My mom recently sent me security footage of a deer wandering through the front yard. The sixth graders guessed all kinds of animals before I played the video, not excluding tiger, rabbit, and snake. They were amazed, and even more amused, when I revealed that my mom was angry at the deer for eating her flowers. They got a kick out of that. I heard cries of 사슴 and was curious. “Is this how you spell deer?” I asked, writing 사슴 on the board. They all clapped. “Thank you, but is this right?” There was no answer so I assumed the applause spoke for itself. Easily impressed! I did a…

The school counselor told Jack at lunch that I, too, needed to do mandatory child abuse prevention training. Of course, when she sent the link school wide, it led to a Korean education website for which I do not have login credentials. I attempted to make an account on the Korean-only screen but I gave up around step 20 when my school position wasn’t even listed in the position requirement. Do I really need to watch these videos, if I’m not even considered a viable user in the system? The answer was still yes, because Korea, and I got a pass by downloading and watching the videos on my computer.…

The same trio of fourth grade girls that ask for high fives called out to me excitedly in the lunch line. I gave them more high fives and they told me I’m pretty. Win win. One from the trio caught up with me on the stairs later and asked me an interesting question in Korean. “Are you a foreigner?” She posed politely. “Am I a foreigner?” I repeated, to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding this conversation. She confirmed. “Yes, I am. I’m American.” “You’re American?” “Yes,” I answered, holding back a laugh. She was cutely serious so I asked her why. “You’re the first foreigner I’ve ever met.” “Really? You…

I thought to myself today, you know, I should start learning Arabic. I mentioned to my father that these days I have a huge mental block between my second languages. When I try to speak Spanish, which I studied for seven years, Korean comes out. I can’t remember basic phrases like “how are you?” or “are you wearing a jacket?” My dad suggested I’m too deep in Korean and probably need a break. I’m considering adding some easy conversational Spanish tutoring to my schedule and maybe doing an introductory course or two in something wildly different, like Arabic. According to the homeroom teacher for 6-2 at the travel school, Maria,…

“You look weak these days,” Jack told me. There was nothing to be offended about because he’s right. I nodded in agreement. “We have a saying here. 닭병. You have chicken disease. Like when a chicken gets sick and weak.” The descriptors weren’t very helpful but I could imagine a crated chicken slowly wasting away in a cramped cage. Between hospital visits and stress over my travel school lesson plans and lack of sleep that keeps piling up from thrice weekly online Korean classes and additional online English classes and the change of seasons and the promise of the end of the semester, I am tired. I do feel weak.…

Somewhere in the midst of trying to communicate with the sixth graders I was struck with a thought: This is dumb. Wait—I don’t mean teaching or English is useless. Far from it. I mean the setup of this job could be better. How much are the kids gaining by our language barrier, even when I’m a Korean speaking certified teacher? How much harder was this for the native guest teachers before me? I have a lot of thoughts about public English education which at current I do not have the energy to address; all resources have gone to battling the ceaseless appearance of drain flies. When my high school debaters…

Sometimes I take a pause at the beginning of my fourth grade classes and look at their precious little faces. Well, what I can see. They’re really cute! And they love chatting with me after class while I unplug my USB and pack up. Many in the shyest class demand extra, personal high fives. Or just jump up and down in my vicinity. They want attention and hey, I’ll give it to them! Fifth grade was also super cute today. 5-1 tried hard even though they’re normally very quiet. I like to think I bring out their fun side. There’s a special kid in class who often frustrates his classmates…

I realized that every day I give four to five interactive presentations. Put that on a resume! Today I tried to see what about 6-6 draws Helen in. 6-5 really ticked me off with excessive talking and one student repeatedly saying “goodbye” before class had ended. I ended class a minute early and they were shocked. “Wait it’s actually over?” Yeah, I don’t want to spend time with you when you act like this! My notes revealed that 6-5 constantly swings between being interactive and overwhelming. Then it was 6-6’s time to shine. And they did! I told them we’d play a game but only if they behaved, and they…