You're not good at chopsticks until...

-You can eat buffalo wings with them (substitute buffalo wings for any meat on the bone)
-You can de-shell a shrimp with them (substitute shrimp for any shell fish)
-You can pick the seeds out of watermelons with them
-You can transfer food from one set of chopsticks someone is holding to your own set of chopsticks


Interesting things I have heard this week:

"You are the smartest foreigner I have ever met." In regards to the fact that I memorized my cell phone number. Apparently everyone else has just handed the phone with the number showing to this teacher.
"Teacher you are very beautiful." A student, or multiple students.
"Because you look like us, you should wear a name tag so people know you are the English teacher." My principal being concerned that people might not treat me right because I look Korean.
"Teacher, you and my brother are predestined. He's 26!" Student trying to tell me that her brother and I are "meant to be together" aka married.
"The students are behaving very well because you are a beautiful stranger." A teacher at the school explaining why the students are well behaved in my classes.
"You are very smart, because you can understand my English." The gym trainer guy talking to me about how poor his English is. It's actually not that bad.

Interesting things I have seen written this week:

"I love you teacher!" Written by a student.
"I want to learn about sexy girls bodies." In response to my question- what do you want to learn about in this English class?
"Teacher you and my brother should meet!" Same student trying to get me to date her brother.
"Jenna could make friends with a brick wall." A friend's mother's comment about how easily I can make friends.

Nicest thing I have read this week:

Jenna, like I said, you did a great job!
I think they'll learn a lot from you.
I was writing about how I "enjoyed" watching your class but the bell rang~ I'll talk about it more later~ OK?
Have a good day and see you tomorrow~

From the teacher who sat in on my class today. I didn't notice the quotes around enjoyed until I was posting it here. Oh well- I'm sure it's okay. This is from the teacher who made me feel self-conscious about my lesson plans last week. So, I'm a step ahead.

Now, into the long blog. I haven't written in a week- I missed the Sunday deadline because I posted later in the week.

I had a great time this past weekend. The weekend starts for my on Thursday night- I know, everyone already hates me. But regardless I met up with the friends here for dinner and Ray came down from Gumi. We had a nice time. Then I met up with two other friends to get our nails done on Friday morning (I got a French tip manicure and I actually really like it! Who knew!) Then I hung out with Amber and Ray the rest of the day. Saturday I lazed around and went to my co-teacher, Mr. Choi, daughter's one year birthday party. It's a huge celebration here. They rented out a room in a seafood buffet restaurant. They had an album of professionally taken pictures and party favors for the guests. I bought the little girl a cute dress. I was very happy to be invited to such an event. After the party I went and saw D War with Ray and his host brothers. It was a horrible movie! Aw man- it was terrible. I went to church with Jess and Ray in Gumi on Sunday- that was cool.

Monday was the first day of teaching- I had three classes. I was a little nervous at first, but it went really well. Most of the students are really excited to see me and I think it is the reason why they are well behaved. I had the students ask me questions to see how comfortable they felt speaking English and to hear their pronunciation. It went pretty well and then I went through the rules with the students. Pretty much the same as in the states- no cell phones, no mp3 players, no talking and no sleeping. The sleeping rule has to do with the fact that most students study until 12am every night and are way over worked. I promised that I would try my best to make lessons interesting for them so they won't want to sleep.

It's Wednesday and that means I've taught seven classes this week- I have five classes to teach tomorrow! I am happy that my biggest class load falls on Thursday- since I've taught seven of the same classes thus far, I feel comfortable with the lesson- they should go really well. I am also treating teachers to lunch tomorrow. I'm excited because they all kept buying me lunch last week. So Korean-Chinese food it is! Woot- it's also because I got payed yesterday!

I am excited to finally start teaching. :) It's really been neat to be here, because I am constantly talking about teaching strategies with other people. It's been great to be in that mindset again. I really enjoy it. I am also thankful that my classes will be "easy" for my students, compared to the Korean classes they take. I made it very clear to my students that they can come and speak to me whenever they want about English- whether it's just to talk or if they have questions. I had one girl come in today and talk to me about what I thought about Condeleza Rice and Hilary Clinton. :) Students here have it much harder than in the states. They study extremely hard- long hours too. Their academy teachers can hit them (as a form of punishment) and schools can use all sorts of punishments not allowed in the states (corporal punishment was outlawed here a few years ago- but it still happens sometimes). One of my host sisters told me the other night that her teacher at academy hit her hand because of a low test score and how her hand was still hurting her. I couldn't believe it!

I don't have any plans for this Friday or Saturday. A friend of mine was going to come visit on Saturday, but plans were changed last minute- which is cool. I'm sure I'll think of something. My host family is going to take me to a Buddhist Temple, some other thing, and then fishing. Very full Sunday. Mr. Choi found a church that has English services- I'm going to try and start going to church in two weeks. We'll see. Mr. Choi thought it was ironic that my family was taking me to a temple on Sunday- even though I'm trying to start going to church. I thought it was an astute observation and that it showed he had a good command over the language if he can identify things that are ironic.

I'm still setting into Daegu- but am feeling pretty good still. There are a few more things I would like to know about while I'm here, but we'll see. I want to take language classes and I also want to volunteer in an orphanage. I have been trying to bring it up here and there to Mr. Choi and he tells me that he's looking into it. There's also a teacher at my school who is a Christian and volunteers at an orphanage. Hopefully I can go with him one time and then start going on my own. :)

Thanks again to everyone who is supporting me while I'm here!

-Jenna


P.S. I've updated my pictures. There's a new album called Daegu, but I also updated pictures in Kangwang University- check 'em out!