policy and my students (good)

if you just want the nondork part of the blog scroll down to the ***

this is just a short blurb that i really enjoyed from last week in the nytimes. i think it was david brooks (who lectures at duke every spring or something). it was so well-written (in my opinion) and i just liked the metaphor of night watchman. it so perfectly captured how i think ppl feel. (what we talked about so much in pps clases)

These voters don’t believe government can lift their standard of living or lead a moral revival. They want a federal government that will focus on a few macro threats — terrorism, health care costs, energy, entitlement debt and immigration — and stay out of the intimate realms of life. They want a night watchman government that patrols the neighborhood without entering their homes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/opinion/30brooks.html?em&ex=1193976000&en=f24972557a68b785&ei=5087%0A

i totally miss classes/lectures/seminars and academia in general. i get really excited by intellectual stimulation (i'm a huge dork) and i actually relished the one chapter a night i let myself read before sleeping of my new policy book i had my mom send me. haha. it's actually pretty well written and i miss that tone and friendly yet somewhat prodding voice of ppl who write policy-intentioned non-fiction for somewhat mass distribution.

this past weekend i actually freaked out a little bit about how ready i am for the stress and toil of law school. i was all like "holy crap i'm going to columbia law --these other students are gonna be so freaking brilliant and accomplished and whatnot ... i'm gonna diiiiiiiiiiiiiiie" but these past two days, i'm all like, BRING ON THE BOOKS BRING ON THE SOCRATIC METHOD. we'll see if i feel like that still once i get there haha. but i'm really missing reading and discussing and hearing other people's (my peers') opinions on policy decisions and factions.

***
***wow, dorkiness over for now: some interesting tidbits from 1st grade "fruits" lesson today

listen and repeat fun:
me: this is a PEACH
students: this is a peach (피치)
student0: 선어브비치도 있는데... (there is also sonofbitch)
(he actually really believed this was a TYPE of peach - so i just told him not to say it and to come after school if he wanted to know why)

"mike" and "mina" are the two main characters in our 1st and 2nd grde textbooks. so we watched a short clip introducing fruits at the market.
me: what did you see on the screen? WHO did you see?
student1: MIKE!
student2: MICHAEL
student3: MINA
student4: (singing) mariaaaa, ave mariaaaa (a la popular korean song)

we had an activity where i said either "i like x" or "i don't like x" (x=fruit name) and the students drew the fruit i said under smiley face(like) or frowny face(don'tlike)
me: i like grapes
student5: 선생님 왜 수박 싫어해요? (in korean) teacher, why don't you like watermelons?

me: i don't like peaches
student6: 왜요? 복숭아 맛있잖아요! (why not? peaches are so delicious!)
me: i have allergy
student6: (questioning look)
me: ALLERGY. i have AL-LER-GY
student7: 아~~ 오렌지가 싫데 (ohhh, she doens't like oranges)

5th grade english camp yesterday: this is a bit of the dialogue. i was asking them what each line meant.
A: Welcome to my house!
B: Thanks for inviting me. I brought you something.
A: Oh, you shouldn’t have.

me: what does "oh, you shouldn't have" mean?
highlights:
*필요없다 (i don't need it/it's unnecessary)
*i have it already
*what should i bring
*you don't have anything

and my personal favorite:
i explained the situation a little more and role-played with one of the students: if you come to my house and you BROUGHT (showed exchange) me something and i SAY 'oh you should'nt have"- think in korean- what could that mean?
*더 가져오라!!! (BRING MORE!!!)