Saturday May 3, 2008 – Orange, Oscar and Moose

Saturday May 3, 2008 – Orange, Oscar and Moose

 

 

So yesterday I sat around before work and was totally nervous. I couldn’t even finish my dinner half because I had some noodles that had Korean letters all over the box and the only English that was on it were 3 big letters that said “MSG” and half because I was soooo nervous.  I tried to figure out, for about 20 minutes, what “NO” looked like in Korean (to make sure it said NO MSG) but then gave up and just decided to leave for my walk to the government building. 

 

Its pretty hot here already so it may be a little difficult in the summer, but its not too bad yet.  When I got to the government building, I went up and met up with Jessica and sat with the other teachers.  There was a Chinese teacher, a Japanese teacher and then good ol’ me!  I felt very cultured as I represented Canada and the importance of learning English.  J  I did a lot of smiling in confusion while they talked in Korean, but Jessica would fill me in occasionally on what they were talking and laughing about.

 

So off to my first class I went and man was I nervous.  Jessica helped with the introductions and the director came in to speak with everyone.  Everyone stood up and introduced themselves and I soon realized that they were WAY more nervous then I was.  There was this sweet 50-year-old lady who stood up and said her name, her age and giggled to herself before sitting down.  She was shaking she was so nervous.  Amoung my 10 students there was one vet- who spoke very great English, a mother of 2 university students who was really looking forward to learning English, a young girl a little older than me who had great fashion and a cute little shy man who was older and loved that I was from Canada- he had been there before and was so excited to tell me that he rented a car there.  He loves driving.

They all have English names and some to note are the vet who goes by Moose, the great fashion girl Orange (because her Korean name sounds similar to Orange), the cute little old man Henry and the shy guy Oscar.

 

Anyway I didn’t have too much prepared because of my nerves and the fact that I had only been here for 3 days, so I just talked with them for a while.  They asked me a bunch of questions about myself, about my family, and about Canada.  They told me they were expecting a Korea teacher and were so excited that I was actually fluent in English.  We talked about reasons they wanted to learn English, some of their hobbies and just small talk.  The most common reason to learn English was about being able to hold a conversation in English and that is the primary goal of the textbook so I think I will be just fine.  We went over some of the text book, looking at diagrams and pictures in the text, going over some of the vocabulary and then using the vocabulary I introduced in conversations that could arise from the pictures in the text.  There were picture of a ball game, a busy grocery line up, and a big line up of cars in a traffic jam.  They had to use vocabulary such as: exciting, delicious, late, crowded, slow, fantastic, busy and nice.  It was really good practice for them and we got into groups and practiced a sample conversation.  Adults are great to teach. They are all so sweet.  I already got an offer to show me where the local gym is, and Orange told me she would show me where the good shopping is.  Before the class was over, we played the game 2 truths and a lie, which they really enjoyed.  Also I told them to come next week with a story of what they did on the weekend.  I think I am going to really have fun doing this.

After class, I walked home and walked part of the way with one of my students.  She said she really enjoyed the class J YAY.

 

I went home and had some food, and Elyse and I got ready to go and meet Alec and some of her other friends.  We went to a place called Commune (yet another English bar) and then went to the karaoke bar thing called a Nora bang?! Its just a private room though that holds about 6 people and you just sing away to eachother.  For anyone who is gonna come visit, we will definitely have to go to one of these.  We sang lots of great tunes, but I was exhausted cause I am pretty sure we are still a bit jet lagged.  Because we went out really late, we were out way too late and the sun was coming up when we were getting home.  (the sun does come up earlier here (around 5) but it was definitely still late)

 

We came home and slept for 13 hours.  YAY..i think my jet lag is gone!

So since it was pretty late when we woke up, brought the mattresses into the living room and watched some movies and lazed around.

Good thing it’s a long weekend.  Cause our Saturday is a write off.