Tuesday, October 30, 2007

back to school, kindof (ok)

so, i'm back at school today. kindof. seeing how i was sick and then had a mini business trip this morning to the education college, my two remaining classes were cancelled by the teachers and i havent taught in 2 weeks. this makes me a bit nervous for tomorrwo but the 1st grade teachers have agreed to step it up even if the whole class happens in korean so i wont overextend my voice. my teachers really are the greatest. they take such good care of me. as does imo who stayed home halfday from work yesterday to make me 전복죽 for lunch and woke up early to make mussel 죽 for breakfast before leaving at 6am for her daughter's high school entrance exam.

i made better friends with dennis today. well, first he woke me up at 7:15 because he was bored (p.s. this is 30 min earlier than i NORMALLY wake up) so i wasnt too pleased, but it was nice of him to wake me up (since his mom wasnt home i think he wanted to make sure i got up and went to school). and then i skinned my whole hand and got ink all over it too. but that's the price of winning ur hostbro's friendship and that's fine by me. i was checking the weather (aka reading calvin and hobbes and dilbert online) when i notice he is struggling at the printer. so i go over and shove my hand in between gears and sharp plastic to unjam the paper that is stuck in there. he is amazed since he's been trying for over 5 minutes and we are somewhat closer, he said "thank you" - lately he just ignores me ... we attribute it to his budding adolescence and realization that i am a GIRL, and he is a BOY and thusly should not have exchanges. haha. this is kindof fun for me bc i've never lived with a boy before seeing how i only have a sister and have only had girl roommates. i like having a little brother kindof. maybe soon we will get to wrestling and it'll be exactly the same as having a younger sister.

i have a weird relationsihp with language. i do NOT enjoy speaking english to koreans who speak korean (most notably adults). this has long been a standard of mine (umma you kno this) and it really bothers me to speak english with koreans who are struggling with it or who think their english is GREAT, but it clearly isn't. i have a MUCH easier time undestanding ppl's KOREAN than their weirdly accented english. i'm not being mean, it's just a fact. i'm SORRY but i also feel rude and awkward, saying "what? excuse me?" a million times over and you still insist on saying it in english that i an't understand.

4th graders are funny. i watched a cotaught 4th grade class today and the english teacher (from ENGLAND!) said he was tired because he was a t the hospital for a long time yesterday and the class had to guess why ... everyone said "cold" except f or one group who guessed "치질" (hemorrhoids). it was kindof funny. then they wanted me to do some listen and repeats with the english teacher to show them a comparison of english and american pronunciation. then the original homeroom teacher said, "listen to my american pronuncation: sorry i can't today" and one student goes, "그건 한국식 영어" (that's korean-style english). they were cute.

back to the language issue later. english camp now.

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