Day 228

August 2 Sunday

Well its just been a lazy day around the house. I cooked a late lunch for myself today around 6pm. I had rice and sausage. I've got to start eating at home more so I won't be out spending so much money and eating things that are bad for me. I spend way too much money on fast food.

I also cleaned the kitchen section and swept the floor. I've still got to clean the bathroom.

I've been trying to do something productive with my time. I finished most of the essays today. The most common mistakes are not writing in sentences, misspelling words, using extra words 'I walk to the school', 'i wash the face' instead of 'i wash my face'. I'm surprised by how many of my students eat grits. HAHA. I gave them an example essay. In my example essay I wrote "I eat grits for breakfast." One of the questions for the essay was "What do you eat for breakfast?". A lot of them said "I eat grits for breakfast." I doubt they even know what grits are. How could you just blindly put something down without even knowing what it is? I've never seen grits here. I had some one day and showed it to a Korean teacher and she'd never heard of it. I actually gave her a pack so she could try it. I don't think she's tried it yet though. Some of them wrote the same sentences twice. "What do you do first when you get up?" I brush my teeth. "What do you do after breakfast?" I brush my teeth. I wrote a comment "Do you brush your teeth twice?" Then another person wrote that they take a shower twice. I wrote "2 showers?".haha. Most of the essays had a lot of things to correct. I had 2 essays that were nearly perfect. Those were 2 of my newer students. My older students that I've had since March don't really have good writing skills. I wish I knew how to help. I don't know how to help them improve writing. I try to teach them to use correct grammer and complete sentences. The Korean teachers are suppose to be teaching them grammar but I don't think it helps. Maybe next semester I'll try to spend a few minutes each class trying to improve their writing or make them write more essays, but even after you correct the essays and hand them back they make the same exact mistakes on the next essay. Sometimes I even wonder if I'm really making a difference. I want to see them succeed, but if they aren't going to put forth the effort then they won't get to a point of fluency.

I think this month I'll have a more open ended essay. Where they have all the freedom. I wonder how much imagination they will have if I just tell them to write a story. It can be as crazy as they want it to be. Nothing is impossible. I just want to see what kind of responses I'll get. I'd also like to try an activity that I read about. You start out with one sentence on the paper and you pass it around and every student adds a new sentence to continue the story.

I've still got to decide what I'm going to give to the students who did their homework for the whole month of July. I think I might just give out candy. I've still got to check my list from when i was absent and see how many students will get a reward. My last count before vacation was around 20 or so. The sub was asked to check homework and mark it on a sheet so I'll see how many still did it. Kids love chocolate and the teachers usually give them chocolate for doing good on exams.

I've been studying a little Korean lately. I really want to learn. I don't think that I'll become fluent because I won't have a chance to use it in America. I don't know any Koreans. Plus it won't be of any use in my day to day life. I just want to learn some while I'm here. I want to carry on a short conversation with someone. I think the only way I would actually apply myself is if I was in a school setting but I don't want to pay hundreds of bucks to take a class. I've been studying some online. There are some good korean videos on youtube. I already can read the alphabet so thats a start! There are 14 consonants and 10 vowels. And I have a Korean name--Na Min Sol. Its just a name that my one of my students gave me.

I have to go back to work tomorrow at 9am! oh no! Vacation is over!

approximately 210 days till I come home! I've made it to the halfway point..my days that I've been here outnumber my days that I have left. I'm going to miss it here though. I love Seoul. I won't miss the actual job although I'll miss the kids. The kids are adorable even though some of them are little devils 25% of the time. The majority of the kids are really good. There are only a handful who like to cause trouble.

A lot of my students will only be with me for this month. The majority of my kids are in 6th grade. They are moving up to middle school in the new session which starts in September. I wonder how many new kids I will have when the new session starts. The new session will be a time where I can try new things to improve thier speaking and writing. I can also work on improving my teaching ability for the last 6 months that I will be at the school.