Day 230

August 4 Tuesday

My first class was good. I had one new student and 1 student was absent. We had a good productive class. Lots of speaking time. Gave out a prize for the one student who had her homework for the month of July. She chose a notebook.

2nd class was also productive. 3 of my students were absent. The students loved the gifts I let them choose. Notebooks, erasers, pencils, candy. They were all excited and said thank you. They all wanted to choose a "bonus." I wouldn't let them pick more than one item, but they could choose candy as a bonus. I let them choose a bonus because they were the only class where all the students in the class did their homework every class in July. I let the new girl choose but she didnt want anything. We had a good class. Covered 4 pages of material and had some speaking time. Everytime we have speaking time I have to ask the new girl to talk to her partner. Then she talks very quietly. Its hard having someone who doesnt want to participate and partnering them with someone who likes to participate in class. I gave a makeup test to the student who was absent. she caught on really quickly. It only took her 5 minutes to complete and she made 100.

After class the Korean teacher said all the students were showing off their gifts to her. She said they really liked them. I wasn't sure how they would like notebooks, pencils and erasers, I'm glad they did.

My 3rd class was good. We covered a few pages of material and reviewed and only had 5minutes left for free time.

In my 4th class I usually have 2 girls but one was absent today. At the beginning of class I let the girl pick what she wanted for having her homework for July. She chose a little notebook. She said she was happy. She liked the song in the book. In every unit there is an English song that pertains to the lesson. Some are decent and some are really corny. This one actually had a nice beat. She wanted to listen to it twice. On the 2nd time she recorded the song on her cell phone. We covered a lot of material today.

My last class started out good. They were being really quiet and doing their work. Then mid way through class they started acting up. They were balling up paper and throwing it at each other and not paying attention at times but they still participated. We had an okay class. They begged to play hangman so I stopped the lesson early and let them play for 10 minutes.

I walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes at the gym. While I was walking I was watching "House" season 2. Its really old, but it was the only interesting thing on tv. Yesterday while I was walking the PT came over to talk to me. He was asking me about the show and I told him that it was already on season 6 in America(i think) and that what was on now was season 2. He said in Korea their shows last one season and then they are over.

I'm always amazed by how long it takes to take the elevator in the building where my gym is. Its a heavily popluated area due to there being a mall, Kim's Club and a cinema. When the elevator does come all the Koreans rush to get on and there's no room left or there are so many people on the elevator that there isn't enough room to get on. And sometimes the elevator is packed as full as it can get. They like to cram the elevator so full that you are squished! They don't think 'oh that elevator looks full-lets wait'--its more like 'yeah its full, but lets see if we can fit 5 more people.' Then you have to push your way through if you are getting off at a lower floor than other people. The doors almost closed on me today when I was trying to get out but someone pushed the open button so I could get out.

Tip: If you like personal space--forget about it! I love my personal space. Personal space is a foreign concept in South Korea!