A Shameless Time

Fulfillment in Teaching English

I'm looking for a job that fulfills me to the uttermost. Perhaps that is why I feel like I am sweating drops of blood to get my students to talk. And yet even after those drops of blood, I'm still not satisfied. Is the problem that I am in the wrong profession or that I'm thinking about it all wrong? My experience today, teaching children, suggested to me that it may be my thinking. I started off with some cognitive therapy and my classes seemed to go well. Students even seemed to respond well to the worksheets. Apparently students love worksheets. I think there could be a problem with me looking for fulfillment in teaching English in and of itself. To be honest, that isn't the reason why I started teaching English in the first place. Rather, I wanted to develop relationships with people of a different nationality and cultural background. My other challenge lies before me in working with another colleague this afternoon. It seems that if I think someone is better at doing something than I am that I erroneously assume that I am a bad teacher. I am determined not to be defeated with that type of thinking this afternoon. Meanwhile, I hope to learn some things from my colleague. Perhaps I can even make a list and apply them to my own teaching practices.

Collaboration and Research All in One

Tonight, I began reading, "Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers" by Anne Burns. I was encouraged to read that although she is writing from an Australian context that she addresses issues of a lack of motivation with students who were required to take English courses for reasons related to immigration. After having a paper published that I wrote with another professor, I decided to find out some more efficient ways for working with a colleague. In fact, I wish I would've read up on the subject before I actually wrote the paper with another colleague. We had a lot of frustrating experiences but it was still a good experience overall. Nonetheless, I hope to learn more about collaboration through research to have more positive experiences in the future. I'm hoping that this book will have positive implications for what I do in my current setting. I know that I have a lot of areas to improve in, especially regarding teaching, and I hope I can work with colleagues to learn from them and hopefully to even have them correct me in my teaching weaknesses. I also believe that the best way to improve the structures at a university are through research, rather than complaining, though the latter seems to take less energy (at least in our thinking) and probably more time than we realize.

Major English Homework

Today I gave the following homework in the "Major English" course that I teach: 1. Choose from the following passages in 1 John: a. 2:1-6 b. 2:7-14 c. 2:15-17 d. 2:18-27 e. 2:28-3:10 f. 3:11-24 g. 4:1-6 h. 4:7-21 i. 5:1-5 j. 5:6-12 k. 5:13-21 2. Choose a subject to talk about related to theology or Christian education. Here are some examples: a. The relationship between 확신 and faith b. The visible Church versus the invisible Church c. "Pastor, I don't believe in the Bible anymore." What would you say? d. Being the hands and feet of Jesus outside of the worship service. e. "Preach the gospel at all times. Use words when necessary." The most effective methods for telling the story of God. f. Authority without inerrancy? g. The future of the Church in the 21st Century. h. Church in Korea: from mission field in Korea to sending missionaries out to other countries. i. Where are the mission trips to the poor inside of Korea? 3. Homework for next time: I gave you a list of words from the handout in class. I want you to write out definitions of those words in English. It was difficult getting students to respond today, more difficult than last week. If you have ideas on why it was difficult, please feel free to post a comment on this post. I will hopefully have the syllabus finalized by the next time you come to class. Hopefully this will clarify any confusion you feel about this class. As always, feel free to e-mail me or post questions on this site. God's Shalom!

Free-Talking Critique

Free-talking Critique
Having free-talked for a whole semester, I'd like to know what you think. Here are some questions I'd like you to consider and give me your feedback. If none of the questions interest you, feel free to add a different question and respond to that question.

1. What have you told your friends/What will you tell your friends and family about free-talking this semester?

2. If free-talking isn't required next semester, will you still sign up for free-talking?

3. What did you like about free-talking this semester?

4. What could have been a more interesting way of free-talking this semester?

5. Did you find the subjects from the textbook to be interesting things to talk about?

6. If you could have chosen the subjects independently of the book, which subjects would you have liked to talk about?

7. Do you think there should be a correlation between class and free-talking?

8. What was difficult about communicating with Brent during free-talking?

9. Would it have been helpful to receive handouts of examples of expressions you can use during free-talking?

10. What do you think is the most difficult part about having conversation in English? How is that different from Korean?

Free-Talking/Class Make-Up

Here are the subjects you may have missed in class or free-talking if your class was cancelled. Please post a comment about the subject you are missing. You may respond to the questions below or say something else that is still related to the main topic. Please also respond to others as part of your time requirement.

1. People
A. Family
B. Your first girlfriend/boyfriend
C. Your hero
D. Your favorite movie star
E. Your role-model

2. Activities
A. Your job
B. Things you do with your friends
C. The last fun thing you did
D. What you do with your friends
E. What occupies most of your time

3. Travel
A. How to board an airplane
B. Your favorite method of travel
C. How you get from your hometown to Jeju Island (or another popular spot)
D. The process of traveling to another country from South Korea
E. How to book a trip with a travel agent

4. Food
A. Your favorite Korean food
B. Your least favorite Korean food
c. Your favorite non-Korean food
D. Your least favorite non-Korean food
E. Exotic food

5. Sports
A. Your favorite athlete
B. Your least favorite athlete
c. Your favorite sport
D. Sports you play
E. What comes to mind when you think of sports

6. Destinations
A. Places you've been in South Korea
B. Places you recommend to a foreigner
C. Places you've been outside of South Korea
D. Where you want to go for your honeymoon
E. The place you want to see before you die

7. Communication
A. How you use your cell phone
B. What you use your cell phone for the most
C. Your favorite means of communication
D. Your first love letter
E. How you keep in touch with people outside of South Korea.

8. The Future
A. Your dream job
B. Where you see yourself in ten years
c. What comes to mind when you think of the future
D. What color is your future?
E. What you dread the most about the future

9. Shopping
A. Your favorite thing to shop for
B. Where you shop the most
C. Reasons for shopping
D. What you dislike shopping for the most
E. What comes to mind when you think of shopping

10. Lifestyles
A. How you exercise
B. How you manage to be healthy in all ways (i.e. spiritual, mental, social,
physical etc.)
C. The most stressful part of your life
D. What you do to relieve your stress

11. Achievements
A. Your list of things to do today
B. Your greatest achievement so far
C. What you don't care about achieving that most of your peers want to achieve
D. What you want to accomplish before your life is over
E. What your parents want you to achieve but that you couldn't care less about

12. Consequences
A. The best choice you made that led to the best consequences
B. Your greatest regret
C. If you could do something over again, what would it be?
D. If you could change the past...would you?
E. The worst choice you made which led to the best thing in your life

English Conversation 3 Final Exam Instructions

1. Come with your partner to the classroom at the designated time.
2. Be prepared to have a conversation about your chosen subject in a particular situation (i.e. coffee shop, meeting a friend on the street, going to the 노래방 with your favorite foreign professor etc.).
3. Talk with your partner and include the foreign teacher (aka Brent Dirks, 도영웅, 브렌트 더크스 [Quack, Quack]) in the conversation.
4. Respond appropriately to questions asked by your foreign teacher.
5. Ask your foreign teacher questions that require him to respond truthfully.
6. Don't expect to finish your script.
7. The final is over the moment the timer buzzes.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the foreign teacher as designated on the KNU website.