my kids are so funny

sleeping in class might seem like a good idea, until you get me as your teacher...

after "taking a rest" for 11-days, i finally had to go back to school again this week. my 2nd grade classes have been converted into interview classes to help my students prepare for their KAIST interviews in a month. instead of teaching those 4 1-hour classes, i now have 2 2-hour classes with 5 students in one and 6 students in the other. (the ratio of boys to girls is not representative however as i have 10 boys to 1 girl, when it should be 2). of course, this week one of those 2-hour classes got cancelled, so i taught a grand-total of 6 hours..

anyway, to make you laugh:

(In class) Is everybody ready?

"Teacher, 5 more minutes..."

Okay, 2 more minutes.

"5!"

2 minutes and 5 seconds.

"Okay! Thank you!"

How are you doing?

"Not so good, I failed my midterm last week so i am feeling under the weather."

How are you doing?

"Now so good, I didn't get much money in chuseok"

Why?

"I think my relatives hate children."

last week i came home late at night to find my host-father hunched over clutching his back. apparently he had wandered around some mountain for 4-hours searching for mushroom. the funniest part, he found none. i'm so glad i wasn't home so he couldn't take me with him. can you imagine that? i would have cried if i was searching for shrooms for 4 hours. i hate mushroom!

in the last couple of weeks i've been meeting a bunch of people in jinju, both koreans and foreigners. as i'm about to go out one night, my bro says to me: "You are like a playboy. After i finish the sunin* exam, i will follow you!"

*the big test that essentially determines which university he will be attending

i did a little pronunciation practice in my classes this week. koreans have a lot of trouble with R/L and F/P. here's how they would pronounce these words:

"lice"

"amellica"

"megan pox!"

"wapple"

"golp"

"poker"

apparently my name is also extremely difficult for them to pronounce. the two most common pronunciations are "Cho-shu-a" (조슈아) and "Cho-shi-a" (조시아). because they pronounce it "cho" they think my family name is Jo (조). sometimes people will try and call me Mr. Jo. as close as that is to Lo, no!

i also just discovered that my chinese ancestors came to korea! Lo is the same as Ngo (노) in south korea and Lo/Roh (로) in north korea. i was actually introduced to a Ngo about a week ago. she's been charged with the responsibility of uncovering the history of our ancestors in korea. i can't wait. i really hope it's something awesome.