Monday happens to be Teacher’s day. This isn’t a "national bank" sort of holiday, so while teachers that work in actual schools get the day off work, people that work in academies don’t share the luxury. It’s a holiday when students bring in presents to teachers they like, or try to meet old teachers for lunch. Usually this means I get a few different pairs of new socks, shampoo, and any other number of hints that used to lead me to believe that my student’s parents are worried about my physical appearance. Now that I’ve been around a while and know what people like to give as gifts, I’ll chalk the gifts up to Korean pragmatism instead.
One of my students from my last school has gotten in touch with me about a meeting for Teacher’s day. Once you’ve been teaching for a few years, the faces become a blur, and only the truly exceptional students stand out. In particular, this student was special because she had gone off to Australia and had emailed me to tell me that after six months she was able to join regular level English classes. I was extremely proud to hear that she had achieved her goal of studying with other native English speakers and that I had helped her achieve this goal.
Not only did I remember her, I remembered all the other students in her class. This is extremely rare. They were one of the first groups of students I really enjoyed teaching. They might have driven me crazy, but we sat around and talked far more than we actually studied. All of them were very high level and we hardly got any work done. Several of the students were really cool people. One even was admitted to the most exclusive sort of academy in the entire city with the highest English scores of the entire school. Given the boy’s drive and passion for learning English, it’s no surprise he made it that far.
Hearing how well they did always made me happy, but losing touch as they went on to high school was part of the job. At the time, I had never taught anything beyond middle school, so they sort of "outgrew" me as a teacher. Seeing them quit for their different reasons before I left my old school was always sad.
This student that contacted me shared some good news. She told me that most of the class has kept in touch, and they wanted to meet me for lunch tomorrow. Instead of just one person I used to teach, we were going to have a mini-reunion. I’ve been getting a flurry of text messages all day from different students as they ask me if I was coming, where we would meet, what to bring, etc. I think they are excited about meeting with me again.
I’m actually pretty excited too, as this is the first Teacher’s day I’ll have spent with old students. It’ll be cool to see how these students of mine turned out as they’ve gotten older and grown up since I last saw them. The students are now in high school, and they study from 8 AM to 10PM every day. To think they want to spend one of their rare free days with me is pretty special. We picked the restaurant, and I’ve gotten out my wedding pictures in anticipation. I’ve spent the day trying to think how far back I need to remember to fill them in on the things that have happened since we last saw each other.
There are so few teachers that I can remember as being exceptional in my childhood, and I probably wouldn’t have much to say to them if I saw them again for fear I would have been one of those faces they had forgotten long ago.
