17 September 2008

more esl/tck

I really love teaching in an international school. I love teaching TCK (third culture kids) and ESL/EAL (English as a Second/Another Language)students. Here are some treasures from the last two days that show why:

Me, to student back from a trip: K, how was Norway?
K: Great! You could DRINK the water!

Y: Meez C, what you call the things we eat for your birthday? Black...
Me: Brownies
Y: Yeah, my mom wants to try those.

New Korean student: Why you big eye? Me small eye. You BIG eye. Why?

Same student: (laughing as she placed her hand on my arm) Meez C, you so white! You pink!

Same girlie again (she's just starting to use some English and it's priceless)...
Me: SM, how was after school?
SM: big, dramatic sigh
Me: Was it fun? Did you play with Lucy? (Lucy is a bulldog brought in for this week's pet care class. I had billed seeing Lucy as something great when SM didn't want to go.)
SM: sigh. Lucy, she good girl. But, I TIRED.

Both my Korean students, when they quiz me on Korean words: Oh! Good GIRL, Meez C!

(I know all I need to in Korean--shoes, jacket, out, goodbye...and I'm working on "be quiet".)

We were playing triominoes the other morning. Two of the ESL students (Germany and Holland) were playing with me. Holland kept trying and trying to put his triomino in places it wouldn't fit. I'd tell him, "I think you gotta choose, buddy." This happened twice. The third time he tried, Germany shook his head, smiled and said kindly, "Gotta choose, buddy."

See? Life is good in second grade.

8 comments:

Suzanne said...

Cute Cute.

My most memorable ELS moment was during election 2004. When one of my Japanese students wanted to ask me this, "What do you think of the election?" but got the l and r mixed up in the last word. I answered, of course, that I thought elections were generally a good idea. ;o

Julie H said...

It is good to hear the things that make it worth it for you to be so far away.

votemom said...

these are great stories - how about you make this a weekly feature?

kate said...

hmmm...I'll give it a try, v. But, soon they speak English so well that we don't have as many cute stories. We've been in school five weeks. At the three-month mark they're pretty fluent.

Anonymous said...

Very nice stories. It would be wonderful if you publish more of these. All the best

Anonymous said...

So adorable!!

Fancy teaching me some Korean??

Deb said...

So many fun stories and memories.

MoscowMom said...

Cut, cute, cute! I'd love to hear more of those tidbits!