Korean in the Classroom

Overhearing students talking to each other in Korean is one thing; understanding it is another.

Whenever I start with a new group of students (which I did most recently last March), it's fun to see how long it takes before they catch on to how much I'm catching on to. 

When one student asks his friend the meaning of a word in the middle of class and I "just happen" to explain the meaning of that same word immediately thereafter, the class usally finds it a funny coincidence.

When I appraoch a small group to see how they are doing with the task I've given them, one student often whispers to his friend, "How do you say such-and-such in English?"  If the friend doesn't seem to know, but I've understood, I simply ask the group if they want to include something like such-and-such, and they often proclaim me a psychic.

After a few classes with a few too many coincidences and a bit too sharp of psychic skills, the students begin to ponder what seems to strike them as the final possibility:

Perhaps she understands us.

If I'm instructing the class, and I catch a student whispering about this possibility with a friend, I simply meet their gaze and give a quick, but clear smile.  Usually, frightened, they stifle a scream or sometimes, surprised, they can't help but giggle. 

It's a fun game to play with a new class and it seems to result in a slightly more open mind for both parties.  I get to see how much the students really did understand and how much they're still struggling with the content, and they get to chew on the fact that they've just been understood by a foreigner.

And, although it's usually either chit-chat or questions about what they're supposed to be doing in class, every once in awhile, I pick up a pretty neat nugget. 

At the boys' high school (where I teach one day per week) two weeks ago, one student thought aloud, "Today was the first day that the foreign teacher's class was actually interesting!" and, last week at the same school, one boy gazed upon a whiteboard full of sentences and wondered, "Wow! I can't believe we know all that!"

It's these less common, but more meaningful comments that help me to see what's working and what's not -- and it's always nice to know that something is.

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 At break time during the 2-hour after-school lesson that I teach 
 once a week at the girls' high school, we went out to see the  
 infamous "autobike" that I've *cough* been riding around town on. 
 

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Thanks for reading :)