8/31: Mexican food, Tae Kwon Do, and jobs

It's finally Friday! 

Last night, I took a bus to Beomgye (bum-gay) after school to meet up with another friend from quarantine during Swine '09. Beomgye has a super huge department store and in that store is a TACO BELL. Ah! I took diligent notes on how to get there for future reference.

Wanting to sit down to eat, we opted for the more expensive Mexican choice -- On the Border. (Yes, you read that right: TWO Mexican food restaurants in one city. Korea's stepping up its game.) I guess On the Border is an American chain, but I'd never been there. The food was delicious; the company was high-quality; the beer was cold. It was a bit strange that they serve Coronas with lemons here instead of limes... Oh well, it tasted great after a long, rainy day!

Today, I had all the fives classes -- about 70 kids -- and they were as cute as can be. When they sing the hello and weather songs, they put so much effort into the motions and sing their little hearts out, even if it comes out complete gibberish. When we read Rain by Robert Kalan, they always shout out the words whenever they think of them: some yell out a line three pages before it happens, while others wait to repeat after me. No matter the level of English, EVERYONE yells "rainbow" on the last page. If nothing else, these kids know what a rainbow is. My work here is done.

I also had two sevens classes today. They're fun because they understand a lot more English. They also get really excited whenever I use any Korean whatsoever. Sometimes I'll say "char-es-so," which is like "good job," and they freak out and then ask me if I speak Korean. In Korean, I'll say, "I don't speak Korean," and then they freak out even more. Eventually they realize I'm just guessing what they're saying and give up, but it's fun while it lasts.

There's one five year old who calls me "jjang-ee-dah" (the best) because I said that to him one time awhile ago. I'll be walking around the school and kids will start yelling "hello Laura Teacher!" and one lone voice will yell "hello jjang-ee-dah!"

After the kindergartners left for the day, one girl's mom picked her up late and said she talks about me at home! This was especially touching because I only see her for 30 minutes three times a week! They warm my little heart.

In my afternoon classes, the kids who take Tae Kwon Do were all wearing their uniforms for some reason today, so here's some pictures of them in all their glory.

The kid in the front is one of my favorites. 

He knows just enough English to get his point across, but not quite enough to make sense.

Plus, he makes this face.

We just finished up our long o spelling words, so my other class did a coloring sheet today.

These long pencils are crayons that you can twist up as you use them. Pretty smart.

Here's some more pictures of them just being goofy. It was a weird/awesome day.

I'm being spoiled with these small classes, but it really is essential with the language barrier. It's also so much easier to personalize the lessons and get to know all my students.

Today in the higher level class, we talked about jobs, and I asked them what kind of jobs people in their families have. Here are some of their answers and what I figured out after some intense non-verbal communicating:

"My dad job weather" = heating and cooling
"Dad job card" = I think a cashier somewhere... Something with the number 100...
"My you is mom" = teacher
"Mom me cook food and mmmmm" = stay-at-home mom or a caterer to the stars?
"My mom job doctor and teacher and zoo and car and hand phone" = liar
"My dad job money" = her dad leaves and then comes home and he has money... so, maybe a drug dealer? or professional ATM withdrawer? wishing well diver?

All in all, an enjoyable week that I'm going to cap off with hiking and a concert tomorrow. Happy Friday morning in the States! It's going to be a good day -- believe me, I'm from the future.