ㅊ_ㅊ z z z ~

Something funky for your face - I've seen a 35yo man wearing the lips one

Don't you think that Konglish emoticon looks sleepy? I do, which is incidentally how I'm feeling. Yes, I'm sick. Again. I got some awful 24 hour bug last Tuesday and almost fainted in class, but a visit to the doctor and lots of sleep (every free period, lunch, and as soon as I got home for the whole evening for the rest of the week) sorted me out. Until Saturday. Ok, so maybe it has something to do with the green beer I had on Friday (St Patty's day dontcha-know?) and then going out again in Hongdae on Saturday (although I didn't really drink any alcohol and barely made it to 1am) but I have a feeling it's more to do with the Yellow Dust. Apparently it was really bad on Saturday, so bad that a lot of people in Cheongju didn't even go outside. In my little absent-minded cocoon I didn't even notice! I thought the air was a bit dirty because of smog or something, but barely anyone in Seoul was wearing a facemask, which is the usual indicator, and it's a lot further north than Cheongju so you'd think it would be worse. Mind you, Koreans get pretty fanatical about the Yellow Dust - don't go outside, close and seal all windows and doors, if you have to go outside wash your face and hair when you get in and shake your clothes, etc. - and with good reason. For those of you unfamiliar with such a lovely sounding Spring phenomenon, the Yellow Dust is a potent mix of dirt, dust, sand, and largely industrial chemical waste blowing down from Siberia and Northern China, thanks to growing erosion, drought and deforestation. Because there are a lot of Easterlies in this area, it gets pretty bad around Beijing, North Korea and South Korea, and if there's a strong enough carrying wind apparently it can even make it as far as the West Coast in the USA. On bad days, it looks like yellow fog, and you can usually smell it if you go outside. This is an article about a bad bout of it last year in Beijing and another about the growing toxicity of it this year.

Anyway, so walking around in that all afternoon in Seoul certainly didn't help my cough and my throat looks red raw as a result. Luckily I always have my students to cheer me up :) Those of you on Facebook will have probably seen my post about the very smooth year 7 boy (1st grade, 13 yo) who tried out this gem of a pick-up line: "Teacher, I am very handsome guy! Let's have conversation... you know, me, you, we have secret meeting, so-gae-ting, ok? *waggles eyebrows at me Groucho Marx style*" to which I replied (trying not to laugh too much) "Ok, well if you want conversation you can come to my conversation class after school on Wednesdays." He looked very deflated and sadly told me "Oh ...no after school because I must go to hagwon.Sorry." (So-gae-ting/소개팅 or 'meeting'/미팅 = date).


My other favourite this week was from two of my third year students in my Monday conversation class that gave me a nice start to the week. Because they don't have me for regular classes any more, apparently Monday is their favourite day of the week "because I can meet you!" This may or may not have had something to do with the candy I'd given them that lesson, but they are generally sweet girls so I am choosing to believe not :) 


And one more - as part of my first year conversation class students' placement test I asked them to tell me about a place they'd like to go and why. This was my favourite response (although I couldn't really mark it as correct):

Hello? Amy ^^
I'm Su Jung.
Nice to meet you.
I'm sorry... I don't study English very well... But I will be smart!!! looking for me!! HA! HA! HA!
Amy!! I like you very much!!^^
Goodbye~ :-)
Your student, Giyomi ♥ Su Jung.


Oh and my favourite - discussing 'frequency' and asking the 2nd graders (yr 8) for things they never do, as well as the usual "kill, smoke, drink alcohol", the fat kid (his name is 으뜸/U-Ddum - doesn't that even sound roly-poly??) shouted out "DIET!". Hahaha ^_^


Anyway, hope that brightens your day as much as it did mine. Jenkins out!