J.T. vs. The Last Day at 둔원중학교

So, 둔원 (Doonwon) is a Jr. High school I’ve been teaching at for the past few weeks. They have a summer camp there every year, and that’s what I’ve been teaching the last 3 weeks, or so. Anyways, I teach all morning, and I have two different classes that I teach on alternating days. A lot of the kids are really nice. Even the kids who slack off way too much are interested in America, so they’ll listen to me (sometimes) if I talk about home. Well, yesterday was the last day of the class. All of the kids were really sweet. I had them do a review exercise (which I basically didn’t enforce at all), then we had a little pizza party with awards for the best students and such. It was nice. Both classes wrote all sorts of cute stuff on the board like, “We’ll miss you!” and “Don’t forget us!” Plus, almost all of them have cell phones, and almost all of those cell phones have cameras in them, so it was pictures galore for the whole morning. I knew that all the kids were going to want my e-mail (and I was right), so I made a new e-mail address the night before and gave it to all of them. I told them all to send me the pictures. One kid already sent me an e-mail with a picture. She was probably the goofiest kid of all of them which, of course, made her one of my favorites :-p I’m going to miss all the little brats. This particular school didn’t get funding for foreign language teachers, so I’ll be teaching at a different Jr. High in the fall. I’ll keep you posted on their coolness factor.

It was a good start to the day. I had been feeling a bit down during the week, but that made me feel much better. In fact, that started out a really nice day. After I got home and had lunch, my boss gave me a call to tell me that one of my classes had been cancelled. I was actually really happy about that, not because it meant more time slacking around my room, not updating my blog (tee hee), but I was happy for my student. Michelle (my boss) told me that the girl had quit the class. The class was to prepare her for an interview for the English-speaking College in the area, but it turns out that she was only doing it because her parents wanted her to. She really wanted to study Geology in America. So, I gave her some general interview help, and then convinced her that she should confront her parents and try to go to the U.S. I gave her the website for OSU, since I was sure she could get in there, and I’ve heard good things about the Geology department from a couple of ex-Woosterites I just happen to know there. So, when Michelle called to tell me that the girl had withdrawn from the class and wasn’t going to do the interview, I was excited for her. Hopefully, she’ll get to study Geology like she wants. So, that was more good news. Plus, it meant that I wouldn’t have to go to school for another hour.

On top of all that goodness, my adult class and I had decided that we were going to celebrate advancing to the next class level by going out instead of having class. So, they treated me to dinner. They laughed at me for a while, and I used the time to teach them some of the cultural differences between Korean and American table manners. Good times. Afterwards, we just hung around and talked a bit. They’re not a terribly advanced class, so it was still definitely teaching, but it was more fun and casual so we had a good time. I think we’re going to try and make it a more regular event.

Well, that’s all for now. Basically, I had an awesome Friday. I uploaded a few more pictures to my account, so check ‘em out! There’s a picture of a few of my students, including Anne (the girl from 둔원), and some of the teachers. Well, it’s dinner time for me. Later, peeps.