One of my co teachers, Lucia. 

My room

Korean writing: Che-edumun (my-name)  Dean-ip-ne-da. (Dean-am/to be).   Korean sentences are structured Subject Object Verb.  They speak like Yoda. The self portrait I draw everyday is always destroyed by the students. They turned me into Medusa yesterday.  I am going to start a before and after picture.

My desk

These are pictures of my classroom, one of my co-teachers, Lucia, and the hallways.  The school is 5 years old and very clean.  I definitely enjoy the fact it is air conditioned.  Some public schools are not.  That would not be cool (no pun intended, well maybe).

I have heard some great one liners from my kids.  "Teacher Dean you must be very old because you have white hair."  "If you are so old and not married you must be crazy" (crazy is kind of a bad word here).  "Teacher Dean, do not look at me with your scary blue eyes."  "Why do you change the color of your arm hair to clear, do you have to change it often?"  When I go around and help students with their work they get a close up view of my arms.  They are so curious about my arm hair it is unbelievable.  I have to let them rub it so they will go back to their work.

The younger students here are very touchy feely.  They grab onto me and I have to hold hands with them as I walk down the hallway.  I tried to avoid this at first.  I do not know what the rules are between teachers and students.  In America the affection that Korean teachers and students show would be a lawsuit waiting to happen.  They always want hugs, to hang on you, pats on the back, etc. I even saw a student giving a teacher a neck massage.  The concept of personal space does not exist here.  I have created some boundaries which I feel are necessary.  They like to sit on my co-teachers lap.  That is not happening.  They run around like wild hooligans jumping on each other and other teachers.  I had to put a stop to that. 

The little girls love holding hands.  At first I was walking around the halls with fists clenched or in my pockets.  It did not work.  They would just ask, "Teacher, teacher let me see hand."  Then they would hold onto it.  That was strange for me at first. (Side note: Everyone holds hands in Korea.  It is a cultural thing.  It is common to see women, girls, and drunk men holding hands all the time.)

I made the mistake the other day of lifting one student up by there arm.  As a result now they all want me to. "Fly me teacher Dean, fly me."  It gets them to trust me so I do it.  They go crazy for it.  "Sung-sang-nim (teacher) you are so strong.  Sun-sang-nim can you beat my Dad in fight?  I lub (love) him but he has soft belly."

The kids think I am super smart.  I find this comical considering their English is much better than my Korean.   I study Korean everyday and can write basic things in Hangul (Korean language).  Not many Western people study Korean.  The basics are not really that hard.  It just requires you to put the time in.  The kids think it is unfair they study English and we are not required to study Korean to teach here.  I agree somewhat.  We do not speak other people's languages when foreigners come to America.  Why should I speak English to people outside of the classroom?

So far it has been a good week of teaching.  I am getting the hang of it and the kids seem to like me.  I hope it stays that way.  I will have some updates this week.  I am going to try and get some shots of the kids.
Deano