In Over My Head

My first week of teaching went by in a crazy flash. I am not sure I was completely present mentally, maybe I was still in shock and jet lagged with a side of scared out of my mind. I will tell you all I can remember and the stories that I find to be the most note worthy.

For the most part, the kids are really cute and sweet, and I would say that with any culture, they get worse with age. My younger classes have cuter kids but more of a language barrier with some of them, so that is difficult. My older classes probably have the language but the attitude to match it, not to mention the ability to talk shit about me in a different language, right in front of my face. Some notable stories include:

1. Keep in mind that we just had Halloween recently when you read this story. I was taking attendance and this girl in the front, Grace, wouldn't stop laughing. All the kids were talking to each other back and forth about something in Korean. I was trying to get the class under control when a boy says "She think you look like dracula." I gave them a puzzeled look and they all pointed to their teeth. I do have very sharp canine teeth, and this stupid girl in front decided I looked like a vampire. I am sending in my audition tape to the Twilight Series this afternoon...

2. I was on my way to teach my third class ever, and upon entering the classroom I see the kids huddled in a circle around one boy, who is on the floor crying. It goes without saying that I immediately found someone else to deal with this crisis. That would have been a little too much for me on my first day.

3. I was walking around the classroom checking everyone's workbooks to make sure they had done corrections, and I came to this kid who had his notebook out. I looked at the notebook and there was a picture of a mean, monster-like person with an arrow pointing to it that said Amanda. I probably turned bright red, and I pointed at the drawing. He looked down at the drawing, then up at me, and all I could think to say was "that's not very nice." That'll show him...

In America, we name children two given names followed by the surname. In Korea, the surname comes first followed by one given name. For my school, the kids choose English names to go by, and honestly I couldn't be happier because the kids laugh at my pronunciation enough without having to pronounce each child's Korean name. For some reason Lucy, Sally, Emily, and Jessica are the most popular girls names. John, James, Andy, and David round out the boys' most popular names. If there is more than one child in a class with the same name, they become 1s and 2s, for example, Lucy-1 and Lucy-2. I do appreciate creativity, for example one of my favorite boys chose the name Albert (how cute?) or another little girl chose Bennet. Maybe I should start grading on English name originality instead of how good their English skills are.