As a student

I'm in a classroom again as a student! Monday was my first day of Korean class. It was fun. And I got super excited to learn everything! Then again that's how I've always been with the first week of classes. I took a placement exam and my past year of doing nothing paid off as I was placed in the 1B class. Yay!

I started teaching at my new school in Gangnam. It's so different at a, well, different school. So I'm constantly reminding myself that I'll have to take this first week or so to adjust and just chill. It's quite shocking to be in a crowd of students and not recognize a single face. It's amazing how attached I became to my dear little ones at my Incheon school. I pictured their faces yesterday as I looked into the blank faces of my new students.

My co-teachers at my last school were practically like my BFFs. The main co-teacher at my new school is going to be the one I click with the most I think. There's another foreign teacher, too, and so that's nice to have someone to talk to. But every time I talk at lunch or in the office of 10 teachers (the last school it was just 2 of us in our office) I get looks and I think it's because my voice is louder than I realize.

I've come to the conclusion this past year that in English you have to talk louder. Koreans can pretty much whisper a whole conversation but try that in English and it's all mumbled secrets for the listener. Trust me, I've tried to be quiet on the phone. The hand over the mouth thing only works half as well in English than in Korean. I don't get it but I'm thinking it'll be my research project for the next year. Go Linguists!!!

Much love. <3