Whew, I'm all for integrated classrooms and students of all learning abilities working together, but I just had a mentally challenged kid jump on my back. I like the kid and all, I just wish he didn't weigh 120 pounds already.
You may have noticed my late blogs these days, which is a result of a new, busier schedule. I'm running an after-school English class now, so I'm swamped Mondays and Tuesdays. If you've been keeping up with my weekly adventures, be aware they'll be popping up a litle later in the week. I think I'll make Wednesday night my deadline now.
Eugh... that same kid just spat in my ear. He wasn't really trying, so I shouldn't be mad at him, but his slight loss of motor control has made it a challenge for him to whisper things into your ear without slobbering as well. Yeuck.
I'm almost at a grade 1 level now with my own Korean skills. Hah! Me and the 6 year olds, talkin', hangin' out... kay, maybe we don't have an instant rapport due to language levels (they don't understand why I can't understand them), but our vocabulary is about the same. My advantage over the little wieners is that I can read their language - Hanguel, the Korean writing system, is remarkably easy to pick up, and I've been rather competent at deciphering it for over a month now. Heck, I could sound out words after a few days, however recognizing those words is a problem. Though not as much as you'd think.
"Konglish" is slang for the mixture of English words taken into the Korean vocabulary, and I'm sure there's something like it that every developing or newly developed country in the world has to some degree or another. While the Korean language is fairly complex (I think they have words to express any feeling or action you'd come across), there's so many western culture pieces and technologies that have drifted into Korea, that a whole dictionary of English words taken into the Korean vernacular. Here's a few examples:
"Pocketball" is playing pool, "aircon" is airconditioning, "talent" - TV or movie stars. "Fighting" is a bit of a strange one, and Koreans use it in place of "good luck" or "break a leg". After work, I can go to the "cope-ee see-yope" (coffee shop), or maybe stop by the "hell-suh-kuh-lope" (health club), but it's a long walk, so I'll need to catch a "take-see" (taxi). Hair conditioner is "rin-suh", a one piece dress is a "won-pee-suh", and apartments are shortened to "apar-tuh".
Besides learning the language, I'm also giving it my all to pick up the accent. I don't know how successful I've been so far, but I'm quickly learning about the Korean syllable-factor and how important it is. Hanguel, when being read, is written by forming syllables our of letters, the words out of syllables. When translating, it makes for some interesting results. Allow me to demonstrate:
The word "strike" in English is a one-syllable word. If you were to sound it out for someone, maybe you would put two in there (str-ike), so there's potential to make it a longer word. The Korean language system turns it into five syllables. Yep, "strike" quickly becomes "suh-tuh-rah-ee-kuh" when translated into Konglish. And there's tonnes of words like this, which means that even though you are trying to say a word that Koreans use all the time, they might be clueless about it - and the same goes for the other way around. Today, some kids of mine wanted to call their team "Barcelona", after the soccer team. I had to get them to come up to the board and spell it for me, and it was 7 syllables long. And if you want to catch a taxi to E-mart (just like Wal Mart), you have to be very clear thay you want to go to "E-mar-tuh", as "E-mart" will generally just get you looks of confusion.
Shannon's uploaded a bunch of photos onto Flickr. The links below should take you there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shan_korea/sets/72157594308304205/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shan_korea/sets/72157594297423735/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shan_korea/sets/72157594308265638/
Hope everyone's doing well, thanks for taking the time to read the ol' blog here! Till next week!
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