Jeremy Is Flattered

I really enjoy teaching my main school's 4th graders. A group of 10, they are exceptionally advanced when it comes to English comprehension*. I also teach these kids sans a Korean backup to help translate at times, so I am especially grateful when they get the gist of my instructions. This week one of the book dialogues for practice has a girl exclaiming she likes dogs. (Don't we all?) I stopped to talk to the class to see if they themselves liked dogs, and I wanted to see what other animals they liked. A good way to test their vocabulary and understanding of the target phrase, at the least. We covered dogs, cats, snakes, hamsters, mice...then one girl, Amy, blurts out, "I very very very hate butterflies."
Me: "Really?! Why?"...I Jim Carrey-style flap my butterfly wings over to her desk to make sure I heard correctly. I ask again, "Really? You hate butterflies? Why?"
Amy: "Wing patterns is scary!"


I was astonished at the complexity and the honesty behind this. Many students have difficulty saying just the word butterfly! I am very impressed with Amy, but this honestly didn't surprise me too much, once I thought about it. She is always coming up to me outside of class to practice English with a couple other 4th grade girls. And this same girl around Christmas, when I had them make Christmas trees and a Wish List (3rd graders at the time), put "Apple 3D TV and smartphone" on her Wish List.
Me: Reading the list. "(Ha ha) Apple 3D TV, huh?"
Amy: "Yes. Stephen Jobs is died."


Yes, Amy, and you want to continue supporting him posthumously. You selfless thing. Seriously, though, she is a sweetheart.


Another sweetheart is my 5th grader, Min Ji son. She came up to me after class last week, pointed at my shirt and said, "Jeremy, I like this color. It looks good on you." I think she used those words verbatim, too. 

*I have 6th graders who still don't know the alphabet, and most students haven't the slightest understanding of phonics--I'm not and won't be comfortable with the fact that Korean students get 1 part learning from a native speaker, to sometimes 3 parts Korean-guided pronunciation, meaning they're learning from the available Korean sounds to match English letters. I say available because sounds like /f/ and /z/ are nonexistent, and others like /b/ and /p/ are used interchangeably. When they hear this 3 times a week, it makes it much harder for my classes to penetrate their memory. Good for a funny story but difficult when you're actually trying to make a difference.