For Bart Betner

I continue to think and write, but not so often on this forum. Here are some random thoughts from the previous month:

Some say they are too busy to think. It's rediculous and I'm very curious about their daily agendas. I am busier these days and the university is stretching me thinner but I still have eternities of time to think about my goals here, my adventures to come and, unfortunately, the Bulls.

I'm becoming a bit of a celebrity here on campus. I've had about 900 students now and because I'm more active than the other more settled in and settled down teachers, I see a lot of my students outside of class. I've taken to giving them silly English names so I can recognize a good percentage of them. I've got a Lebron, NYPD, Pishy, Him-de-ro face, Marlboro, Bruce Lee, the Future, Santa Claus, Coco 56%, Sleepy, Hello, Campus Couple (boy), Campus Couple (girl), Marshmello, Peanut, etc. It seems to be working. I continue to receive remarkably positive feedback about my teaching but it's still not as satisfying as the kindergarten was. Many of those children despised me, but they learned from me nonetheless. Here I'm teaching about 30 students per class, once a week, so it's nearly impossible to see any tangible results in their Englishy. Instead I give them basic inspirational speeches (often in Korean) on how to improve their low speaking abilities. They nod and say they understand me but, in truth, we don't have enough class time to improve much and they have to find ways outside of class to practice speaking. And I realize it's very, very difficult to find practical English speaking opportunities in this country.

So I try to motivate, they graduate, bow and say thanks and then continue to freak-out when I say, "hello" to them on the street. I guess we all learn out of necessity and I can't lie to them and say that it's necessary to speak English in Korea. They're studying for a completely impractical written English test for high-level engineering jobs and they know it. As long as they still respect me and feign effort in the class, I should be satisfied.