Student: Hello, Teacher!
Me: Hello, Daniel, how are you today?
Silence.
Me: Are you happy? Are you sad?
Student: Yes.
Me: which one?
Silence.
Silence.
Me: Happy?
Student: Yes!
Me: Well, thats great. What are you happy about?
Silence.
Silence.
Me: Why are you happy?
Silence.
Me (moving on): What have you done today?
Student: teacher?
Me: Did you go to piano lessons?
Student: No.
Me: Did you go to baseball practice?
Student: No.
Me: Did you go home?
Student: No.
Me: Did you go to the moon?
Silence.
Me (moving on): Its spring now in Korea, isn't it? What's your favorite season?
Silence.
Me: Do you like fall? Winter? Spring? Summer?
Student: Yes.
and so on. Don't get me wrong, some of the kids are fun to talk to. I had quite a few this time around that just went off chatting about something, half of which I couldn't make out. I have wised up since my first encounter with this particular form of excruciatingly painful teaching and I now conduct my conversations while playing old school Donkey Kong Country on my DS. This makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable as I can defeat an entire level during the awkward pauses.
One boy, Antonio, is brothers with one of my kindergarten students, Min. After I asked him all the questions I had prepared I started asking them about his brother. Min is one of my favorite students because he is just the sweetest little guy ever. So, I told his brother to tell Min I would see him tomorrow. Five minutes after I hang up the phone, it starts ringing. I pick it up and its little Min shouting into the receiver: EMILY TEACHER! EMILY TEACHER! I can hear his brother in the background trying to explain that Min wanted to talk to me. I got the impression that he couldn't get near the receiver. That's how I ended up talking to a four year old Korean boy for about five minutes on the phone. Which really just consisted of my repeating phrases I knew he knew like "Oh my gosh-e!" and "Humpty Dumpty!" and the "Clean Up Song" which I had taught them.
I was just wondering how I was going to get off the phone without hanging up on the kid when I remembered another phrase they had recently learned:
"Bye bye!"
"Okay, bye bye, teacher!"
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