My student Jin wrote a story about a grasshopper and some ants. It's based on an old folktale that we'd read the text of. But in his version of the story, the grasshopper does well for himself, and he writes back to the ants, "Dear blockhead ants, I am in Hawaii now and very happy." Or something like that. It was cute.
My student Emily S. created an "alien from Saturn" character for a little almost socratic-style dialogue, and the alien's name was Nanarishtititana. Which is a perfect name for a Saturn alien.
Today in E1aT1 class, we were discussing animal rights. Toward the end of the class, Jenny N, who often makes no sense at all, said, in a distressed but clear tone: "But… teacher! We don't need to learn this, because we are not animals." I laughed so hard at this — I'm sure she understood she was making a joke. We had a lot of fun.
As I mentioned, we think about America when we say brands like 'Starbucks', 'Boeing', and 'McDonalds'. All these are famous. And how does it make us to speak English? The answer is: naturally. Actually, it is because we are colonized in culture. We can't feel that we are colonized but we are colonized in American culture slowly and we start to learn and use English slowly.
The attitude barometer, episode 2:
- Number of times I've opened my resignation letter and edited it: 0
- Barrier-surpassing moments of Korean-language usage (outside of work only): 1
- Spirit-destroying moments of Korean-language communication breakdown (outside of work only): 1
- Number of students that have said something to the effect of "teacher, you're so funny" while fighting off an apoplectic fit of giggles: 1
- Number of times I've told someone that I am "much happier than when I was in L.A.": 2
- Number of times I really meant it (as opposed to the "fake it till I make it" approach I'm fond of): 1
- Days I was late to work this week: 0
- Total number of minutes I was late, minus total number of minutes I showed up early: -75 (meaning I came to work early and wasn't much late)