email

Subject: it's snowing!
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 10:06:55
dear mom and dad,

we had our first snow here last week. it's so strange, i KNOW it's snow, but i still only see ash. i look at the piles of snow on the ground, and i see piles of cotton. my mind just will not accept that there's a world outside of san diego where it gets super cold.

this week is the end of my 3rd term with my job. one more term and my contract will be finished. time flies! we'll have a few new teachers coming to the staff, and many leaving.

my friend mayma (the sister from new zealand) is leaving the school, her contract is finished and she's moving on. the other day she and i were having lunch. we were eating chicken, and she scoffed at me for leaving so much meat on the bones. :) mom, i remember you'd get mad at me about that! felix scoffed too, when i had lunch with him weeks before. in fact, i remember on my second trip to ghana, my friend lomotey and i were eating chicken, and he scoffed too! people always say im wasting so much meat! i dont know why, i just never picked up the habit of cleaning/eating the bones. not like i dont get enough to eat, tho! ha! still using the treadmill daily. workin' it.

so i'll have all new classes/students come monday, i'm excited, but i miss a lot of my former students already. i didnt even get to see Greg (w/the pinoy accent) b/c he didn't come on the last day of class. well, hopefully i'll see him around next term. not that he needs to keep coming, his english is great. maybe just a voice coach to help with the accent... :)

sometimes i'll ask the kids to try harder to pronounce things w/out their korean accent. they are very young and if they try, the CAN pronounce words more clearly, this "konglish" (korean + english) seems more of a habit rather than not being able pronounce things.

they constantly say "A-pull" instead of A+, tho none seem to have a problem w/saying "s." Again, it's b/c it's so common for them. same with saying "Yes." instead, they say "Yes-uh." the sound "Uh" is at the end of nearly every word.

i was talking to one class about the importance of trying to not speak with the accent if they can, b/c they'll get stuck in the habit otherwise and maybe have trouble communicating, or have trouble being understood.

"But teacher," little Lina says, "I feel like 'Yes' is too short, so i have to add to it when i say it."

just like when the brothas and sistas say "conversate" instead of converse, or "axe" instead of ask, or the Joes saying "tow out" instead of thaw out (for the longest time, i thought mom was saying it right and the rest of the world was wrong). ah well, so long as the kids keep the proper pronunciation in mind, and perhaps be multilingual in korean, english AND konglish.

with the new term beginning, i'll finally be able to take the korean classes, i start next week, im really excited. every once in a while, the kids will be asking me something in class, and they slip and say a word in korean. I'll repeat it and say, "What is XXX?" and they laugh like crazy b/c it's so fun to hear teacher try and say something in korean b/c she says it soooo wrong.

on the last day of classes, many students begged,

"teacher, say something in korean!"
"NO! you guys just like to laugh and make fun of me!"and then they laugh some more hahahahaaha!
keep on laughing, kiddies. will it still be funny when i give you a C- for your attention and participation grades today? HA-HA-HA!!!