April 2007

Kins Tower in Jeongja.
Waiting for a bus that never came...

On a daily basis, I crack up at work. Teaching kindergarteners is a source of constant, in-your-face, draining, interactive entertainment.

We are giving them this huge amount of information while trying to help them assert themselves as individuals and be creative, and not act like babies. This is hard, especially in Korean society, where children are treated like princes and princesses who must conform to all Korean norms. So you try not to baby them too much in order to maintain a balance between home and school, Eastern and Western culture.

I have started collecting some of these witty remarks my kids, and others, have made.

• Today in Social Studies, I taught my students about rivers and lakes. They love foreign words, so I taught them about Lake Titicaca and the Mississippi River. Jerry says to me, he says:

  "Teacher....is there a Mistersippi River? And are Mississippi and Mistersippi MARRIED?!"

• My little Jennifer is very wise on the ways of the human body. When my class found out I had some hair on my legs, they were bewildered. I explained to them that when they get older, they'll get hair in places other than their heads. Little Jennifer says to me, she says:

  "Teacher, I will get hair here too!" (points to genital area) "In my jamji!" (The Korean word for the female private parts)
  She proceeds to skip down the hall, singing "Jamji! Jamji! Jamji!"

• My students have "Korean time" where they have 30 minutes to spend with their Korean teacher (the rest of the time they are with the foreigners to maximize English speaking). Joanne teacher made butterfly masks with them, colored, laminated, and rubber-banded. When I came back in, I generally joked about needing a butterfly net to catch all of the butterflies.
  One of the boys, John C. says to me, he says:

  "Teacher! I'm not really a butterfly! I'm a people! This is just a MASK!"

There are also a lot of one-liners that slay me:

"FEED ME!!!!"
- John K.

"Teacher! And the monster is thinking...'Ant!'"
- John C. and John K. (their monsters are ALWAYS thinking ant, because that’s what the boys know how to spell on their own)

"Oops! I'm old! I forgot the glue!"
- John K.

"Smelly Canadian people!"
- John C.

"Oops! I forgot to be angry!"
- Jennifer

Me: Well, it looks like we have a mystery on our hands!
Jennifer: (looks at her hands, bewildered)

This, people, is why I absolutely love this job.

• Note: The concept of "growing daisies" was borrowed from Matt.

I assume this place sells....rice?

My boys' favorite pasttimes?

- Stabbing other little boys in the head with a pencil for revenge.
- Calling people 'smelly'
- Laughing at others' misfortunes
- Punching pictures of babies in books.
- Laughing maniacally about any and everything.
- Calling Jennifer a BA - ....con... (after a death look from teacher)
- And now crossdressing.

Even though there are no gay people in Korea (!!!!)....

"Look teacher, I'm a pretty little girl!"

"Me too!"

"Hahahaha! Hello pretty little girls!"

I swear I didn't put these guys up to this....

(All 'earrings' and 'barrettes' are actually magnets...)

"Crazy Hot Chicken Folder"

Wine and Cheese party, hosted on the roof of the Hyundai Arion in Migeum.

Mostly Avalon crew. And me.

An amazing Italian restaurant in Migeum.

Holy cow, best lasagna.

Who needs to go all the way to Japan to see cherry blossoms when we have them right here in Korea? By 'we' I mean Koreans and expats in Korea. I don't mean any of you, actually. Well...tough luck!

Information Robot for Canal City shopping mall in Fukuoka, Japan.

In memoriam of winter, here is a picture taken during crazy snowfall back in December.

It doesn't snow much here, but when it does....well, it does.

This was taken at the old fortress in Suwon, about 45 minutes away from where I live.

Here we are at Seoul Arts Center.

Here is a video of my kids doing the chicken dance!

Friday, Worwick had an Easter party for the kids. Minus the whole Christianity thing, we taught the kids different Easter traditions including an egg hunt, egg-painting, face-painting, an egg relay race, etc.

My job was to do "Easter Egg Twister" Most kids didn't know right from left, and some didn't even know their colors. That was fun. Most of the time I would just call out a color and the kids would scramble to that particular spot on the floor. You would think that running from egg to egg would get a bit tiresome and boring, but not for 4 to 6-year-olds.

I also had to teach the kids the "Chicken Dance," an American wedding reception classic. Since the kids would sit there like bumps if I weren't doing it, I basically did the Chicken Dance for the entirety of my workday.

It was fun.

Libra class doing the Chicken Dance.

Orion trying to play twister. Mostly they just wiggled in a pile on the floor.

Taurus class takes time to pose.

Sam (in the green) has the whole dancing face down.

Aries class had it easy, with only 3 students.

Na Yeon breaks it down and actually dances like a chicken.

Pisces class takes their twister seriously.

Possibly the coolest picture I have taken in Korea.

I've said it before: I can't believe I get paid to do this.