Entry 9: Fricatives

Today. Class. Fun. Learn. Teaching.

Today, I class. It fun. Learn about teaching.

Today, I had class as usual. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would have been. I learned a lot about teaching kids that don't speak English.

There are several techniques when teaching English to Korean kids, but today in our ""How to Approach Pronunciation for Korean Elementary School Students" class, the instructor, Mr. Ko, explained how Korean kids have a hard time understanding teachers because of intonation. Understandably, when a kid is trying to comprehend what is coming out of my mouth all he really needs to hear and comprehend are the words in the first sentence. Today. Class. Fun. He further explained how he builds off of the kids comprehension. He speaks clearly and with fervor. So after saying sentences like sentence one, he moves on to sentence two, then to sentence three. If you could just step into the kids perspective for one moment, you would understand how hearing a sentence with all the fluff words (descriptive words) it could become quite a daunting task for 2nd graders.

There was much more to his lecture, to teach us proper techniques when dealing with children. It was quite the useful lecture, and most definitely, I will have to remember to to speak SLOWLY and clearly, I think the "speak with expression" part is going to be simple for me. I'm excited to read children stories to my kids. I think I'm going to download a bunch and then read them the stories that I read when I was a kid. Strange, how I feel like this job is going to teach me a lot about being a father. Teaching and parenting are so similar; I've always seen my parents as my best teachers.

Made plans with an old friend who lives in Korea for this sunday. Hopefully she can help me get a cell phone and we can catch up on the good ole days when her mom wanted me to be her son-in-law.

Things are super slow here in Korea. So don't be jealous, at least not yet. Going to class from 9-5 is a drag and definitely not conducive to experiencing what Korea has to offer. I really want some nice jjajjangmyun right about now.

word of the day: fricatives. thats right, fricatives. (interestingly, this wasn't the first time I came across this word, lol @ phonetics majors)