Teaching English

This is only Patty's second entry to the blog- since I'm not the writer in the family I've been lax about contributing, but I had to tell you about my new gig teaching English. I started the job about three weeks ago. I teach 3 days a week. one class in the morning and one in the evening. I had about 2 hours of notice to take on this 2 month job when the "Western" teacher they requested bailed. Alot of clients do not want Korean nationals as teachers-they think their English isn't as good, or it may be that they feel self-conscious speaking English to another Korean. Who knows, but they were desperate so I got the job. I"m teaching a group of adults who work at the Civil Service Commission, which I think is the admistrative office to the President and other high-ranking government officials.

All that the "Hagwon" (English school) owner told me the first day was to take attendance, have the student pick out English names provided on a list they provided, and give an oral 'level exam' to assess their English competency level. I passed aorund the name list and had them write their new names on the roster. When it was returned to me I had the strangest list of names! The women's names were simple enough: Ann, Sue, Jackie, but the men's names!! I had from my 2 classes 2 "Spinoza"s, a "Robinson", a "Smith" and then a few of the guys went off the list and named themselves "Kitty Hawk" and "King Kong".

When I returned home that evening I looked at the English name list and realized that the men's name list was full of, how shall I say, unconventional names. Here is a sampling: The list was written in Korean, so I'm translating as best as I can!

Shagal (?)
Casper
Moses
Dio
Santa
Neitsze
Livingston
Don Quixote
Smith
Spinoza
Jefferson
Kennedy
Lincoln
James Bond
Sanderson
Jewtime (?)
Dragon

When I mentioned the weird names to the Hagwon owner later, he said he made up that list!