“Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.” ~ thanks again to Jason and Stephanie for that useful tidbit. I immediately cancelled my ticket on the trans-pacific donkey caravan that I’d been planning on riding home next summer. It looks like I’ll be flying afterall.

Today was pretty taxing. Not a single one of my 7 classes went smoothly. However, my night class did do their homework (a rare event) – which was to prepare a History lesson for me about Korean history. There are only two students, and they stood up at the front of the room for almost a full hour regaling me with tales of Korean history. Dates, Kings, Generals, etc. They’re only 1/2 way through, so they said they can finish the rest of it next time! I’m looking forward to it. With that exception though, I spend most of my day mentally counting down my days here.

(8 more teaching days to go….)

Thanks to my friends Jason and Stephanie, I now have a list of tantalizingly trivial information in my inbox. I’ve decided to start each new blog with an interesting tidbit. Today’s is “Turtles can breathe through their butts”. There – now don’t you feel smarter already!?

In other news, I spent some time at a PlayStation room today (where my wonder-friend Ken works). I was playing a new game – something about mobsters in London and a car chase. I wasn’t interested in the plot…I was just trying to go for a nice drive around London and try to see some familiar sights. Unfortunately, the mobsters kept shooting me, and I never got very far.

Sometimes you feel like a nut…

Since today is the 1st full moon of the new Lunar year, it is auspicious to eat nuts. I asked my students if they ate nuts today. One bright young man answered “No, I don’t like any kind of nuts. I don’t like peanuts, and I don’t like doughnuts”….but he didn’t realize he was saying anything funny.

In another class, I am stuck with a textbook that is way beyond the capabilities of my 6th grade students. Most of the students in that class just finished a book about clowns, colours, and shapes. In their current book, both the vocabulary and the subject matter are way off base. Consider today’s scenario: The title in itself was incomprehensible “Stereotypes: What are your initial reactions to the following occupations?” right. After lots of drawing and re-phrasing, they finally understood – then we started working our way down the list of occupations….only to be stopped short by occupations #8. The conversation went as follows…

-Students: “Teacher….nude model….what?”

-Me: “uhhhh, like a fashion model, but naked.”

-Students: “Teacher….naked….what?”

-Me: “A person in a magazine – a model – but with no clothes”

-Students: “Teacher, draw!” (often, when they don’t understand a word, I’ll draw it on the board for them. This works well for some things, not so well for others)

-Me: “NO! No, no,no, no. It’s a model. (nods of comprehension), but no shirt, no pants, no …” (the lights go on in their eyes)

-Students: “Ugh – teacher! next question, please, next question!!”

-Me: whew.

I don’t know who chose that textbook for a bunch of elementary school kids, but today’s lesson wasn’t an uncommon one. They’ll be finished at the end of the month, so hopefully their next book will be a little more appropriate.