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Monday:
So one of the other vocal teachers was irritated that
the students don't seem to address me formally enough-
a Korean professor would be called by their first and
last name, followed by the word for professor-- for
example, Jae would Chung Jae-Yeol kyosunim. Even
Kenji and Ben get their last names too (Kenji Omae
kyosunim, Ben Bal kyosunim), but my last name is very
very difficult for Koreans to pronounce (usually comes
out like Ben duh Kuhlootuh), so a lot of the students
just call me Kari. Also a lot of them don't know the
word professor in English. Of course, this is just
fine by me. Being called "Miss", or Professor kind of
makes me feel old, and when I was in school, we just
called our teachers by their first names-- jazz is
much more relaxed that way. But apparently, that's
just not acceptable here, so this other vocal teacher
gathered the students for a meeting (without me
knowing it) and told them that they have to call me
"Kari professor". So now every time I pass a student
in the hall, it's "Hello, Kari professor" with a big
dramatic bow. It kind of creeps me out. I liked it
better when they were more relaxed and chilled out
with me, and I have never felt like I wasn't respected
by my students because of it. In fact the opposite:
I enjoyed their affectionate attitudes towards me, and
I feel like relating to my students on a personal
level allows me to teach them better-- when they're
more at ease, they learn more, and perform better.
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Thursday:
Today I learned that one of my really talented male
first year students came to PaekChe just because of
me-- he had heard about me when he was applying for
schools, and chose PaekChe on the basis of what he had
heard about my teaching. How flattering is that!
After I got home from work today, I went over to the
bus station to pick up Stephanie from Pohang-- she is
applying for her masters, and apparently, in the US,
you have to pass a series of tests even just to apply
for your masters. In ALL subjects (math, anyone?) So
Steph has to take an essay test in Seoul early
tomorrow morning, and needed somewhere to crash.
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