The other day when I was teaching fourth grade, my coteacher told me that a new student joined the class. I didn't really think much of it until he mentioned the boy was transferring from living abroad in New Zealand!
When I met him, I slowly asked him his name and he answered "John" and I wondered what his level of English was. He didn't really participate much, so I didn't know what hit me at the end, when we played a game, and he raised his hand. At first I had no idea what he was saying because my brain was listening for Korean child English, but was instead hearing perfectly fluent Kiwi English!
"Excuse me, this team was one fewer players. We will have an advantage."
I was so shocked and the rest of the class was so crazy and ready for the game I just said not to worry about it. I wondered if I'd imagined it all when he left.
Two days later, I was teaching grade 5. My coteacher told me we had a new transfer student from New Zealand. I said "Oh I must have his brother in grade four!" When suddenly I heard
"Oh hello. You must be Anne. My brother told me about you."
Remember that this is a level of English beyond even the English teachers. My jaw almost dropped. I got to chatting with him, Paul, and asked how he was doing with the transition.
"Well I was finally getting the hang of it, even speaking English with my brother, and then I get sent back here to start all over again!"
My heart nearly broke. Turns out they were living in New Zealand for THREE YEARS!
Paul, it turns out, was a lot less shy than John on his first day. Whenever I would elicit a response, it would go something like this...
Anne: "Did you have fun at sports day, yesterday?" (Complete with miming of running, and pointing behind me for yesterday)
All other students: "Yes!" "Nooo" "So so"
Paul: "Are you kidding me? They had us sitting around, waiting and doing nothing, for three hours, just so we had about one hour of games. It was so boring!"
When he spoke his classmates covered their ears and groaned. Some even shouted "KOREAN!" I tried to keep the class running as smoothly as possible, but it was quite tricky!
SO I spoke with the two coteachers from grade 5 and 4. Ideally, I think these boys should not be in these classes. As Paul said "I learned this in primary one!" (Be sure to imagine the Kiwi accent and Korean face) But I know that is not possible as it's the government program. When I offered to give them extra work, however, I came upon my first real clash of Western vs. Korean ideals. To me it was obvious what was best for the boys was to be pushed and challenged in school. My coteachers however, who are lovely, think it's best for the boys to learn to fit in. They think the boys should learn not to talk too much because it makes the other kids uncomfortable. While this sounds harsh, they do have the kids best interests at heart. They are at high risk for bullying since they're so 'different'. Judging from the students' reaction to Paul's fluid speaking, I suppose they are right. Asking around, another foreigner friend told me a similar back from abroad Korean student at another school has a bald spot from where other kids pull out his hair.
My poor coteachers are also worried because they can't understand the boys! I purposely slow down and simplify my English when speaking with Koreans, but little boys aren't usually as considerate! In fact, John tried correcting my coteacher the other day! Luckily, John was actually wrong (he said "It's too cold" should be "It's to cold"), and my coteacher didn't understand what he said, so no one was embarrassed!
So, it seems the best I can do might be to get them to read chapter books on the side and slyly hand me book reports. After my second class with John I asked him if he'd like anything extra and he actually asked for a "chapter book"! The local library has some good titles, like Harry Potter and Captain Underpants, and I wrote a list of recommendations for them to check out. John also asked why I hadn't included cricket in the sports lesson, and why I called table tennis 'ping pong.'
It's going to be such an incredible challenge dealing with these two, I actually can't wait!
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