3.20.2010

Well, I'm officially sick. Poor, poor me. Peppermint tea and no talking for the duration of the weekend. Not that I really can talk anyway.

Which is fine. This weather is abominable. It looks like the end of the goddamn world outside my window.

Formspring:

You might want to check on the difference between "reign" and "rein."

Yeah, I know the difference. Habitual mistake. Just like I always leave the second "r" out of "embarrassing", only spellcheck catches that one.

Um.... thanks?

Just wanted to say, I love reading your posts about your students. You sound like an amazing teacher. When I feel like a shitty teacher, I read your blog and it inspires me to work harder at learning Korean and to try different things with my students.

Thank you very much. I'm far from an amazing teacher, and I still have my classes that totally flop, or take a while to dig out of the gutter. I'm just an egoist who doesn't like to write about those as much. Although, if you check the earlier entries, there's quite a bit of that in them.

We're in quite a peculiar situation to other teachers, for many, many reasons. It can take some time to figure out what we need to be doing. The one thing that completely turned me around as a teacher of a foreign language in the target language, was taking a Korean class in Korean. All kinds of shit just started clicking when I was on the receiving end. Definitely the most valuable experience I've had since I got here. Even if you're not interested in learning Korean, I recommend trying it for at least a couple of sessions, just so you can get the full impact of what it's like for your students.

Thank you again for the positive feedback. It'll keep me going on those days when I also feel like a shitty teacher (and God knows we all have them).



The song I'm currently working on. Stuck. In. The. Head.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know a whole lot about teaching. But reading your posts makes me want to give it a try.

Your general success certainly is a counter-narrative to many complaints foaming about the net.

Cheers :)

-- .38

MikejGrey said...

Oh dear. Well, feel better.

Kel said...

LOL at the formspring correcting your spelling. omg...

Anyway I just want you to know that I agree with the people who have said multiple times that your posts about teaching are totes inspiring. I just woke up and have only had 1/2 a cup of coffee so I don't really have anything more interesting to say, except GET WELL SOON TAKE A REST ^^

saharial said...

Get well soon! so many kbloggers seem to be getting sick - must be the season :(

I'm no Picasso said...

Thanks everybody. Also Kel -- how terrifying is the sky round Seoul-way? Because it's looking like hell came to earth out here... definitely a PJ day.

I'm no Picasso said...

Saharial -- The reason why (I suspect) is because the Yellow Dust arrived this week, which means we're all breathing in big clouds of pollution and sand. I don't know why this didn't occur to me earlier, but I think that's what's going on.

Maybe it's time to give in and buy a mask.

MikejGrey said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62J0DE20100320

Guess it must be pretty bad over there, huh?

Liz of Arabia.