Nice Tee

Apparently it was Funny shirt Friday at my market and nobody told me. Either way, her shirt says, "I WANNA BE YOUR DOG". Excellent.

Sorry about the blurry pic...it's not easy taking pictures secretly

English for Drunks

I was flipping the channels this morning and came across one of the many English grammar stations and this women was teaching "Let's do shots". Excellent.

The Best Part of the Day

The bell rings at 4:50 and I make sure I am at my desk because that is when the girls come in to clean the office. When I started 3 months ago, there was just one, Jin, who would talk to me. Now it has grown to be about 7 who stand around and pretend to clean. We chat and laugh...usually a little too loud but nobody complains. One of the girls said "I look forward to this all day" and I have to admit it is the best part of my day, too.

One girl is remarkably shy which only means that I must torment her. Everyday I grab her arm and ask her questions. At first she would just keep her head down and laugh with her hand over her mouth. Now she looks at me and laughs with her hand over mouth. She even says a few words. Very sweet girl.

It is amazing how much the students English has improved. Jin was talking to me yesterday and she sounded so natural I could not believe it. The other girls speak...sometimes in complete sentences. I usually speak slowly, but one girl got fed up and said I need to speak faster. When I did speak at a normal speed, they could all understand me.

As it turns out, good fun can lead to a good education...everyone wins.

Who Stole My Class?

I just finished a few lessons with my most difficult classes. They are going much better, but not perfect, for two reasons. One reason is I am becoming more aware of the great diversity of skills of the students. My lesson plans are slowly becoming better. I still have a lot of work to do here.

The biggest reason is the student democracy plan the I mentioned before. I have expanded the plan to almost all of my classes. I have not needed to scold students. If they misbehave, which is becoming more infrequent, I just drop the card on their desk as I walk by. I do not slow down the lesson because part of the reason some students act up is because they want the attention. By dropping the card on the desk without saying anything, I am denying them the attention and one reason for their bad behavior. The cards are also a good reminder that they should not repeat the behavior.

When things were going badly in my classes, I left discouraged and a teacher consolded me, "Do not worry, these are difficult students. I do not know how to motivate them". I said what I truly believed "Somewhere in the country there is a teacher who has the same type of students but is doing a good job teaching them. The problem is not the students. The problem is that I have not learned how to teach them yet."

I feel like the student democracy plan has helped address the disciplinary problems, but I still need to work on making better lesson plans for them.

Watch Where You're Goin' Sonny

The old folks and their electric scooters seem to be everywhere here: a concert last week check, at the hiking park (where they actually had food delivered), check, on a daily basis at the fountain in town, check.

The scooters give people a new lease on life and the elderly here seem to take full advantage of it. Good for them (unless they are blocking traffic then they need to get off the damn road).

In case you are wondering, we have a whole routine we use to covertly take pics. Sandy stands somewhere and I pretend to take her picture. As I lower the camera, I secretly take pictures of the subjects (or my thumb as I did above).

Last Beef Update

As mentioned in an earlier post, a respected TV show (think 60 minutes) had a big broadcast a year ago on the dangers of eating American Beef and the incompetence of Koreans who were negotiating trade treaties with the US. US Beef was forced to stay off the shelves and the government was nearly toppled. It cost billions of dollars and badly damaged the reputation of the US.

Turns out, not surprisingly to me, that the episode was total crap and the Korean government indicated 5 staff members of the TV show today.

According to the Korean Times:

The indictment said "The distorted editing made viewers, who had had little information about the issue believe that the government negotiated poorly with the US and that American beef carrying a high risk of BSE (this is mad cow disease) contamination would be imported"

I brought this up with a Korean friend who said he still did not trust American beef. I guess it will take years for the damage to be undone. Pretty amazing stuff.

Animation Interview

I recorded students doing interviews of other students who are pretending to be celebritities.

I think this video of one girl interviewing an animated character is especially cute because it shows the kids as they are....very sweet and pretty funny.

I am guessing it will be a harder to persuade the kids to make a video after posting this one, but I was assured these girls are like comedians and would not mind.

Our diggs

Sure it needs some paint and has some of that Sanford and Son feeling to it, but we still call it home. This is the front which looks much better in the pic than real life.

Our family room with the inherited furniture which isn't too bad.

Our office with all of the books from the owner. We agreed to store them and let him use an extra room so we could have a lower rent.

Our bedroom is a good size and behind the curtains is a full wall closet area.

The kitchen has a luxury...an oven. A rarity from what I am told. In case my students notice, yes there is a cabinet of wine. If you were always good, I would need none of it!

The night time view from the front walkway looks much better in the pic than real life, but it isn't too shabby either way.

Teenie Weenie

Not sure I would want to advertise my defficiency by wearing this brand

To my friends whose 1st language isn't English, teenie means small, and weenie can mean a part of a man's body that he would not brag about being small (it is below the waist and I do not mean feet).

Update:

My eagle eyed friend, Diane, noticed something that I missed (I could not get past teenie weenie). The sign also says "all that bear" and "fly to your dreams". I think I love this store...I must go back.

Doc's and Insurance

Sandy had to go to the doctor yesterday for a minor ailment. Seeing doctors in another country is always a treat because doctors generally understand enough English to become totally confused and just give us whatever we think we need.

Sandy saw the doctor and she was treated. He seemed OK. We have national health insurance so our net cost was 40 cents. We renewed an ongoing prescription and got two new ones. Total cost: $6.80.

I used to be much more of a libertarian, but on health care my mind is changing. My half of the health insurance here (which includes dental and prescription benefits) is about $70 a month. Normally health insurance is several times higher with worse coverage in the US.

Because I live outside of the US much of the time, I have very cheap health insurance there. I need to pay for it now even though I will not use it here because if I cancel the insurance, all the care that I received in the past will be considered pre-existing conditions in the future and will not be covered. What a system (for insurance companies!).

I know about the issues related to wait times for national health care, but that has not been my experience in Japan and my very limited experience here.

People do not even think about going to the doctor...it is not a big deal: you go, they treat you in a reasonable amount of time, they charge you a small amount of money and you are done with it. No insurance hassles to deal with after your done.

It seems like a better system to me.

Horray for Democracy

I just finished the first full classes with the new Student Democracy plan. What a difference. The kids were all paying attention and not chatting. Students who did not understand raised their hands. I could actually teach and they could learn. It was a pleasure for me and, I think, for them.

I hope things continue with this way.

Nice Trip

I was lucky enough to be invited to visit Yangdong village by a colleague. Yandong village is listed as a Korean Cultural Heritage site and is being reviewed by UNESCO now. It was first developed in the 15th century and most of the homes in the village were origanally built in the 16th century. They have had some modern amenities added, but for the most part they look the same as they did 400 years ago.

People still live in most of the homes so you still see people working in their little gardens and the homes looked lived in because they are. My colleague, who is an incredibly sweet woman, used to visit her grandmother who lived in Yangdong every summer. Quite cool.

Quite Helpful Sign

This sign had "You're Here" marked on it in English,which was helpful, but nothing else (which was less helpful). So I still had no idea where "here" was. I have no idea why I found this funny, but I did.

Sweet and Encouraging

One of the students came up to me with a note for me to read at home. I have no idea if the democracy idea mentioned in the next post will work, but her note is encouraging. The fact that she took the time to write it tells me there is hope (and that she is a really sweet kid).

Democracy

My school has some of the most fun, cute, hard working, smart and inquisitive kids you will find anywhere. They are incredible.

We also have much less incredible students who are really difficult to motivate. I tried changing lessons to be sure they were not too difficult...no reaction. I changed the way I disciplined the students to be more in line with the rest of the teachers...not effective if you want them to chat with you.

I decided that I would change the rules for the class. I thought we should try classroom democracy. The students made the rules and punishment for their class. I only enforce their rules. The students were generally more strict than I would be, but I will follow their rules.

For most offenses, students get one or two warnings and then they must stand at a desk by themselves or in the corner. If they continue to be disruptive, they get thrown out of class. I am guessing it will never come to that.

I decided that instead of scolding them and disrupting class, I would just make up some cards to give the students warnings. This way when they act up (chatting or sleeping is the most common offenses for all classes) I just walk by during the lecture and put the card on the desk. The lesson does not get disrupted and the students have a visual reminder that they have gotten into trouble.

My goal is to have better disciplined classes where the students take responsibility for the class. The first classes have been encouraging. I explained the idea to a student in another class who has some troubled students and he said, "We do not need a democracy. We need a tyrant!"