Jeez, so I completely neglect to write about China and Japan, yet here I am writing about school?? *roll eyes* I need to sort out my priorities. :-p
This is my first week teaching the new kids, and I am astounded at how GOOD their English comprehension is. I mean... WOW.
When I came to this school 6 months ago, most of the students could barely understand me. But these 1st graders are almost at the same level as the current 2nd and 3rd graders are.
Almost all of the kids had a foreign teacher in Elementary school, and I think this is the key. Don't get me wrong - their speaking ability is pretty crappy - but they can already understand me very well.
I did meet one kid who is very outgoing (yeah he's gonna be a handful in the months to come) and who speaks exceptionally well. The class fell silent as he spoke, "Teacher. May I ask you a question? I am just wondering: are you single, or are you married?" :D I was amazed.
Speaking is such a huge issue, overall. The current 3rd graders recently had to read some sentences in their classes, and the teachers noticed just how poor their pronunciation is. It makes me think that we are ultimately failing as teachers. I know that my co-teachers do most of the teaching and that I only teach each class once a week, but I feel partially responsible for this.
I gotta change something this semester. Now if I wasn't so damn tired all the time, I could maybe think of some ideas right now. :-p
Yesterday I visited with some 2nd graders and let a kid taste my coffee for some unknown reason. After a few minutes I spun around in circles saying, "Where is my coffee??" to find that he had drunk it all. ("Teacher! One-shot!") Poor kid was probably jumping off the walls later on.
In other news, just saw this picture of Austria, and I'm wondering what my life would be like if I had decided to teach in Europe instead of Asia. I really do love Korea, but man, I miss Europe.
Errr yeah so... why the hell won't my picture stay at the bottom of this post? Bah. Oh well.
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