A Funny Day

Today (well, Friday, since it's already Saturday here) was just one of those really comical days.

This morning I took my laundry downstairs to a dry cleaner/tailor/laundry service. I had three things to be dry cleaned. They took them, wrote up a bill, and handed me the receipt. I had to laugh when I saw that they wrote "waygukin" ("foreigner") as my name to pick up my clothes. I guess they think I can't read it, or if I can read it, that I don't know what it means. It made me laugh as soon as they handed it to me. I wonder if they even know what I was laughing about. Sometimes I get tired of being so obviously different from the people around me, but other times, like this, it's actually funny.

It was rainy all day, so the kids were a little wired. In my preschool class, we're learning the numbers 0-30. All of my students can count to 10 in English. About half of them can count to 20, and a couple of them can count to 30 (and probably higher if I'd let them keep going). However, if I point to a number at random or write it on the board, they can't tell me what it is in English. They can, however, tell me what it is in Korean, so they have the concept of numbers, they just haven't mastered the English words when the numbers are taken out of order.

Today I took 20 crayons and asked the kids to guess how many crayons I had in my hand. It went something like this.

EMH: Guess how many crayons I have!
Mike: 17
Max: 15
Haley: 24
Pam: 5
Sherry: 10
Wendy: 18
Doug: RED!
EMH: No, Doug, guess a number. How many crayons do I have?
Doug: RED!
All the kids giggle.
EMH, speaking a little more slowly: A number, Doug. How many crayons are there? How many?
Doug: RED! RED! RED!

I gave up and wrote "red" on the board as his guess. He was delighted that there was a red crayon in the bunch. I think in his eyes, he was right in the end, even after it was announced that the correct answer was 20.

I had a new student join my next class (kindergarten) of the day. His name is Peter, and he was understandably a little nervous and hesitant to speak at first. One thing I've learned, though, is that it's generally best to get new kids to say SOMETHING in English during the first class, even if they are just repeating something that I say. If they say something, I really heap the praises on so that they leave the class feeling like they can speak English, and the rest of the classes are a little smoother after that. If I let them go through the class without saying anything, then it's all the harder to build up their confidence to speak.

So today I was trying to get Peter to repeat something, but he just kept saying "yes."

EMH: Tell me "hello!"
Peter: Yes.
EMH: No. Hello. Hel-lo
Peter: Yes.
EMH: Tell me "hello!"

At this point, Christine chimed in.

Christine: Teacher, name Peter.
EMH: Yes, I know he's Peter. I want him to say "hello." Peter, tell me "hello."
Peter: Yes.
Christine: Teacher, name Peter. Tommy no!
EMH: Yes, Christine, he's Peter. Peter, tell me "hello."
Peter: Yes.
Christine: TEACHER, TOMMY NO! PETER!

The other kids nodded in agreement. I had no idea what they were talking about.

EMH: Peter, tell me "hello."
Peter: Yes.
Christine and Jay: TOMMY NO! PETER!

Finally it dawned on me that they thought I was calling Peter "Tommy" when I said "tell me." It made me laugh. I tried to explain, but it was to no avail, so I called Joy in to set the record straight. With a little more coaxing, in Korean and English, Peter finally said "hello," but by then it was the end of the class, and I didn't have enough time before my next class to attempt to get him to say "good-bye" instead, so I just wished him a good weekend and told him what a good job he did. And we'll see if the other kids remember what "tell me" means next week.

Today was an early day for me. My last class finished at 6:00 PM. I had to run across the street to my building to pick up my laundry after my last class. On my way, I ran into a former adult student whose office is in my building. He asked me if I know what his job is. "Yes," I answered, "cosmetic consulting." (I didn't tell him that I had no idea what a cosmetic consultant actually does.) He told me to follow him to his office because he had a gift for me. He gave me some moisturizer--tinted and untinted. Apparently it's an expensive brand (not that I know anything about cosmetics), so I thanked him and then went on to get my laundry. People here frequently give me things for no reason at all. It's another example of the generosity I'm shown here so often.

After hanging my wet laundry up in my apartment, I went back to the school for a couple more hours to write in the teachers' journal, grade tests, and prepare next week's lessons. At 9:30 I was supposed to meet Joy at the large department store near the school to go for a walk. We usually meet by the photo shop. I got there, and Joy was nowhere. There is an island of lockers right in front of the photo shop, so I stood there for a while, looking around to see if I could spot her. Then I decided to walk around to the other side of the lockers. No Joy. I kept going around. No Joy. Finally I stopped, and just a couple seconds later, she came around the island from the same direction I had been walking. Apparently we had been following each other around the island in circles for a minute or so. When we realized what we had done, we both laughed, and some people who had been watching the whole ordeal were laughing, too.

Joy and I went for a long walk and just chatted tonight. We do that occasionally. It's nice to have a time to talk and not be swamped with kids, homework, books, etc. We ended up stopping at a coffee shop to continue the conversation, and I didn't make it home until almost 1 AM.

This weekend is the Lotus Lantern Festival, in celebration of Buddha's birthday, in Seoul. I'm planning to go to the parade and visit a couple of the temples to see the lights, which were incredible last year. Photos to come.

It's still Friday in North America, but it's Saturday here, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA SHIRLEY!