Hershey's Dark Chocolate

Yesterday, my middle school students learned about "asking and giving directions." I printed off really basic maps of a pretend city for each one of them. We talked about the cardinal directions, what a "block" is, one-way streets, across from, beside, and between. I chose two places on the map and asked them to get from one place to another. After they mastered a few of these examples, we did some role-playing. I paired up the students and asked them to come up with a conversation where one of them was lost and was asking the other for directions. Some of the students did really well!! They were very creative, and included a lot of detail in their examples. Later that day, I overheard a conversation in the hallway. It started off in Korean, and then one of them said, "Ya? Excuse me, would you give me directions please?" and then both of them laughed about it. That was one of the lines I taught them in class earlier. Whether they were making fun of what we learned in class or not, either way...THEY LEARNED!! I'd call that a success :)

Today, I taught my middle school students how to have a conversation with someone they have just met. We went over introductions, what is appropriate and inappropriate to ask when talking with someone, and how to bid them farewell. We started off by creating a list: appropriate and inappropriate topics to discuss when meeting someone. The students were kind of quiet at first, so I broke the ice by giving some examples. I told them, "In America, it is not okay to ask someone how old they are, how much they weigh, or how much money they make at their job." I got really surprised looks, and then a student said, "No. It's ok for Korea. I weigh 55 kg. It's ok." I was shocked!! They also said it's okay to ask people where they work, if they're married or not, and about the President. While making this lesson, I assumed that there would be a few differences here and there, but not THAT many!! I asked Darren later about it, and he told me that the students were right. In Korea, you can ask about anything. They are very open about their lives.

My elementary students were pretty tough today. They were really unfocused and very talkative. By the time my lunch break rolled around, I was exhausted and pretty frustrated. Apparently all the classes were like that because the Korean teachers were talking about their students as well. Maybe there was something in the air today. I don't know. I went to lunch and was able to take a break and get away for a little bit. I had some extra time left over, so I wandered across the street to Lotte Mart just to look around for awhile. I was walking the aisles in the scrapbooking section (one of my favorite hobbies!!), and I stumbled upon the most wonderful thing. A random pack of Hershey's Dark Chocolate kisses was sitting on a shelf next to the scrapbooks. I hit the motherload. I knew it was meant to be. First of all, I didn't even know they HAD delicious American chocolate here, let alone in the aisle where I was looking!! I just had to buy it. So I did. And for some crazy reason, my day just got 1,000 times better! :)