Horses Ponies Plumbers and Mosquitoes Oh My

On Tuesday we had a “horse and pony show” at school. Please note that I use this phrase to show my complete contempt for the “open classes” that were conducted, and I think a real horse and pony show would have been far more educational, not to mention enjoyable.

So for the last two weeks the teachers at our school, with the sole exception of myself, were preparing to have an “open class” which the parents of students would attend too. Now, I am not opposed to the idea in theory, but the way our school had the teachers prepare was ridiculous. Each teacher had to submit a lesson plan about 6 weeks ago, then after approval they were supposed to essentially memorize it. Then, for the last two weeks the teachers have been “practicing” their lesson with the students. In short, these poor kids have had the same lesson for nearly two weeks, over, and over, and over. In addition to this, the teachers were “not allowed” to fall behind in the other things that they were supposed to be teaching. BUT practicing a whole lesson (ok, a slightly shorter lesson) takes time, and more time was not allocated. So basically, in order to have a fake lesson so their parents could watch and see how well we are teaching their children, we slowed down their actual education by hurrying through important things so we can look good in front of the parents. Maybe it’s just me, but I think this was ridiculous. I am very glad I didn’t have to do one too, because I think I would have said something stupid before I actually got to give my lesson in front of the parents. Here’s hoping I don’t have to do one next time!

After the open classes the parents went to a meeting with our Korean teachers and so some of the classes had to be covered by foreign teachers since all the Korean teachers were in the meeting. Well, I got put in with a class of ten (10!!!) six-year olds. It was a disaster. I didn’t know any of these kids and they didn’t know me. When I walked in, two of them started crying, and one of them only consented to remain there as long as her grandmother stayed too. We played a game, which was supposed to be related to what they were doing in class (it was out of their textbook), but it didn’t go too well because I wasn’t sure how to organize it and the kids just wanted to play. How do you organize a group of 10 six-year olds to play with teams?

The other teacher also forgot to warn me that one of the girls would “need” to go to the bathroom every five minutes, and that I should ignore her pleas unless it really seemed likely to be true. So, after taking the whole class to the bathroom five minutes before she was claiming to NEED to go. I didn’t fall for it, but I was a little concerned since I didn’t know these kids at all. In fact, this non-incident led to an actual incident later that day.

In my regular kindergarten class one of my boys asked to go to the bathroom right when I got there. That was fine so I told him to go (I don’t have to escort my regular class). Well, 10-15 minutes later he needed to go again. I made him wait, but after a while of his pleading I let him go again. When this happened again, 15 minutes later I told him he could wait until the bell rang. I was quite sure he had figured out that I only let them go if they are squirming (because otherwise they will need to go just because they are bored), so I wasn’t too worried. Finally I broke down and told him to go, but I was too late. He had already gone, just not in the right place. I felt horrible. I did learn later that he does this once a month or so and that while it would be nice to avoid it, it does happen to the other teachers too. For the record, all the kids (kinders) have a change of clothes in their lockers, just in case.

In other news, on Friday our sink broke. It had always drained on the floor and then through the shower drain and that was the way we thought it was supposed to be. We were wrong. When our sink began draining funny (i.e. spraying water around the floor area instead of letting it dribble down to the floor) Jenn talked to our boss. They got someone to come on Saturday and he fixed the sink. He also found some interesting artifacts inside the piping, which I must say was there BEFORE we moved in. The plumber found a toothbrush, and its cap inside the pipes. He also installed a stopper in the sink, which we did not have before (hence the toothbrush). We had to pay for it initially, but our landlord should be reimbursing us. Even so, the whole thing cost less than $40, which compared to the States is pretty cheap.

Our Korean lessons are going well. We bought our lesson books last week and so this week we have been using them to practice. Our instructor told us that our pronunciation had improved a lot. I couldn’t tell a difference, but she’s the expert. I have also concluded that Korean is as confusing as English. I am probably alone in that opinion, but it seems like there are way too many different syllables and vowels. And so many of them sound EXACTLY the same!! There was a trio that we were studying today that I cannot tell ANY difference between them. How a language can have so many close/similar sounds is baffling to me, but it seems to work for them. Or maybe it doesn’t. I recall that our instructor has told us several times that most Koreans don’t speak correctly. This is the same as how most Americans don’t speak proper English. One of the things that really baffles me is how there are numerous words that sound like you would spell them one way, but you don’t. What’s more is that when you hear them, even though they sound alike they should be spelled one way, you are supposed to just know, or remember that they are in fact spelled differently. It’s like trying to remember to add the thirty some “silent” letters at the end of any French word!!

I don’t know, sometimes I really think that learning a language is a bad idea. It’s actually not been that bad, in fact I am enjoying it, but I just don’t understand why languages (all of them!) have to be so complicated and confusing. Why couldn’t some intelligent people make up something that was logical and made sense instead of adding confusing rules and stuff? Maybe it was a government project?


Hi Jenn Here,
I have had a good week. I didn’t sleep much the night before my open class, but it went really well. We practiced so much that in one of my classes the students answered the questions before I asked them. Kindergarteners are great that way. I was nervous but I did have fun. When it was over I realized that it was just a big speech, like in college. Those four years of communication classes really did pay off. When the open classes were over (I had two, back to back) the parents went into a meeting with the Korean teachers. The parents said that I did a really good job and no one complained.

My second open class led to a major breakthrough with one of my kindergarteners. She has never been able to speak clearly in Korean or English. She has learned the art of mimicking to get people to understand what she is saying. I suspected that she has a hearing problem. She is very smart and is a top student whenever we do book work, but when it comes to oral tests she does really badly. I mentioned my concern to my Korean co-teacher and she said that the mother did not think she had a hearing problem. Well during open class I made sure that I included visual, oral are writing prompts as part of my lesson plans. She was one of the students that would know the answer before I asked it. But when I was doing part of the lecture she tuned out and did not respond when I called her name. Her mother and aunt were watching. They admitted after the class that they thought she had a hearing problem and they actually took her out of school early that day. They next day she showed up with a hearing aid in each ear. We could immediately see the difference in her responses and attention. I am sure with a little practice her speech will clear up real soon.

I am very excited that this student now has the tools that she needs in order to be successful in school and the rest of her life.

In other school news we had a field trip on Tuesday. We went to a very large Korean TV station. The tour was in Korean but I enjoyed walking around the building and seeing all of the different parts that it takes to produce TV programs. Our students had a blast. They got to see some of their favorite characters. They were also able to spend some time in a makeup room trying on costumes. I remembered my camera but unfortunately I forget to check to make sure the battery was in it. After the makeup room, they got to go into a sound booth. Four of the students got to do voice recordings for a cartoon. Then we went into a “Greenroom.” The set was actually all blue. They kids got to sit on go-carts and then they were filmed. The blue was automatically removed from the scene and replaced with a video game track so it looked like they were racing each other. It was really cool. Then they got to sing one of their favorite songs about being on a farm. The camera crew then added in some really cool backgrounds. I was amazed by the technology because it was all done instantly without any editing. This was a really cool field trip. I was a lot less stressed this time because I was only in charge of my class of 4 instead of that class and the class of 10.

At home I have started to do more genealogy research during my free time. It is amazing what you can do with just internet access. Oh and lots of help from my Aunt Jo and Aunt Donna. I have discovered that Facebook is a great way to meeting distant relatives. A few weeks ago I was able to get in contact with several of my father’s cousins. Yesterday I spent way too much time staring at my Family Tree Database and Facebook, but I was able to get in contact with one of my mother’s cousins and then with a little more Facebook search I was able to contact one of my third cousins. My grandfather and her grandmother were cousins. I love technology. I am hoping someday to gather enough information so that I could actually find a 4th cousin. I think that would be cool. This is very interesting to me.

Please pray for our health. Monsoon season is about to start and along with the monsoons comes lots and lots of mosquitoes. We havn’t had any problems yet but they are coming. Also this morning I woke up with a sore throat. I was hoping it would go away but it has gotten worse as the day progressed.

If you have Skype you can contact us through our screen names: Jenniepooh623 or Chris-1945.