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| ChildU School, Yeosu, South Korea |
Spanish Word of the Day: Avestruz (ostrich)
I miss Korea terribly. I thought at the end of my two-year teaching stint there that I'd be ready for the next chapter of my life, but it turns out I spend at least one day a week (two or three DURING the semester) wishing I could just move back and enjoy another year there. With that in mind, I'm going to periodically feature little adventures from Korea in the Toybox. This one is about one of me best students, Jenny (aka Yena). This is a Tess and Jenny, the Early Years.
2008-09-01 16:27:00 The Jenny Update
Some time ago, I wrote an entry on my lessons with Jenny (Yena) my boss's daughter.
My frustration with her refusal to speak is something I vividly remember.
However, since that entry she's made leaps and bounds in English. She's a smart one - I should have had more faith.
TESS: Hi, Jenny.
JENNY: *bouncing up and down* Hi, Tess!!
TESS: How are you?
JENNY: I'm fine.
TESS: Good.
JENNY: *in Korean* I'm still fascinated by your shiny, shiny earrings.
TESS: *sigh* Well, you ARE only nine.
JENNY: *in Korean* That's ELEVEN.
TESS: Yeah, and in Korea I'm practically twenty-five.
Jenny now shares her one-on-one class with four other girls; it has become a conversation class. It's fun, though it's had an interesting side effect on Jenny's English:
TESS: Hello, everyone!
EVERYONE: Hello, Tess!
LINA: Where Harrold Turtle?
JULIE: We play Go Fish?
ELISHA: Hello, Tess Teacher!
JENNY: *rounds on Elisha* NO, NOT TESS TEACHER! Just Tess.
TESS: .... chill-ax, there, cowgirl.
*later*
TESS: *draws stick figure picture with house, trees, birds, etc (it sucks a lot)* Okay, tell me about this picture.
JULIA: The man's name is Phil.
TESS: Great! What else?
ELISHA: The girl's dress is blue.
TESS: Excellent! What else?
JULIA: The girl is curly hair.
JENNY: NO, NO, NO! The girl HAS curly hair. Sheesh! Idiot!
TESS: .... Jenny, just last month you made the same mistake multiple times.
JENNY: *kindly* Shut up, Tess Teacher.
*even later*
TESS: Okay, girls, quick game of Go Fish before we go home.
JULIA: I love this game. Jenny, are you three?
JENNY: *pulls out tufts of hair* NO NO NO! Do you have any three? GAH!
TESS: ....Jenny, is it time to take a break from Go Fish?
JENNY: *waving her cards dangerously* Just play the game, wayguk!
What Jenny needed all along was someone to teach English to. Sometimes, her methods
amuse me because she corrects incorrectly and gets grouchy with herself.
Other times, I worry that she may be psychologically damaging my other students with
her verbal abuse. I hesitate to stop her, though, since she's speaking so much English
and her classmates often don't realize she's slandering them in English.
My suspicion is that the pressures of having a hagwan owner who is almost
fluent in English as a mother are manifesting in strange ways.
~*~
A quick note about Jenny: By the time I left Korea almost two years after writing this, Jenny was the best English speaker at the hagwan. Her listening skills were spooky and I had to be careful when I talked to other teachers in front of her. Her spoken English and accent improved in leaps and bounds. It was inspiring to watch her learn.
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