Thanks To My School

One particular place that deserves my greatest thanks would be the place of my employment. 

Without my school and my program I would've never been unable to come to Korea in the first place, and it is a life time experience I will always cherish thanks to them. I have learned and seen so much here. I am so thankful I made the decision to apply, and that they made the decision to accept me.

There were many good moments, and good people, all who deserve my gratitude, respect, and thanks.

To the school guard: You were the first person to see me arrive to school each day, and always the last person to see me leave. You are such a gentle old man, and your daily greetings always started my day off right. I am about 90% sure that you had the groundskeeper teach you how to say hello and goodbye in English. You didn't know it when I arrived, but months down the road you suddenly started greeting me in "HELLO"s and "BYE BYE"s. Very loudly. You seemed so genuinely happy and proud of yourself and I was so touched that first day you spoke to me. I think your English is super cute. It's one of my favorite things to hear every day. Many days I went to work you were the only staff member who spoke to me, so I always looked forward to seeing you.

To the groundskeeper: You always said hello to me when we ran into each other too. You also have probably told me close to 100 times you know some English because of your wife. It got repetitive at times, but it amused me and I thought it was sweet. You seem very proud of your wife. :)


To the school staff: Language barriers complicate things, but still you all were always very interested in me.

• To the principal: You always pulled students out of the lunch line to translate things for you and ask me questions (which they couldn't...) so it always created chaos. I pitied those chosen ones, but it always made lunch super interesting. You also surprised me with two free baseball tickets once. I was really touched by that, and still am thankful you thought to give them to me. Thank you also for my birthday present. :)

• To Sally: You never actually told me your real name...which sometimes frustrated me. You were one of my closest allies when you taught 5th grade. When you switched to 1st grade it made me so sad, I never saw you anymore. You spoke to me more than any other teacher at the school, and if I had a bond with anyone it was you. You were the boss; the students respected you and I admired that. You had real conversations with me, included me in conversations at lunch, and made me tea many times that month I was ridiculously ill. In regards to the other 5th grade teachers, I admired you as well. Whether it was because you taught your students with a gentle understanding and kindness, killed it at volleyball, or because you tried so hard to speak to me even when you didn't know what to say.

• To the 6th grade teachers (my 1st year): Hearing that two of you left after my first year actually reduced me to tears. No one told me that you were switching schools, and one day you both were suddenly gone. Since then I've really missed our Wednesday lunches. I haven't eaten with the sixth grade in the separate lunch room since. You two were I think the only teachers that had caught on that I understood some Korean, and I enjoyed you testing my listening skills. You encouraged me and I appreciated that. You also invited me to make songpyeon with your students. You're the only teachers that ever invited me to any sort of outside of class event. I had a great time making it with the kids and experiencing a part of Korean culture. 

• To the rest of the staff: Many of us didn't have a close relationship, and if we spoke it was usually short hello's, but you always smiled and nodded to me. I enjoyed playing volleyball with you all, even if I am a terrible player and you all knew it. Thank you for tolerating my despicable volleyball skills. I always thought the school dinners were fun as well, even if we only had a few. With everyone living in Gwangju getting together for dinners was hard and on a time limit. I really liked seeing everyone outside of the teaching atmosphere. I liked seeing your personalities; I liked how you'd speak to me more after you all drank. School dinners led to you asking me very random things at times. It was fun. I'm thankful that everyone was always kind to me. 

• To my mentor teacher: You helped me on countless occasions, many times at an inconvenience to you. When it came to the important paperwork or appointments, you were there for me. Most importantly, thank you for taking me to the doctor so many times, especially when I was sick with severe strep throat the entire month of December. I was so pitiful and in pain, and having help made things minutely better. Even if sometimes you had to translate awkward questions to me, thank you. You always could answer the important questions for me. 

• To my co-teacher: We battled after-school classes together. It was an experience, a rough ride, but we did it. Thank you for helping me manage the kids when they only wanted to bounce of the walls and frolic on top of desks. Thank you for explaining to some kids why saying "f*** you" to me was so upsetting to hear. Thank you for helping me go to the pharmacy and helping me buy bus tickets countless times. Thank you for telling me I was a good teacher, that was something I'd needed to hear. It was reassuring. 

Most importantly though.... thank you to my students 💗💗

To all the first graders who stared at me like I was the most interesting thing they'd seen all day and started the grapevine of, "미국 사람! 미국 사람입니다!" (American! It's an American!) every time you saw me in the hall... ㅋㅋㅋㅋ you guys are all so ridiculously cute. To all the kids who constantly said, Teacher you are so beautiful. Your eyes are so pretty. No lenses?! Teacher, hair natural? Teacher! 선물이에요 (present). To every time you called me ugly when you were trying to say 'agree' and the countless times you said chicken instead of kitchen, or couldn't hear the difference between the words bowl and ball. Or all the times you said 'hello' to me in the voice of Adele. Or played 미친 할머니 (crazy grandma) in creepy voices in the classroom before class. Or screamed my name from the third floor window when you saw me arrive at school. Or ran and held my hand and chatted away in Korean about all the insignificant things you'd done that day like I understood it all. Or bowed and treated me like an ancient Korean queen just to convince me to give you chocolate. Or shot rockets in class with me prior to class. Or paper airplanes. Or that one time you tried to teach me the simplest origami and I just couldn't get it down, or how to play 공기놀이. To those who taught me their phone games, or those I helped prep for big English competitions. To those boys I gave change for the arcade after their impressive reasoning with me in English. Or the boys I talked to while they fished in the park...with string. Or all the countless times you all dirtied DropTop Cafe's windows to press your face against the glass to wave at me and make faces. Or the boys who stayed after winter camp long enough to make a snowman and get into a snowball fight with me. To the countless self portraits I've received. Our mannequin challenge, summer days of playing ninja or line dancing...

To my graduated 6th graders... you came back and told me about your middle school English tests scores. I was proud of you.

Gifts - from 3rd and 5th grade

That one time a girl student gave me this, hoping it'd explain her poor English abilities. :)

The simplest origami I still can't figure out. 

After-school English Teachers Portrait 

 Notes from my students.

Another portrait of me. Straight down to my necklace and plus a heart tattoo. haha

Winter Camp Food~

The talented and beautiful 6th grade girls at the talent show

4th Grade

Dancin' Away

Winter Camp Snowflakes

Snowman - 4th Grade Collab

That string + hook caught fish.

Keep up the good work and effort! 화이팅!

Teaching you all was a huge challenge, it exhausted me, it made me incredibly stressed, some days it made me dislike children, but you always gave me a reason to smile, to laugh, to be embarrassed, or to be flattered. If I could I would personally tutor all of you, because I want to see you all go so far and I know you all have the ability. I am proud of you all. I will miss you all. I am thankful to you all for giving me such great moments to remember.