Number 8 comes to a close

I'm just a few days away from completing my 8th month here! It's crazy to think that I am 2/3 of the way through my year teaching. I'm not really sure what kind of music that merits, but since I'm super grateful for the way God has been with me so far, how about He's Always Been Faithful by Sara Groves.

So what's up these days?
Lately, I have been feeling renewed in my desire to get better at Korean, but kind of bored of the methods I was following before, since I am really not in as much need of taking in tons of information, I need instead to be producing more. Particularly verbally.

Actually, I could really use some prayer about this. I sometimes feel like I have something physically keeping me from speaking, that's how nervous and self conscious I get before I try to say something besides two to three word answers. Don't get me started about talking to elders, like grandmother aged people. I am so afraid of not using the formal verbs and insulting the pants off them by accident that I have pretty much resorted to gestures.

One problem I have is that I keep having a lot of grammar/"does this sound natural" questions and I haven't been able to find someone that both can answer my questions in a way I can understand and who actually has time to do it. As is the same for English, if you haven't studied how your language works, it's hard to answer questions about it that a second-language learner might have. So, I've been feeling a little frustrated about that, but I don't really know how to fix it. I guess just keep trekking and trying my best.

On the Connexus side of things, it feels like the month has been flying by. Besides the projects I mentioned last time, I am starting to do something else new as well. During teachers' meeting this week, Heather gave the idea of having the more advanced classes self-correct their homework before turning it in, which I thought was an awesome idea. Otherwise, homework correction tends to be a time when the students are just waiting around and not learning anything. Also, I know for a fact that they often make the same mistakes over and over again, even if they know how to do it correctly, simply because they rush. So, I think that from now on I am going to have them try to self-correct before turning in their work. I might even try to have some of the higher Blue classes try it. They can at least try to fix things like spelling and using 's' on the end of simple present verbs in third person, which are often the most common mistakes I find.

We finally got some snow a few days ago, around 2.5-3 inches total I think. It was enough to make everything really beautiful, and so far it's been cold enough that is hasn't melted yet! I wish I could just stay inside and drink tea and admire it, but walking to work in it is pretty nice too.

Community news:

* Our newest idea of how to avoid the artic stairwell is cutting a hole in the desk between Sarah and Heather and creating a chamber pot/outhouse (inhouse?) area. There is already a sewer smell outside almost everywhere, so why not inside?

* Me and Sarah and some others are going to try some scripture memorization! It's been a while since the days of Bible quizzing, so we'll see how well it goes! I'm planning to re-memorize Romans chapter 12.

* Karen's parents are here from the U.S. until the end of January. So fun to meet some people who are special to some of our community members!

Quotes from the community:

"The New York strip is so good. When I eat it, I feel naked." -Yoonseo's thoughts about Outback Steakhouse.

Abby: "Lomie, is your monkey a boy monkey or a girl monkey?"
Lomie: : "방귀." (Fart).

"Hey! you can lick this envelope!" --Kaia has a miraculous experience.


Quotes from the classroom:

Rafael: "The mouse puts the dog in the girl."
Abby: "This sounds like 영양탕..."
Rafael: "Yes the girl eats the dog."

"My least favorite animal is a dead rat." --Yoochan


Thanks for reading!
-Abby