Hard, hard week. I'm pretty frustrated.
The two most important things in my life right now are: 1) improve my teaching; 2) improve my Korean language ability.
I made progress in exactly zero of these two important things, this past week.
With respect to teaching: it was a challenging week, with chaotic, misbehaving children, messed-up lesson plans, a feeling of dullness and lack of dynamism in my interactions with kids.
With respect to trying to improve my Korean: it seemed like every time I tried to say anything in Korean, I was hyper-corrected, laughed at, mocked, or ignored. And the Koreans wonder why we Westerners so often give up on trying to learn the language. When you're told "you're saying that wrong" ten times in one day, when you're laughed at for trying ,when you're stared at incomprehendingly after having spent over five minutes carefully trying to craft a meaningful sentence in your head before giving it utterance, you begin to lose hope.
Being laughed at, mocked, etc I can related to that. But please don’t give up, just let me know if there’s anything I can do for you. In korea, there’s a saying “Put an iron plate on your face” 얼굴에 철판 깔아라. meaning to ignore and to behave as if nothing happened to you whenevere you face somebody mockes or laughs at you and stick to what you’re going to do. At least, I’m rooting for you and give a standing ovation 🙂