesday while they get their computer supplier to put on the right software.

The other English teacher asked me today if I was interested in meeting a Korean who spoke excellent English. I told her that of course I was. She knows a high school teacher who has a doctorate in divinity and is a Baptist pastor. His wife and children live in Toronto (today was Toronto day) and he will go in two years to be a pastor in Toronto. I told her that all Baptists were crazy. I was still interested so she wrote him and perhaps we will meet at church on Wednesday evening. Korean Baptists. That’s different.

I hope to go out for lunch tomorrow with Yoon-soo. I will enjoy another day off and I eagerly anticipate the school’s birthday on Wednesday. It should be a hell of a boring party.