I was the Walter Cronkite of My Middle School!

I have about three months left in Korea. I’m out of here at the end of February.  School is winding down. I no longer teach the third grade students, so my schedule is wide open.  The semester ends sometime in December. I don’t know when, which should speak to the level of responsibility I have at my job.

The speaking tests are horrendous though. Because third graders take their final tests and have to apply (you heard me, apply) to high schools, they’ve already taken their English speaking tests. But I’m in the middle of correcting and grading the speaking tests of the first and second graders. For me it’s a herculean task.  Repetitive and boring and time consuming.  Especially the part where I have to correct the dialogues they’ve written. Some of them are quite funny, but mostly it’s drudgery.

This week I had my last Friday morning English broadcast. I started out loathing it, but I’ve come to appreciate it, begrudgingly. I do like being a nerd and telling the students about NASA and volcanoes. When will I ever have a job that has been do a broadcast again?  I guess my journalist days are over.

Broadcast equipment

Ms. Choi preparing for the broadcast

Broadcast room - Ms. Choi, broadcast students and me shamelessly taking photos of myself on the TVs

That blurry, dark image on the TV is me. My God! I'm famous.

Me and my brave student cohost for that week

Ha! Ms. Choi's expression cracks me up.

End of My 2010 English Summer Camp

Today was the last day of summer camp.  I’ve been disappointed with this camp, which is my fault.  But today was a good day.  We had a casual ceremony where we gave the students completion certificates and awards for perfect attendance and excellence.  I was asked to give a ‘speech’ or something.  What is more awkward than being asked to give a small speech on the spot?  Knowing that the people who you are speaking to don’t understand you anyway.  Afterwards we broke the two pinatas I had made.  Predictably the three boys were eager to break the pinatas that they made.  They were unceremoniously smashing them against each other.  Pinatas are made to be broken, true, but I am not one to clean up extra mess if there need not be extra mess, plus if anything requires ceremony to be broken it is a pinata.  But really, a good day all in all.  Shin Minyoung was there, and she is always ready to laugh.  It was nice to have at least one person understanding and reacting to my jokes.  (Some of the more advanced girls may very well understand me, but they are so shy they are loathe to express themselves.)

I have my brief summer vacation now and will return to work on August 25th.  I won’t be going to Shanghai.  I haven’t made any plans, honestly.  August is not a great time to travel to Southeast Asia because it’s the rainy season.  Speaking of the rainy season, it is the rainy season in Korea too, but today the sky is magnificent.  There’s some blue sky and white fluffy clouds, and there are also dark storm clouds.  I love it when the sun is shining on trees and behind the trees are dark clouds.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the things I don’t know.  I feel like some sincere maturation is on it’s way.

Breaking the Pinata

Pictures of my Summer Camp’s Pinatas and my Depressed Students

My middle school English summer camp class with their finished pinatas. They're not thrilled about having their photo taken, except for the boy in the middle.

Scary clownish pinata

This one looks like an Easter egg. Dig those fancy bows that girl made.

Inexplicably this girl put her candy on the outside of her pinata.

I love my pinata. A lot.

Here's a photo of one of our English classes. Notice something that doesn't belong? We've got Sydney, London, Washington DC and Paris.

Parlez-vous anglais? Je suis une teacher de English gosh darnit.