Amanda Takes Off...

Before class tonight, I picked up a copy of The Little Prince at the bookstore. They had one book that was a chapter in Korean then a chapter in English, but I ended up buying two books, one in Korean and one in English, that were sold as a set. I've never read the book and it's certainly above my level right now, but one day I will be able to read it. I'm keeping it around as motivation. (I bought Sogang 1B several lessons before I was done with 1A for the same reason.)

For some reason, I would normally consider reading a chapter in English and then a foreign language "cheating." (This is what I plan to do.) But the fact is, when I had an ESL student who spoke no English but could read in French, I gave her books in French to build up her background knowledge about what we were studying. When she had to read in English, her reading level with background knowledge was much higher compared to just getting some random text. If it wasn't cheating for my students, why is it cheating for me?

Out of 39 flashcards I made tonight for this week's Sogang lesson, I knew 25 of them the first time through (Eng-Kor direction). This is in part because so many were from English but also in large part because it was about hobbies and sports and I knew the sports from taekwondo.

Tonight's class was very strange. The studio didn't hand out fliers on Friday because it was raining, so a bunch of the boys went out tonight. Only five of us were left behind, and Master was supervising the students outside. So he had Ghost work with me on steps 1-20 of my new form.

In the process of working on this form with Ghost, I learned a bunch of new words, not surprisingly. During our break, I dragged him in the closet and got him to pronounce that difficult 려 sound for me into my iPod. "Say 고려. Say 어려워요." I was impressed. Without any coaching he said the sound (or word) normally once, slowly (broken into the beats) once, and normally again.

I asked if he'd be coming to class early any day this week. He's missing the next two days because of something at school and I'm missing Friday because they're having an early class testing time. He said he'd come early next Monday. He's going to read one of my Once Upon a Time in Korea stories with me while I record it. He seems excited to help.

Awesome.

Before class, when Master and I were clarifying Friday's plans, I asked what I would test on because I don't know all of 고려 yet. (He has everyone present perform at the tests, even if it's not an official test for them.) He said I'd test on Pal Jang and that I won't do 고려 until I have my black belt. I looked at him, very confused and he said, "Oh, Amanda, you wait two month to get black belt."

"Two months, I know. But why am I learning 고려 now?"

"Oh!" He looked up a word in my dictionary. Preparation. He said the two month waiting period between testing and getting the black belt is to prepare 고려. I guess that when I have the black belt I'm supposed to know 고려. I'm really not sure and I have a feeling it's in part to instill patience amongst his students.

After class, Master started talking to me through his teeth. "Amanda, you stay here. You know 힘들어요?" Ha! Only because Ghost had taught me while we were working together! It means "to be hard work" and it's one of those phrases I've heard a lot in class. The boys say it after something particularly physically demanding. He said, "Boys having pizza downstairs, you have pizza, too." He was speaking through my teeth so some of the other students would not hear him.

I never got downstairs because by the time I was done getting ready to go home, he was back in the studio with food.

Free pizza.

For the record, 고려 is something else... I kept saying "어려워요!" and Ghost kept saying, "Yes, 힘들어요."