Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Motels, Fire and Tsunamis

On Sunday, I was studying for my Korean test on Monday (which went quite horribly. I got a 38% on the writing part of the test. How embarrassing. Eventually I'll learn Korean....maybe....... perhaps.......probably not.) My friend was helping me by going through my notes and asking me various questions and I would answer them verbally, which actually did help because I got a high score on my speaking test. Apparently I should have been responding in writing. I discovered one of my problems may be my spelling.

We had learned a bunch of different ways to say "wear" or "carry" in Korean. They have different verbs for every single type of clothing/accessory/bag/passport you may be carrying or wearing, which makes it a little difficult. But I had written very diligently in my notes, "I am carrying my passport" then gone on to my next sentence. As my friend looked through my notes, she said "you spelled passport wrong."

English spelling of a Korean word: Passport is "yeo gwon" Motel is "yeo gwan."

I had written "I am carrying a motel with me." Oops. That may be one of my various issues with learning Korean. But, I am trying hard. Eventually it will come.

Quick student story:

Scenario: create a country and trade with other countries for resources
Student 1: We have oil, so we will burn your buildings and steal your resources.
Student 2: Well, we have water so we will send a tsunami to put out the fire and flood your country.
Me: Ummm, that's not really the purpose of this project.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Lobsters, Eggs and Lion King

Quick student stories:
I wore glasses to class one day, because my eyes were tired due to jetlag. For those of you who don't know, I have horrible vision, which means my glasses are slightly coke-bottlely and make my eyes smaller than they are (which freaks my students out). I get to class and my student says, "teacher you look like Stephen Spielberg." "Me, What!?!" And she said, "no wait, I mean Stephen Hawking." I was horrified. The next day, I was wearing my cute headband and she said "Teacher, you look like Jack Sparrow." I said, "Wendy, you are so kind to me."

Student 1: "Teacher, do you live in an apartment?"
Me: Yes, in a one room apartment.
Student 2: Like a lobster?
Me: What...? Like a lobster?
Student 2: I said, "Like an Office-tel?"
Me: Clearly I am going deaf

Reading Book: The earth is like a cracked egg. Underneath the dirt it is broken and moving around and those pieces are called tectonic plates. When the plates hit, this causes earthquakes. One of my students immediately said, "More like an EGG-quake!"

The same student is extremely excited about recently seeing the Lion King and I was fighting him to do his work because he kept breaking out into song. "THE CIRCLE OF LIFEEEEEEEE" "Leo, do you work please" "HAKUNA MATATA!" "Leo, do your work." Until I joined in, fully encouraging it. "THE CIRCLE OF LIFEEEEE!"

He is the same student who picked up on a student reading the name "Mr. Cooper" as "Mr. Pooper" and looked absolutely gleeful and was looking for someone to laugh with, but couldn't because no one else heard it, so we laughed about it together.
My student was telling me today about how her father took care of a chick that her friend gave her and got really attached to it, but her mom made her give it away and he cried for days.
Another student said, "Your dad is so cute!" I then told them about the fish funeral we had for Grant's fish when Adrienne killed it, which they found hysterical.
I launched an investigation in one of my classes (as a joke, since I knew exactly who drew on my face *cough girl who said I looked like Stephen Hawking* cough**). I was sitting at a desk working with a student, when I noticed this on a portrait of me:

I said, "Wendy, I wonder who did this!" and she said "IT WASN'T ME!" So I launched an investigation, involving many students. It's difficult to explain, but it was quite funny. I interrogated everyone in the class, they were blaming each other and other students from other classes. It was ridiculous, yet hilarious.

Also, while cleaning my apartment, I discovered I am a hoarder of plastic bags...

Also, I watched 20 minutes of infested and it brought me back to this moment and I couldn't sleep for days. Well, one day.

How can you fallacy!

I am starting a new Korean Drama. I'm 30 minutes in an it's already intense. It's called "The Moon that Embraces the Sun" otherwise known as 해를 품은 달. The person that I thought was the main character just got killed by a cow...or rather 4 cows tied to each of her legs and arms and forced to walk, so she dies by getting ripped apart. Luckily that wasn't shown. There are a few mistakes in the translation. At one point someone yells, "HOW CAN YOU FALLACY!" among other things.

Also, a lady in my Korean class has climbed Mount Everest, so clearly I need to get a move on in life. She's fascinating to talk to. She was telling me about visiting India and how "People are REALLY living there. More than anywhere else." We ride the same bus, so I'm waiting to hear more interesting places she's been to.

Also, I'm starting up a bit of a language exchange slash hanging out with my hairdresser/friend and her friend, which should be quite a bit of fun I think. So far, we're trying this thing where I speak in Korean (or attempt to but I have no vocabulary) and they fix my grammar and they speak to me in English and I fix their grammar. Hopefully, my Korean can continue to improve a bit. I'm hoping that speaking more will help. We shall see!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Compost Happens

As the shirt one of my students was wearing said...

My battles with learning Korean continue. I feel like I have not improved at all and the extent of my vocabulary is "Both are ok" when discussing a choice between 2 things, "I am an English teacher" "I am learning Korean" "This is not interesting" And "that person is very kind."

Maybe at some point in my life I will actually be able to say something else.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Friday, February 3, 2012

Ages and Faces

Just a couple quick stories. I know I haven't blogged in a long time. I went home (blog to come) then started intensives 12 hours after I landed, so I was at work 12 hours a day most days for a month. Soon I'll get my blog up at running again.
About 4 days before I went home, I got a horrendous cold. I lost my voice (I sounded like a man and people kept calling it my "sexy voice." I had 3 different students tell me they liked my voice better when I was sick.
During that time, When my students asked me I knew Kim Jong Il died, my response apparently made it sound like I killed him. Apparently I was still having trouble forming sentences in my illness.
A bus driver said to me, "Good Morning Sir, How are you?"

I learned that instead of "Once upon a time," Korean stories start with "A long time ago, when tigers were smoking."

I had a student say to another student, "don't worry and have a face." Who knows what that means.

One of my student's birthday's was listed as 1970. Of course we all laughed and he assured me he knew his birthday. But about 20 minutes later, when filling out a form he said, "Teacher, I can't remember my name, I'm too old."