Marijuana and Beethoven

Last week, Pohang Cinema changed its name to Lotte Cinema, so they gave out free tickets for two days. I wanted to take my host brothers with me, and because of after school tutoring they were only free between 5 and 8pm. Also, you can only see certain movies with these tickets. There was only one movie playing at 5pm called 말리와나. I sounded it out to myself - Mar-ri-wa-na... Marijuana? And it's a movie for 12 and up. I thought, What kind of movie called Marijuana could be appropriate for 12+?" I walked up to the counter to order tickets.
"6 tickets for Marijuana," I said.
The lady at the counter looked a little confused, but then she got it when I pointed to the poster with movie times for the free tickets. "Oh ok, 6 tickets for 말리와나?" (My Korean kind of sucks.)
Just to be sure, I wanted to ask her about the movie. I started to ask "Is this movie really about drugs?" But then I thought I shouldn't phrase the question that way so I said, "What kind of movie is this?"
Her answer was something like "ㅁㄴㅇㄽㄷㅈㅂ거든요.ㅎㅈㅠㄴBeethovenㅈㄷㄱㅎ이에요."
I walked away with my tickets and went to meet my friend with this information: "We're watching a movie about Beethoven (like ba-ba-ba-buumm Beethoven) called Marijuana for 12+ year olds."
"I thought we were watching Duplicity." (Before I realized the free tickets were only good for certain movies, we had wanted to watch Duplicity.)
"Nope. We're watching Marijuana."
Then, after a couple seconds, from marijuana and Beethoven, she somehow managed to figure out: "Oh, it's Marley and Me!"
(Told you my Korean sucks. But don't tell me you wouldn't have thought the same thing if you had seen it.)

+ =

To extend or not to extend?

Am trying to make the tough decision of whether I should stay in Korea (where I can stay with my program, get paid, and have health insurance, not to mention continuing working with the cutest Korean elementary school students) or go back to the U.S. (where my home and family are and people speak English and don't all look the same).

I feel like I'm at a fork in the road of my life and either way would take me in a different direction and not necessarily be better or worse than the other, but will I be thinking about the road not taken?

Deadline to decide my "life" (or just the next year of it anyway) is Friday.

Advice is welcome although I probably won't listen to it anyway.

Jeju in Pictures

Because I haven't put up pictures in a while.
And because I'm too lazy to write words.

Our hotel

Our hotel room

Pond behind the hotel

Ladies at Jeju Folk Village making rope from straw

Man at the Folk Village carving words out of wood

At Seongsan Sunrise Peak

View from Sunrise Peak

On the way up (or down?)

Phew! Made it to the top!

Looking down

With the Harubang that you see all over Jeju

Cheonjiyeon Waterfall

Crying Day

As my students would say in their diaries, today was a "crying day."

At the end of our last class on Thursday, a bunch of students started crying for various reasons. In one corner of the room, two boys were teasing one of the girls so she started crying. Then in the other corner, two boys who are usually friends were play-hitting each other, and then one of them started crying too. After that, in the middle of the classroom, one of the girls started crying for no reason. My co-teacher was getting frustrated because of all class period, the class as a whole hadn't been paying attention very well so we finished class 10 minutes late, and she told all the students who were involved to go to the 6th grade teacher's room. I sat next to her while the students explained what happened and apologized to each other. (At least, that's what I think they were doing. I figured I would just provide some "moral support" even though I don't really know what's going on/ being said.) When they were finished, she let them all go... and then my co-teacher started crying too!

Let me just say that I think my new 6th grade co-teacher is one of the most awesome people I've met. She cares about teaching, she cares about the students and tries to learn the names of all 200+ of them. Well, she explained that she was crying because she felt bad. The third girl who started crying had been fooling around before, but when my co-teacher scolded her, she thought she would try hard to pay attention. But right at that moment, my co-teacher scolded her again (for some other reason) and the student felt sad because she wanted to impress my co-teacher with her behavior but instead of noticing, she reprimanded her again. It was just bad timing. So the reason my co-teacher started crying was because she hadn't realized she hurt the student's feelings and felt sorry!

No, I did not start crying at this point. (Just tried to smile and tell her that students are happy when she's happy so she should try to smile too!) Although it was really touching how much she cares about her students! It's so great to finally work with teachers who love the students they teach.

Blast to the Past: Children's Stories

Teaching at elementary school has brought back memories of the little things in my childhood that I've forgotten about. One of those things is children's songs which come up in the English textbook my school uses: ones that first come to mind when you think of children's songs, like "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" or "The ABC Song/ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and ones that I forgot I knew like "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Do Your Ears Hang Low..." At the same time that teaching reminds me of my elementary school days, it also makes sure I don't forget it again. After doing a listen and repeat, a run-through with the whole class, then with boys singing the first verse and girls second verse, and again vice verse, for the same song for all 7-8 classes of a grade, I have the song stuck in my head for at least a week. Then, if I'm lucky, for the next lesson, we'll review the previous lesson by singing the song we learned! At least the textbook makes up new words for the song to match each lesson so I mix up different versions when they're stuck in my head.

Where Are You From? ("Do Your Ears Hang Low...")

Where are you from, Where, where are you from?

I am from Canada. I am from China.

Where are you from? Where, where are you from?

I am from London. London!

Where are you from, Where, where are you from?
I am from Singapore. I am from Seattle.
Where are you from? Where, where are you from?
I am from Korea. Korea!

Where is York Street? ("Puff the Magic Dragon")

Oh, well, excuse me, sir. Where is York Street?

Sorry, sorry, I don't know. Sorry, I don't know!

Oh, can you tell me, sir, where is York Street?

Go straight and turn left. Turn left at the corner.

Oh, well, excuse me, ma'am. Where is Bay Street?
Sorry, sorry, I don't know. Sorry, I don't know!
Oh, can you tell me, ma'am, where is Bay Street?
Go straight and turn right. Turn right at the corner.

How Are You? (Minuet in G - not really a children's song, but it's in our English textbook anyway)

Hey, how are you, Jinho? Hey, how are you, Jinho?

Oh, I am fine. Oh, I am fine. Oh, I am fine.

Hey, how about you, Nami? Hey, how about you, Nami?
Oh, I'm very well. Oh, I'm very well. Oh, I'm very well.



Now you can have them stuck in your head too! Bua ha ha

Happy April Fool's Day!

You don't have to teach today!...

April Fool's!

Actually, just kidding! You really don't have to teach today!

Well, they didn't say it like that...
We figured it out after our students didn't show up to first period...

But that meant I couldn't play my April Fool's joke on my classes! ><

In other news, one of my students is trying to set me up with her English hagwon/ academy/ cram school teacher.
After school, she came up to me and said,
"Hi Teacher!
My hagwon teacher.
Um... 위국인. (foreigner)
남자. Uh... Man.
You. Love.

(makes a heart with her hands)

Ok?"
Then she pulled out her cell phone and snapped a picture of me with it.

Um. Yeah.
NO.
And I thought I was safe from teachers trying to set me up... ><