Day 9 of Blog Round 2 ✌🏼

Still been feeling a little under the weather these days so here's another late blog post. Yesterday my mind was just straight up blank and tired. I'm blaming the weather (it's been raining all week), the change in seasons, starting back to school (2nd full week), and my unhealthy obsession with ice cream 😅 ...lots of things all at once. Buncha excuses. But I'm still here! 

One of my favorite things at work is talking with students. I've found this is true regardless of where or what level I teach. I just love getting to know people and hearing how people think. This is especially fun with English language learners and teenagers - and working at a middle school in South Korea, I get BOTH!

So, a little context. I have around 800 students (average 30-35 students per class and 23 classes). When I only meet each class once a week, it's really difficult to get to know students individually or even give them a chance to talk to me and practice with a "native speaker" (a big deal for language learners). In an attempt to build rapport with students and get them over the fear of speaking English, I incentivize the crap out of my status as a native English speaker. I tell students that if they talk to me in English, I'll give them a candy (something small, like *ABC chocolates, hard candies, or *"jellies"). They don't have to speak perfect English - I'm all about communicative competence, so if we can communicate, it's a win. And if they have the courage to come talk to me, that's, like, MAJOR. So there's a lot I'm rewarding here. Also, with that many students, the range of proficiency is pretty much all over the place so my questions likewise range from really basic facts ("How are you today?" ... "What did you do last weekend?" ... "What is your favorite color?") to expressing opinions ("What do you think of Sony, Marvel, and Spiderman?" ... "What do you think about Japan?" ... "Did you hear about ___? What do you think?"). 

I've now been doing this with my current 3rd graders (US 9th grade) for almost a year, so I've definitely (1) built rapport with many students, and (2) had to get creative with my questions. These days, I've found that if I ask students their opinions on politics, they will clamor to find a way to express what they mean in English 😂 and they have some really good ideas. And, I find myself just wanting them to know that they can be the changes they want to see in their society! Also, my students are pretty hilarious, even in English. I often tell them that you know you have a knack for a language when you can make jokes in that language. Sometimes I wonder if Koreans are generally funnier or better humored than Americans? Is humor and comedy cultural? What do you think? Maybe it's just because crossing that language barrier makes for a lot of comedy 😅

Anyway, talking with my students and hearing what and how they think is definitely one of my favorite things. I hope they know how much they encourage me to be more brave (braver? English...) in expressing myself in my own life, not just across language barriers, but in relating to people. It takes a lot of courage! Man, I love my students. Even when I'm really tired and even knowing that I'm such a small little blip in the stories of their lives, I hope they know I'll always be there to support them if they need it 💗

*ABC chocolates are small squares of chocolate, like the Lotte brand version of Hershey kisses:

*Gummy candies (like gummy bears, gummy worms, etc.) are called "jellies" here. Occasionally, Haribo fun-size gummy bears go on sale and then ALL THE STUDENTS can manage to speak English 😂