Between El Nido and Coron: Tao

Hey, teachers, both ESL and good old fashioned first language educators: do kids annoy the shit out of you sometimes? Oh, absolutely! Children are unpredictable as hell. One day, the little angel can turn into a little asshole. Heck, they can do that in the span of one class. Then there are the ones who are never nice, the little sociopaths seem to want to stop at nothing to turn your psyche into a puddle of sad goo, waiting to be dumped into the nearest drain, flushed away with your self-esteem, hopes and dreams.

But not all experiences are like the bleak picture described above. If they were, I am not sure anyone would have the fortitude to withstand a day in a classroom, let alone a year. For those that could, you get my eternal gratitude, and any drugs I could find for you.

Even the assholes usually have a reason why they are assholes. And, like their swing toward terror from angel, terrors do occasionally swing back to angel, often unexpectedly.

In the last post we highlighted the Chuseok gifts given to Evan by his students at the hagwon. For the Chuseok holiday Evan’s hagwon also had a day where the students and teachers all wear hanbok(traditional Korean clothes) and play traditional Korean games! This is a really common event at hagwons, but don’t expect any events like this at public school! (Unless you work at a really small school)

As Evan mentions in the video, this is a great example of a (one of the few) positives to having a private school job. You often get to participate in fun events, holiday parties, and get more one on one interaction with students than you do at at public school.

Check out Evan in hanbok, and his adorable students in our most recent video!

My students have recently become fascinated with poop. Specifically, me… pooping… They draw pictures of me pooping several times a week. At first, it made me laugh. Now, I don’t know what to think. I hope this a phase they grow out of quickly. Everybody poops, you know.

I remember pretty vividly the first time I cheated in school. I was sitting next to a cute blonde haired, blue eyed boy. He had a feminine name like Ashley, but his name wasn’t Ashley. We were learning about Earth in class. I think it was second grade. Most of the page was coloring and it only had one question. He whispered to me, asking the answer. I said I didn’t know.

He said he’d write “yes” as his answer if I wrote “no.” Even though I was young, I remember thinking he was cute, and that I probably would have done anything he asked. I wrote “no” as my answer. I watched him write “yes” as his answer. We both had shit-eating grins on our faces as we turned in our pages to the teacher.