Seoul Searching : Weird and Wonderful

Full disclosure, the first day my students walked through the door of Nemo Class I was scared of them. Don’t worry – the feeling was mutual. I don’t know why I thought that teaching would be easy. I didn’t think it would be easy because I know how hard teachers work. But, I guess I just didn’t think it would be as hard as it was at the beginning. But why not? Teaching 3-4 year olds who don’t speak much English, very rarely if at all have spent time with a foreigner, had probably never spent time in a structured environment, spent this much time away from mom . . . of course that is not going to be easy.

Once I really thought about it in that way, I came to understand that it’s going to take a while for us to be comfortable. And I think by now we’ve reached that point. I’m having fun. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve been having moments of fun in the last 2.5 months, but lately I’ve been having longer periods of fun with the kids on a regular basis. I laugh at them daily. That sounds mean but it’s true. They do such funny things. And this sound so basic, but I’ve come to the conclusion that all this fun we are having is for two reasons:

1. They are learning so much and showing me what they know. It’s so gratifying. They get it! By now most of my students have about 50 sight words, can count past 20, and know about weather, feelings, body parts, and know the words to at least two dozen songs. It’s hard to have fun when you don’t know anything.

2. I think THEY like ME. Actually I know they do because THEY WON’T STOP TOUCHING ME. They keep doing things that show me how comfortable they are. Here are a few examples:

At circle time I usually try to sit with my legs criss-cross but when my knees get sore I might stick one leg out. Maybe two if I’m feeling confident. Often Derek will lift my pant leg up and stick his foot in there. Or stroke my leg hair. Yesterday I wore sandals (no socks) and they became obsessed with my red toes. They love to hold my toes when I wiggle them back and forth. Sometimes I wiggle them towards them and they jump back scared of my toe monsters.

In the last few weeks Amy (of the I lub you video) has started coming up to me and hugging me randomly. I’ll be sitting on the mat reading a story and she’ll get up and hug me around the neck. Sometimes that’s enough for her and she’ll sit down. Sometimes she latches on to my whole upper half and I squeeze her back for a bit before she sits down. The other day she came up to me and lightly kissed my neck. It was so unexpected and now I have to watch her and tell her no kissing.

I’ve already told you about how they grab my boobs and bum so I won’t bore you with that. One time I was reading them a favourite book – There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly – and at the part where she swallows a cow there is a picture with a giant cow with an utter. We’ve read this book so many times but the other day Mini crawled up to the utter and pretended to suck on it. When I tell you that I laugh at these kids daily I truly do.

But I will tell you 2.5 months ago I never thought these moments would happen. Half the class – I’m not lying- would cry daily. Now they come into the room and joke with me. They come in off the bus and say “Good Morning.” Aaron who was (and still is) my trouble maker, who would just run around and hit everyone, who made my original Korean supervisor quit, who we asked to have removed from the school because we couldn’t control him now comes up to me most days and says “happy!” I ask, “Aaron is happy?” He says, “yes!”

They trust me. At least one kid a day comes into the room with candy or a toy in their hand. It used to be a horrendous battle to get them to put it in their bag. TRUST ME – it will be there later. But they just didn’t. And now they do. When I tell them to put it in their bag they just put it in there and it’s over. No tears. No whining. I had to laugh the other day when Amy shoved a candy up her dress and walked to the mat holding the bottom of her dress with a big bump in the middle. (Oh gosh Amy, you look totally normal. You can’t possibly be hiding anything under there!) I just pointed without even saying anything and directed her back to her bag. She put it in there and sat down.

I just love how they can’t handle having a candy in their pocket. They have to touch it. I tell them to leave it and take their hand out and put it on their lap. 10 seconds later that hand is back in there. I can’t help how cute it is to see a 4 year old with a candy in the pocket of their blazer. Are you 4 or 84?

I guess it’s true . . . both time and consistency build trust. If I do the same boring thing every day they will trust me. And it works. (Hello men of the world.) This is such a basic concept and I notice it when things aren’t consistent. The other day was “Arbor Day” which really was just 10 minutes of a photo op with a kid putting a flower in the ground and me smiling beside them. But it was such a disruption to our day that they were wily after that. So, the following day it was right back to normal and were all comfortable again. I knew it instantly when Lucy, who hasn’t shown much affection yet, crawled into my lap as I read “What the Sun Sees, What the Moon Sees” and none of the other kids felt left out. At first when things like that happened I thought the others would be jealous and want to compete. But when Amy hugs me for a minute as we sing Twinkle Twinkle or Lucy sits in my lap as I read, the others just accept it. Maybe it’s because they know that one day they will need that and it will be available to them. But for now, poking my big toe for 10 minutes is good enough.

Who are these people? They are weird and wonderful.