::A Geek in Korea::

In my first class, I had a new student. He had a rather peculiar name I had never encountered before. I asked him his name and information for filling out the attendance sheet. I got that typical thousand yard stare when people expecting me to speak English are surprised to hear my Korean. I’m not exactly a fluent speaker, but most of my students are fairly forgiving.

This student turned to his neighbor and said, "His pronunciation is so strange!" as if I wasn’t even there.

I got a "Oh-no-you-didn’t!" look on my face, and switched from Korean to English when dealing with him from that point on.

All that was going through my mind was, "Don’t like how I talk? Tough. Use your English vocabulary to solve your problems. Last time I help you by speaking Korean on the first day to make you more comfortable."

I was fairly indignant to have to listen to such criticism said in front of me, as if I wouldn’t understand it. Perhaps he thought that if my pronunciation was that bad, I might not know what he was saying. Except I did, and his neighbor knew it. My other students didn’t chime in to agree with the new student. In fact, they sort of flinched and expected me to bring the pain.

It’s a double standard that I can grade their English pronunciation while messing up Korean words all the time. That’s part of my job, and most students are lucky I even make the effort to try to understand them. Most foreign teachers I’ve met can only go to restaurants with pictures. The majority never bother to learn to read Korean. I think that complaining that I don’t have perfect Korean grammar is a little unfair. He’s lucky I even care enough to try.

I’m actively studying, working to improve myself, and that’s all I ask of my students as well. The simple fact that I caught him in his bad mouthing means he probably needs to revise his thinking of me in the first place. I’d like to improve, but there really is no point to worrying about the criticisms students launch at me. I have a limited interaction with adults, so I’ll have a stunted pronunciation as long as I teach children. I’ve been told my pronunciation is child like, but that’s where I spend my time, so it’s not easy to change.

For the record, the kid’s English was only average for his age from what I heard today. I think he shouldn’t be throwing stones.