I have pretty much become an organic CD recording. Because the classes at night are full of older students they are subject to Korean universal exams. This is pretty much standardized testing but considerably more important. The problem with this, as with all standardized testing, is that it's very particular and subject to concentration on memorization. Instead of learning what they are being taught they are met with an assortment of varying words and phrases strung together to create material for examination.

While I pity the students a great deal more than I do myself, I am faced with the lamentable circumstance of being the only native-speaking English teacher that works the late shift here at LCI. Consequently, it has fallen upon me to be the memorization/pronunciation teacher for all of the classes. Essentially, we are all given a a small packet with common English phrases and conversations and it falls upon me to read them aloud, repeat, have them repeat, then have them repeat individually, followed me repeating it all and then a final repeat from our young scholars. While I have the pleasure of listening to myself speak I feel awfully for the kids who have to endure this. Not to mention, it does nothing for adapting to the teaching process. The only real teaching opportunity I have is when I notice their "th"s turning to "s"s and their "r"s and "l"s freely demonstrating the law of substitution, creating words like "schoor" and "wold". (I can only say that I know how hey feel. If you can believe it, there was a time in my childhood where the "rl" combination utterly devastated my budding 1st and 2nd grade social life) Even then, it just leads to me repeating certain words over again for added emphasis.

It really isn't all that bad, but it does seem a little absurd. If nothing else, it's forcing me to pay closer to my own pronunciation. I have to be particularly cautious of the subtle Jersey accent that can weasel its way in there with certain words. While I take pride on my relatively accent-free diction, the echoes of Joe Pesci and the like creep up with words like "aunt" and "coffee". I submit, I am not perfect.

And now the day is done so I will leave you with a few riddles that they threw in at the end of the reading packets as what I assume to be an "I'm sorry" from the teacher/s that wrote them.


1. What has a neck but no head?
2.What comes down, but never goes up?
3. What has two hands and a face but no arms or legs?
4. Where can you find the largest diamond in the world?
5. Why did the little boy throw the butter out of the window?



1.A bottle
2. Rain (Korea is still not familiar with the water cycle)
3. A clock
4. On a baseball field (GO TIGERS!)
5. To see the butter"fly"


I never promised anything good.


Hugs and Kisses.