Weeks soon turned into months. As the months passes “I’m fine” slowly became substituted with “I’m _____ because _____.” Now many of you back home might find this progress painfully slow (and at times I did as well), but for my students to deviate from the repetition which was ingrained in them since third grade was a big deal. Each day different adjectives would be used, not all correct, but I always appreciated the effort. My girls tend to have a flare for the dramatic so the adjectives: fantastic, horrible, and I’m dying were in high rotation.
As second semester started we became more open with each other. I’d have students find me during lunch to talk about their weekends and evenings at home. While not all of this could be communicated 100% in English, we were able to understand each other through exaggerated gesturing and acting. My favorite days were Fridays because I would meet with J.S. and H.R., whose English ability was quite high, and we’d discuss the differences between life in Korea and life in America. We’d also talk about their future goals and the like. Friday’s were also my favorite day because I taught class 2-6. Sure, as a teacher I shouldn’t pick or play favorites, but everyone has a favorite class; the one class where students are outgoing, kind, and excited to see you. Regardless if we were learning about descriptions or compliments we always managed to start and end laughing.
As the second term came to an end, I had to explain to students I wouldn’t be returning to Dae-Sung next year. This was hard to do because they kept misunderstanding what I was saying. They thought I was going on a vacation, not moving back to America. As the term ended and goodbyes were said, I had 18 students voluntarily sign up and attend my winter camp (a good handful of these students came from 2-6). Together we learned to critique movies and music, we learned the difference between formal and informal conversations in English, and we played many speaking games. In addition to this, I had five students bring in a new English word to share with the class each day. I would provide definitions for these words and I would use the word in a sentence. Once day, a student brought in ‘sweet tooth’. I explained this meant someone likes to eat candy, chocolate, and cake. However, my students could not get past the literal word. They wanted to know which specific tooth in the mouth was the sweet tooth and why did this tooth like candy so much. It’s safe to say they didn’t walk away with a full understanding of the word.
Initially I was dreading having to work the two extra weeks after term’s end. However, once my camp got started and ultimately was completed I could be happier that I did it. I was able to spend time getting to know my students a tad better and I was really impressed at their initiative to take my class, especially since all of these students middle to lower end of the English ability spectrum at my school. On the last day I rewarded students’ hard work with snacks and a movie. Winter camp proved to be the best possible way to end my teaching in Korea.
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