KISSING! WHAT!

I owe everyone a million "I'm Sorrys" for being so MIA with the blog lately. I had an outrageously lazy winter camps, went traveling for awhile, and have been doing nothing but watching Friends since I've been back (have you ever seen it? I just started 3 weeks ago, and this show is hilarious). Nevertheless, I'll tell everyone what I've been up to lately. This will probably take up a few posts but nevertheless, let's do this chronologically...

I did two winter camps: (1) listening-based, and (2) conversation-based. The listening-based class was rather interesting, to say the least. I tried to do a bit of listening here and there with the book, but mostly had them play games based on topics, make ice cream, and sing relevant/interesting English songs - because, cmon, that's what I'd like to do to learn a new language. I was rather impressed by how much more confident my kids had gotten and some of their English had improved even after only two weeks (go Kenisha, go Kenisha go!). Second away from breaking my arm from patting myself on the back so hard, a student COMPLAINED ABOUT ME. What would she complain about you ask? My outlandish good looks? Too much fun? NO! She wanted to study more. Korea is borderline crazy when it comes to school/work. After winter vacation I spent a week discussing what students had done over vacation, and 98% of my students said that "studying and going to hagwon" was one of the number one thing they did (hagwon is afterschool school; so after school finishes, they go to hagwon until about 11:00pm where they study even MORE ... this starts when they're in kindergarden and goes until college). One student studied English for more than 8 hours. Every. Single. Day. There are few things you can make me do for more than 8 hours a day-- one is listening to Frank Sinatra, and the other being, well, sleeping. I wondered, are these kids really improving? The answer is a resounding ... NO! For instance, my overly studious student was still unable to hold a conversation with me, even when I spoke in my simplist and slowest English. She could probably recite every single dialogue from the textbook, but ask her to describe her city or the weather, and past "its nice" and she's drawing a blank. It'd idiotic, me thinks.

So I took a step back and really looked at the education system here. Almost any foreigner who spends more than two months here would agree that their system is seriously problematic. I show videos of really common things (shark attacks, bungee jumping, beatboxing, etc.) and they freak out because its something that most of them have never seen. WHAT. I know they have all three of these things in our province alone. I showed a Taylor Swift (what? I teach middle school) video the other day which involved kissing and my students flipped. Not only can they not fathom kissing, but they couldn't even look at the television screen. While this is probably a good thing (no one likes teen pregnancy) these kids are seriously sheltered which can't be good. There is also an outrageous amount of pressure on these kids. The month following KSAT (which is the entrance exam for college, and what students work their entire life for) is calling "Rain Month" because so many people ... kill themselves by jumping off the building. Its not completely unheard of for parents to kill themselves and everyone else in their family because a child doesn't perform well on the exam. Two of my own students were caught at the last minute trying to kill themselves because they had done poorly on their finals. They are only 14. FOURTEEN. When I was fourteen I was focusing on swim practice, what jeans to wear tomorrow, and what mall I'd wander with my friends that weekend. School should be important but I mean, cmon, this can't be healthy. Don't get me wrong it has its positive attributes: students are super smart (my third graders are already learning calculus), dedicated and motivated to levels that are far too uncommon in American classrooms.

Enough ranting, to my conversation class... I will never have more respect for my Chinese conversation teacher ever again. My class was, wait for it, THREE HOURS of conversation class. This is a difficult feat when you actually speak the language, let alone can barely hold a conversation about weekend plans. Nevertheless, my kids were amazing and on the last day we had a proper pizza party, where they got me a cake and we watched "Devil Wears Prada." Unemotional Kenisha even welled up a little!

Anyway, I got a new camera so I'll be able to post more photos now PLUS I have tons of photos from my Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam trip!

I'll post more stuff later,
Love you all!!
xx Kenisha