Soups and Lemons

I realize it was only my third day of teaching. But today was pretty rough for me. I had my Business English class, which I hadn't met until today. Their English level is pretty low. There were 54 of them in my class in the morning and they acted like they were living in a zoo. I found myself getting very frustrated because they wouldn't pay attention and because it was so difficult to communicate with them. Then I went to the teacher's cafeteria for lunch and ended up with rice and peppers... I was pretty hungry the rest of the day.

After lunch I had "office hours" and then taught the exact same Business English class at 2:30. I had a pretty sad attitude. I didn't want to see them again so soon. My heel was also bleeding from my shoes and having to walk up and down 5 flights of stairs every second. I had to lift up my thoughts to the father a lot this afternoon. This time the class turned out really well. They were much more engaged and seemed more willing to learn.

I didn't have the honor of naming that class. That already had so-called English names. Here are a few more awesome names they had: Solo, Snowy, Wind, Orange, Apple, another Bird, Shmily, Cookie, Roll, Talent... and Soup!! So great!!

I also had the students describe themselves in small paragraphs. Here is a sample from one my students whom I will call "Jack:"

"Today is a cool day! I am interested in English very much. For the simple reason I'm interested in English is that I want to go to America. So I hoped to see our spoken English teacher as soon as possible. And today our spoken English class begins! My mood suddenly sees sunshine when I see our spoken English teacher. She's name is Laura from the state Kansas of America. And she looks very young, also beautiful beyond our imagination. Her hometown also looks very beautiful!"

That brightened my day!

My team and I waited around for our driver until 5 p.m. comparing stories like that. We were also freezing! Today was so windy and chilly. Yesterday it was 100 degrees and humid. Today it was about 60 degrees and breezy. I guess there is a typhoon hitting south of us. When our driver arrived, he took us back to the old campus where we had to engage in yet another English corner, which was unexpected. Agh, I'm so tired!

Tonight we wandered down some alleys and found some dinner and I finally got home again. Tomorrow we have to wake up early to get our resident cards and I get to teacher another class even though it is Saturday. Maybe everything will seem brighter after a good night's sleep!