Day 429

Friday Feb 19

I put my 'bucket list' up on 43 things.com. I like their set up. You can see how many people have the same goal as you. You can also mark it off as you achieve it. I've acheived 5 things (all in 2009).  If you want to check it out to see what I would like to accomplish before I 'kick the bucket' you can go to this link:

http://www.43things.com/person/valeriebeth09


I sent a message to my recruiter on facebook. He said he's waiting on the travel agency to book my ticket. I really hope they can get one for the 27th! It really bothers me at times that Koreans are master procrastinators. A flight should not be booked at the last minute! Especially a long international flight that doesn't depart very often!

We had a good spelling class today. 1 student made 100 on their test. The other 2 made a 60 and 30. We covered 3 pages in class and then played a game for about 5 minutes.

In my second class we finished the speaking tests and then we did 2 newspaper articles.They were interested in the first article.It was about elephants playing basketball. They said it was cute, has many meat, delicious, yummy, tasty..haha…some of them wanted to look at the picture twice. One of the students asked me why we didn’t eat elephants. I don’t know. He said they have a lot of meat.(The boys in my class love meat!) I told my class that next week was my last week. They asked why. I told them I was going home. They wanted to know when I was coming back. (I don’t know). I asked them if they wanted to have a party and they all said yes. I’m going to miss that class. ( I almost regret not being able to stay. I kinda wish I could have stayed! I love my students and I don't want to leave, but its too late to turn back now.)

Its really hard to know that I'm leaving and going back to the land of the unknown. I had a good life here. Now I have to go back to the USA and probably be unemployed for a few months and spend all the money I saved just so I can pay car insurance and student loans. I really don't want to settle for another job making minimum wage. Been there, done that. It was no fun. I also don't want to end up in a dead end job that I hate. I want to do something that I enjoy.

In my 3rd class we did the newspaper articles. They weren't so excited about the articles. Only 2 of my classes seem to be genuinely interested in the articles. The other classes just don't care.

The 4th class was decent, but not as good as they should have been if they were expecting to have a party.I told them not to talk or cheat during the test but they still did. We finished the chapter, reviewed and took the test. One student made a 22.Another student didn’t even try and made a 30. Some of the answers I got were: Simpsons, drader, don’t know, crazy boy, Yife, boys, city. (the words were: son, daughter, parents, cousin, uncle, aunt, husband, wife) One boy just wrote no yes no yes for how many blanks there were. He didn’t even try. I want to see them succeed but the apathetic ones make me wonder what I could have done to make them interested. Highest grade was 82.

I really wish I had students who wanted to be here and who really put forth an effort and study hard. I want to see a lot of progress, but some of my students didn't even try. I wish I knew what I was doing so I could make a difference. I want them to be able to have fluency someday.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm meeting a really interesting Korean guy who I've been following on the internet. I subscribe to his Youtube channel and read the blog that he writes about Korea. I also read the lessons he teaches on Talk to Me in Korean. (a website for learning Korean). He is a native Korean who loves to learn languages. His English is really good. I wish my students to had his passion for learning.