My favorite student in the entire school is a 5th grade girl "named" Evelyn. Her English is excellent, but it's maturity that strikes me. In her class is a troublesome boy who pays NO attention in class but loves to talk. He sits next to me and demands attention at random moments - often in the middle of someone's sentence. On Friday Evelyn starting speaking Korean, which is a no-no in my classroom, and I asked her to stop. She said first she wanted to speak Korean to this boy and then she would tell me in English. She proceeded to lecture him on his behavior and how he needs to stop so that I can teach and that he would be much better off if he paid attention. This lasted for about a full minute. She was about to tell me in English what she had said, but I just looked at her and said, "I understand." I needed no translation as it was obvious in any language.
After class she said goodbye. She said she was "rebel up." Eh? "On Monday I rebel up so you're not my teacher." Ah! She is leveling up to the Advanced courses. I'll have to find a new favorite.
In a different Intermediate class we played Scrabble. The "Geniuses" team was composed of three boys. Their first word was "dung" and their fourth word was "fart." Technically "fart" wouldn't be allowed in Scrabble, but who was I to tell them no? They won the game of course.
On Saturday I went for a nice bike ride. The mountains really are beautiful if you can get away from the cement towers. On the way back I swung by an archery range just to see what it was like. It turns out the man who runs it spoke English and he invited me to take a try. I declined but he said I could go there anytime I wanted. When I asked him how much it cost he said not to worry about it. I'll have to take him up on it, though it looked difficult to hit targets 150 meters away. Anything that keeps me away from the TV is good.
Today I went to the playground and played basketball with a group of high-schoolers. They were much better than I expected. I hadn't played in a while so it was nice to shake off the rust and get some good exercise. But I'd like to rebel up and find some adults to play with.
|
