Santa is Korean...No English...

This week started out a bit stressful. I spent all day at work alternately teaching and studying for my finals. After work, I went to school, studied for another hour, and then took my last two finals. I was much better prepared for the second two finals, and it definitely showed in my scores. For the Writing and Speaking tests we took on Thursday I got 86% and 84%. For the Listening and Reading tests we took on Monday I got 93% and 100%…not too bad if I do say so myself. I beat all of the overseas Koreans in my class on those two tests. If only I could match their speaking skills, I would be unstoppable.

Tuesday was my last day of Korean classes for the term. It was a little sad. We all kind of bonded with each other over the course of the term, and now a lot of people are leaving Korea, or moving on to other things. After class on Tuesday we all went to this German place, and just hung out for almost two hours. Even our teacher came, as much as we annoyed him at times, I’m pretty sure he liked us. On Tuesday, my teacher handed me a tiny piece of paper and told me I needed to go to this room at 8:20. Turns out he recommended me for a scholarship, so I had a surprise scholarship interview. There were a lot of candidates, so I doubt I’ll get it, but it was nice to be nominated nonetheless.

The rest of the week went on as usual. It was odd having free time after work on Thursday, but I think that this week is going to be even more odd. I have to do a lot of studying to prep for level 6 of the language program, so I should be using my free time for that…however I’ll probably end up watching Korean drama instead, because that’s what I do.

This week wasn’t very eventful. I am growing ever more frustrated with the child in my class that cannot behave, and is in turn corrupting all the hard work I put in to get the other students to behave. I’m so frustrated that there’s nothing I can do. There’s no principal I can send him to. If I send him to a Korean teacher he just gets baby talked to and told not to do it again. I can’t punish him, he doesn’t respond to yelling, he rarely listens when I’m talking to him. I’ve run out of things to do except ignoring the kid, but I don’t want to completely give up hope on him, or else he will stay like this for the rest of his life, and he will never have any friends.

This week I had a terrible craving for chicken Caesar salad. So I went to the store to see if it would even be possible. I easily found lettuce, and assorted veggies for the salad part. Chicken was easy to come by, I even managed to find a bottle of salad dressing that said “American Caesar” on it. Then I went on search for cheese, and in the back corner of the store, I found a whole block of feta cheese…it cost 10,900 won($10), but I didn’t care. I went home made my salad, listened to Christmas music, and spent the evening wrapping presents. It’s fun how just a small taste of home, can improve my mood and give me a small sense of Christmas spirit. Last year I had no Christmas spirit. This year, however, I am REALLY excited. Probably because my favorite little sister is coming to visit me, and unlike last year, I don’t have to work on Christmas Day.

This week I was trying to use Santa as a threat to get my children to behave in the classroom. So I told the kids that I had Santa’s phone number and if they were bad I would call him, and he would bring them rocks on Christmas. One of my students looked and me with this knowing look on his face and said, “But teacher, Santa is Korean…no English.” I didn’t fight the Santa is Korean thing, because to each culture their own, but I did explain to the student that Santa is a genius and he can speak any language in the world. After I explained that, they took my threats more seriously.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. And remember that the best way to spread Christmas Cheer is by singing loud for all to hear.

Love,

Jessica