::A Geek in Korea::

Unfortunately for my afternoon classes full of elementary school students, I’ve got a temporary kindergarten class filled with genius students. These children are seven years old and read at an American 2nd grade level. That is three to four years older than NATIVE SPEAKERS their age. They’ve been studying English intensely for two or three years. That’s pretty impressive considering when students in third or fourth grade elementary school students couldn’t read and understand some of the books these kindergarten students could read.

We were having a discussion about good and bad insects. The students refuse to let me speak Korean in front of them, but they need to know which insects we were talking about. We had gone through all the examples in the book, and were trying to expand their vocabulary. I was trying to explain “termite” to the students. I told them it was a little white ant that likes to eat wood. The word in Korean translated literally means (흰개미, huin-kae-me) “white ant”, and it was a hint. They didn’t understand me, but wanted me to continue explaining what a termite is in English.

This is the difference between a good English student and one of my poorer students in my afternoon classes. Students that say, “Well, keep explaining about it in English using words I know and I’ll understand what it means without needed the Korean word” do well. Students that instantly say, “KOREAN TALKING SAY!” will languish and be an annoyance in class until they try harder and think.

The kindergarten students eventually relented on their “ABSOLUTELY NO KOREAN” policy. They said I was allowed to speak Korean SOMETIMES, like on a break, or when they didn’t know a word but really needed to finish their work, but only then in extreme cases, and no more than three Korean words a day, if I absoultely HAD to. I don’t want to break their strict rule of immersion in English anything, but once I told them the Korean word, they instantly knew what I was talking about. I did watch my tongue and didn’t get warned about speaking any Korean hints the rest of the day.

On completion of their exercises, I got to review their work. The absolute best answer I have ever read about insects came from a seven year old little girl. We were talking about why insects are good. She wrote on her own in her notebook, “Insects are good because they are fun to step on.”

That’s fantastic. Students in middle school classes don’t show that kind of wit and humor often.