My Korean

It ended up being a pretty good day! I have been taking Korean lessons from my co-teacher 3 times a week for 30 minutes for about 3 weeks now. And yes she gives me homework. She gives me homework for every day of the week even if we don't have a lesson that day including the weekends. She is a Korean teacher after all. :) I have been working really hard and now that I have seen some progress I feel as though all of the hard work I put into it was really worth it! I know answering simple questions isn't that impressive, but its not the answering of questions it is that I was able to answer them without needed to translate the Korean into English first! It was great and I'm really proud of myself.

Students' Names

So I asked my students to write down their names for me. I told them that if they wanted to they could chose an English name. My 4th graders were really the only ones that chose to do this. In the video I read off about 20 names that they came up with but I got at least 70 from the whole 4th grade.

Tony - Iron man is really big here
Trevor
Jenny - Harry Potter is huge here
Shane
Julia
Kenny - maybe south park? I don't know?
Sandra 
Bella - twilight
Romi
Gary - maybe the snail from Spongebob 
Kim - even though nowhere in her real name is there a kim
Ma ree - Mary
Daean - Diane
Sein - Scene or Sign I think he was going for Sign
Ahn miri - Ann Mary
Mint - A common favorite color in Korea
Tabes - Tobias
Chwioo - I looked up the name and there is a famous South Korean soccer player with that name
Konan - I can only think of Conan O'Brien
Gino
Lime - a color and a food, yet her favorite color on the same sheet is yellow and her favorite food is pasta?
JIJ - I think these might be his initials after looking more closely at his Korean name

Sam's Socks

Hey Sam! So this is just a quick little post to you because when I was shopping the other day I came across these socks that reminded me of you so I had to buy them and then tease you with them! I love you Sam! <3

My School

Hi everyone. This is my elementary school that I teach at. The school is pretty big. 1,003 students attend the school. I teach the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. So I have about 720 students. I know that was a pretty crazy number when i first started but now I'm use to it.

My first weeks in the school i was a little weirder out because I was a celebrity in the school. I kid you not students would run up to me in the hall just to say hello. Some students would touch my arm, hand, or even my hair and then skip off smiling. students all the way down the hall would call out me name just to wave at me. One of the 5th grade teachers told me that many of her students were writing about me in their homework diaries.

Now that I have been at the school for a month, absolutely nothing has changed other than the fact that I an just use to it. If anything the more shy students that dreamed about doing those kinds of things but never actually acted on them do to their shyness are now no longer shy around me so they too call out to me in the halls and pet my hair.

Whatever I think its cute and I love it when my students come into my office to say hello and hang out with me. So I am in a comfortable state of being treated like a famous person, which is kind of what it is like. people, students and teachers, are always watching you and what you are doing. well I thought i was good with it, but the other day it was brought to a whole new level that I wasn't even aware existed.

So normally when I good food shopping I go to a place that is about a half mile walk from my apartment. but I noticed on my bus ride home that i passed a shop and the bus stop is a little closer to my apartment so I thought it would be smarted to leave school, do my shopping and then take the bus home. NOPE. Normally when I go to the store people will stare at me and sometimes they try to speak to me in Korean or English. Sometimes they even take pictures of me. But all of that has become kind of normal. When I went into the store I totally forgot that when I shop near my home I never run into any of my students and I never thought about what would happen if I did run into them. Oh my god!


They went absolutely bananas! They screamed. They jumped up and down. They ran outside and got more students to come in. They followed me around the store so that every time I walk down a new aisle they were already there waiting for me. It was crazy! I ended up not being able to do any shopping because they were basically chasing me around the store and I was afraid to stay in one place for too long. So I guess I'll keep shopping in the store near me. If I feel really lonely or something then I'll stop in there again because it does brighten your day being admired by the masses. ha ha ha

Korean drinks 6

So I tried two more drinks. They were both good but not great. I finished them but I don't think I'll be buying them again. I tried the apple fanta smoothie drink and the banana milk drink.

Public transportation...

It was so scary, uncomfortable, and at some points a little funny. It was basically a flood of emotions, but in the end the crazy passenger went on his way and I made it to my school! I really wish I knew more Korean so I could tell you guys what they were fighting about! The taxi driver was just plain adorable! she kept asking me questions and I would answer her in as much Korean as I could. She could understand me but then would respond in wicked fast Korean that I could not understand. to which my reply was a smile, nod, and nervous laugh combo.... I felt so bad that I couldn't have a real conversation with her, because she clearly really wanted to! so twice today i really wanted to be able to speak Korean while traveling on public transportation! :)

Korean drinks 5

I got two new drinks at my local store. They were both really good! One was an apple soda that wasn't to sweet which was nice and the other one was a green plum (which I didn't even know existed) juice which was also really good! I was very pleased! :)