::A Geek in Korea::

Today is the final semester tests for students. The students take standardized placement tests in five core subjects. Some schools add more tests to this regiment to cover all the disciplines as well. Some schools have tests over two days instead of one, so some students were still studying today. As a result several classes I’ve had this week were nearly empty. Third year middle school students finished their tests in November, so those students weren’t at home studying today, they were the only students in class during my last hour.

Instead of doing a lesson in the book, I found some topics to discuss relevant to their interests. We sat around for an hour and chatted about school, tests, teachers, classes, and homework. It was fun, because I got to see a different side to some of my more advanced students. At the end of class, one of the girls pulled out an electronic dictionary and said she was going to return it. The other girl in class started laughing. The girl wanted to return the dictionary because her friend in the same class had the same electronic dictionary.

I thought it was funny as well, because the girl had the same talking dictionary design that my terrible student uses to curse at his classmates. I asked the girl if she knew about how the dictionary could "speak", and that some students liked to curse using the dictionary. The other girl in class responded. "Yes, that’s a very childish game. Elementary school students do that all the time."

I explained that I had a class where students were cursing all the time. I said that the electronic dictionary was the source of the problems because a boy student would use it to find bad words and use it to make other students angry. I said that the boy in question was very badly behaved. This made the girl in class that didn’t have her dictionary with her today sit up and take notice. I said I thought it was funny that three students would have same design of electronic dictionary. The girl said, "Oh, no, I think the student you are talking about is actually my brother."

She acted surprised that her brother would be someone I would call, "A very bad student."

I explained what he did in class, what he said, how he acted, and what trying to educate him was like. She seemed to understand his lack of manners from my description, but was shocked to hear about how badly he had done on his report card and on his lack of improvement. The sister actually has a very similar style in class, where she interrupts, dominates conversations, and generally talks to much. The only differences being is she studies, knows what’s going on in class, and doesn’t swear. While other teachers think she is just as bad, I actually like the girl while I detest the boy.

After I spent some time trying to tell her how bad her brother was in class, she promised to call her mom and repeat what I had said. If her brother comes in with a different attitude, or no dictionary tomorrow, I’ll know why.