Teacher Teacher

Hello my dear friends!

School has been dogging me this week. What a fluster! Today had some redeeming qualities. My days always end with my more accelerated classes. This is usually a relief and helps end the day on a good note. Today it was this way. In two of my writing classes we put the books away (WRITE Right! books pictured below with a piece of green tea cake on top) and did some free writing. The books are very formulaic and I like to let them play around with language and learn the way they like to use it. That is more effective in my opinion. It also helps to make them more comfortable with the language and trying to express themselves in a foreign language. 

 So I let them choose topics they are interested in. I start off with vocabulary I think they might need or want, and this also gives them some ideas of things to write about, settings or topics. Inspired by Friday the 13th last week one of my classes wrote about ghosts, which is apparently what Friday the 13th in Korea is all about. My other class wrote on sci-fi, fantasy ideas. I think foreign language acquisition has a lot to with one's ability to be creative and think outside the language barriers they have in place. So these exercises help them in that way too.

I would like to transpose here for you my favorite of today's stories, grammar errors and all. This is how it was written and presented to me.

"Name Jenny

Once upon a time. One grandfather and one ghost live in basement. The ghost is really bad. But grandfather is very kind and good. But ghost like him ghost is banter people grandfather help people.
Both two is contrast
By the way!! ghost look strange things
grandfather goes anywhere everynight.
ghost thinks strange.
But ghost continue like grandfather.
One night ghost incognito grandfather
Suddenly!! grandfather change wolf human.
ghost is very surprised and grandfather is surprised too.
Next day grandfather and ghost live happy"

Foreign teachers (native English speakers) often get to enjoy the fine art of gleaning the meaning in our student's writing. I also read and grade book reports on books I've never read before. Most are, at best, confusing. Others are, however, more interesting. Here below lies a picture of my favorite book report ever.

This is a small glimpse into my daily life right now. If you would like more stories or what examples of what its like to teach English to small Korean children, leave me a message in the comments, and I'll work on some for you!