Intensives

The reason why I haven't posted here that much lately is that its "Intensive" season at Youngdo. The kids have a month off from their regular school in January and in August. So instead of them just sitting around their parents send them to extra lessons at their English, music, Tae Kwon Do or whatever else they're into schools. For us that means 9 hours of teaching a day plus prep time. Needless to say that doesn't leave a lot of time for myself! Its tough getting up early and being at work for pretty much every meal and all daylight time, but its good that I'm going to have the overtime pay. Anything to get that debt down, right?

I've been SO lucky with my classes though. Don't get me wrong...there are some kids in each of the classes that I really just want to tell them to either shut up, or say something. (the younger ones never sit down or be quiet and the older ones you couldn't get them to say something if their life depended on it!) The basic students still love English and want to impress the teacher, while the senior classes are too cool for school-literally, and they don't like talking, no matter how interesting or funny the topic is. Trust me. I will talk about ANYTHING with them, but often they just don't take the bait.

Now this sounds horrible, but let me say that these new classes are AMAZING compared to the last 3 months' classes. (and at that time I thought I had to pretty good...) With my senior 4's I can say anything at the regular speed I'd talk and they understand. They're all pretty nice and most of them don't mind my stories and when I ask if they'd like to play a game at the end of class they usually would rather just talk. Friday, however, we played "would you rather?" Its a game where you give two situations or choices and they have to pick one that they'd rather do. Eg: Would you rather eat nails or a bunny? or, Would you rather kiss George Bush or Kim Jung Il? (ahhaha they loved that one!) Then I had them each ask each other a question and then they each asked me one. My favourite one was when Micky asked me if I'd rather "marry Tony or Dong-Su" (two students in the class) Everyone roared at that one. Needless to say, I didnt answer that one.

When the students get to Senior one they learn how to write essays. This month I have to teach them. Its been the most difficult thing I've had to do so far. I have to take baby steps and go over each thing I say at least 5 times. Its the concept thats difficult for them to understand. Not to mention that 2 boys missed 3 days (their parents decided to send them to some camp thing) So I had to reteach everything that they missed. That was frustrating. I have 3 girls in that class and they're amazing. They're SO good and SO smart. They understand everything right away and when they're unsure about something they ask questions. If they weren't in that class I wouldn't like it at all.

My basic 5's are awesome! The whole class is so on the ball. They're all so keen on answering questions and listen to direction well. There are a few rowdy boys and the girls can be chatty, but I love them.

Take out the being overly tired most of the time and not having a much "me time", and I'd say that its a pretty fantastic month!