"Ok! I take it!", Octopus tentacles, blown away, and cell phone debacles.

A few moments from Korea land...

"Ok! I take it!" A student, insert: large, boisterous, black haired, and bespectacled, bellered this at me today as I was explaining what a parade is. I'm 90% sure he meant "Ok! I got it!" but to be honest? "Ok! I take it!" makes my day a little better, and therefore I approve of it over the correct one.

I found a baby octopus tentacle in my pork. *sigh* Koreans really, really just don't understand food sometimes. I grimaced slightly, plucked the offending arm from my meat, placed it daintily on the side of my tray, and continued my methodical eating. Sometimes it's best to just feign ignorance.

"So, if your computer blacks out, and your saved work blows away, what do you say?" hahaha (ㅋㅋㅋ) I don't even know where to begin on this one. I stared at Eunyeong and then burst out laughing, she cocked an eyebrow and stared at me completely flustered. I gained control of my mirth and continued to explain that if I were working outside, my papers could fly away, but that my saved computer documents would be lost, not blown away. We both shared the moment of comedy once I had explained. God I relish the language barrier sometimes, not only did I learn a new phrase, but I also gained some valuable insight into the way that Koreans think about computers.

Up until this week I have been something of a celebrity (and let me tell you, my head is getting HUGE!) the fact that i'm young (younger by at least 5 years than all of my other co-workers), i'm from America, and I have blonde hair all contributes to this new-found stardom. Because i'm such a cool cat, my newness and some fun social norms of perfection or death, my students were afraid of speaking up in class; now for some, this lack of student talking may seem like a great thing, there's no discipline involved! Until you realize that I teach a solely dialogue based class. If my students don't speak up...no one speaks and how awkward is that?! So it was an infinite relief when I found myself struggling to control my first class today! THEY WERE TALKIN'!!! And quite boisteriously at that! Now I just need to reign in their enthusiasm and apply it towards more constructive, english based work.

Another interesting thing about my students, is that up until this week, they have hung enraptured on my every word, soaking in my Mollyness like they were dehydrated water lilys; but this week, I found that their cute little personalities are starting to come out, along with their quirks, voices, lack of respect, and oddities. I'll save the respect your teacher rant for another day (god knows I haven't been a teacher nearly long enough to make up for all the ignoring I did to my teachers...). But I will say that I giggled when I realized that my students are terrible at hiding their true intentions, for example: one student was texting, I could see it, it was so blatantly obvious, when I walked up beside him he quickly lunged for his pencil, slammed his hand down on his paper and began furiously scribbling the English alphabet (he was supposed to be writing questions to use to interview his peers). I couldn't contain it! The giggle just bubbled up out of my throat and turned into a full-throated spasm of laughter. The kid looked at me sideways, "Is she mad?" clearly displayed across his forehead, I reached down and plucked the cell phone from his clenched fist, said: "Mine" and walked away, still giggling like a lunatic. I just couldn't help it!! I remembered soo vividly the first time I had my cell phone taken away and the remorse, guilt and fury I felt towards my teacher. Hopefully i've not damaged this child beyond belief with embarrassment and guilt. Oh well, I suppose it's good for him in the long run!

Anyeong!