Week 20, Tuesday

Final Week of Fall Semester

Sometimes I am disturbed by the sass and awareness of Jaekyung, the grade 3 girl who wrote me a note. It’s hard to remember she’s just ten when she looks at me and shakes her head at the antics of her less mature classmates.

Thursday will be my last class with grade 3, except for 3-2 whose homeroom teacher has decided to keep them to herself that day. We closed out today by having them present their self introductions. H helped me explain why “I like cat” is wrong, “I like a cat” is grammatically correct but used for a single, specific cat, and why “I like cats” is best.

I also made a note in Korean and English about “I like chickens (animal) versus I like chicken (meat).” They got it and were very interested which was great to see. Start their linguistic curiosity early I say!

Later, in our final grade 4-2 class, I was taunting SEVENTEEN boy with fake dollar bills when suddenly, in his flailing, they were all knocked out my hand. In a real music video moment, dollar bills floated softly about group 4’s heads while they cheered and tried to snatch them out of the air.

SEVENTEEN boy was not finished:

“You ugly.” He giggled, darting out of reach.

“Hey! I’ll kill you!” I cried, snatching after him.

He amended: “Beautiful!”

The exchange struck me as familiar, which it was: we had the same conversation during the talent show.

In the late afternoon I (playfully) beat a kid with hardened rice cake. Am I Korean enough now? H gave it to me in celebration of her baby’s 100th day but reminded me that I must steam it, otherwise I’ll be eating a rice rock.

Tomorrow is not a free day as I had hoped but instead the subject teachers have to help run the graduation rehearsal. Will I never be free from grade 6??