Teaching: Week 2 summary

This week went decently teaching wise. I know now that most of the students can comprehend the basic commands covered in TPR, but for the lower level classes I will probably press this system for the sake of their growing accustomed to my voice. I’m especially anxious about the first graders because, with the Korean academic year finishing in winter as it does, they are the students I will have until June, and thus the students I can make the most progress with. The second graders will be advancing to third grade where they will begin studying almost exclusively for their university entrance examinations which focus on reading English, not speaking it. Thus, I will probably never see them again. They will be replaced with a new batch of first graders fresh from the hamlet’s Middle School who I will have to start all over with in terms of lessons.

One thing that was a big success this last week with my high school students was the “Flea, Fly, Mosquito” song, a repeat after me song that was always a favorite at Arrowhead Lutheran Camp.

Flea!
Flea, Fly!
Flea, Fly, Mosquito!
Mosquito!
Calamine, calamine, calamine lotion.
Oh, no, no, no, not the lotion!
Itchy, itchy, scratchy, scratchy. Think I’ve got one on my back-y.
Quick! Get the bug spray. Think he went that-a way!
Schzz! Ugh! Got that bug.

The kids really enjoyed the rhythmic aspect of the song (slap, clap, snap, clap on a 4/4 count), and I enjoyed watching their faces grow wide with terror when I began to accelerate the tempo. I’m justifying using these songs in the classroom for two reasons: 1) they will help with pronunciation and recall of vocabulary learned from the songs; 2) they are just plain fun and an easy way to keep the kids awake. As for the first, Korean children have difficulty pronouncing “th” sounds and “l”/“r” sounds (“l” and “r” are a single letter in Korean as in many Asian languages from what I understand). The song offers sufficient opportunities for practicing this without being too frustrating. As for vocabulary, I got to teach the difference between itch and scratch as well as some common North American bugs. Besides, how many Korean kids do you know who ask for calamine lotion if they have an itch (not a scratch). Mine can. (Incidentally, they call flea markets “flea markets” out here. Except in Korean. Go figure.) If I really wanted to focus on the vocabulary and take my time with the song, I could stretch out the lesson so the song took the entire 50-min. This was probably better for some of the slower classes I did this for, anyway.

This was my first week with the adult classes. I have two of them and each meets for two hours a day, two days a week. Can anyone say, “Christ College Seminar”?

I can. And I will. The advanced adult class is actually pretty stinkin’ good with their English. By good I mean that they can read news articles and discuss them fairly fluently. They also wouldn’t mind listening to a couple of songs and interpreting the lyrics. I’m in Heaven! Hopefully I don’t get too excited and ruin everything by throwing Plato at them or something awful like that. It won’t come to that, I promise you, though I am tempted to do the Michael W. version of Romeo & Juliet with them. It’s visually expressive enough that I’m sure they’ll be able to follow it. One concern with doing that though is the presence of a pastor in the group and a couple of housewife mothers. Pastors here tend to be more conservative than in America. Housewife mothers tend to agree with them. I’ll have to be careful.

The beginners/intermediate class (notice the singular-plural switch, as it’s accurate to the class’ demographic) is truly a beginners’ class. They know their alphabet and a few stock phrases, but getting them to talk will be a bear. Since they’re mostly housewives or ajuma, though, I’m teaching them how to go shopping. Last week, we went to the supermarket. Next week, we’ll review that and move on to the department store. Maybe by the end of the semester I can set up a shopping spree activity for them or something…

So, overall a good week. There is a regret, though. Unfortunately, I taught some of the high school classes how to shake hands like Americans. Korean handshakes are very conciliatory and nice and … Well, generally they’re meant to show deference to the person you’re shaking hands with, which is not what you’re going for in a good American handshake. An American handshake should express a kind of friendly strength. Instead of saying, “I am honored to be in your presence, oh social superior of mine,” you’re trying to say, “I’m someone you can depend on when the going gets tough.” Nation of supposed equals and all that.

What was unfortunate about the handshake portion of the lesson is that there was a rash of pink eye going around the school (which Koreans call red eye), and I may have exacerbated the problem as well as infected myself. Live and learn.

(For those who just developed an over-reactive look of terror at the mention of pink eye and me possibly having it, e.g. Claire R. and possibly, though less probably, Mom: The jury’s still out on whether my eyes are a little red because of disease or lack of sleep. Probably a little of both, but they haven’t turned the color of Pepto-Bismol yet, so I’m in the clear for the time being. Incidentally, should Crayola ever hold another color naming contest for an obscenely large crayon box of 5,000 different colors, I’m hoping there’s a good thick pink in there. Pepto-Bismol pink really should be a color in the Crayola opus.)