Anna in Korea: That's what it's all about!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! While most people are on break these days, we K-YAV types are just getting into things. Our students spend more time at our centers, so we do, too! This is a great opportunity to hang out with our kids more, and our centers are doing all kinds of exciting things to keep the students - and teachers - busy. For the students of Beobdong, what better way to celebrate the break than... English Camp!

This, I understand, is a rare opportunity. The center has had summer English Camp, or 영어 켐프 "Yeong-O Camp," but never with the benefit of a native English speaker. It's still strange to me that Native English is a valuable skill, but I was really excited to help out however I could. Thankfully, Myeong-Ju Unni, the director's daughter, was in charge. I may know how to speak English, but I'm still a far cry from teaching it with any real skill. The camp was 3 days long, with a wide variety of activities to get the kids playing with English. The kids were divided into teams, competing for fake dollars to be used at the marketplace on the last day. Phonics lessons were reinforced with Bingo games, vocab with charades. They had cooking lessons, trips to the pharmacy (really), and music class.

As you probably know, I have never been very musical. I quit violin when we had to start private lessons, and I was probably the best lip-sync-er in the Cherub Choir at church. Nevertheless, I was put in charge of planning and leading music class. My first reaction was that of mild terror, but it really got better from there. (I was also not alone - having co-teachers is great!) We learned two classic songs during camp: the Hokey Pokey, and Old McDonald. The singing was a little unorthodox with lyrics such as "everybody MOO MOO" (everybody WAS mooing...) - but the kids got super into the music. One of my greatest triumphs was seeing the surly kid dubbed "Tiny Old Man," grooving to the Hokey Pokey. (He denied it later, but I have evidence.) My students populated Old McDonald's farm with their classmates ("with a noona here and a noona there!") and those songs are still stuck in my head. All together, a great success.

They're doing the Hokey Pokey, I swear. Tiny Old Man is wearing the red belt.

My second project was to prepare the cooking lesson. Each team had a recipe for sandwiches and hot chocolate, with specific instructions they would follow to get more points. I built for them a ham sandwich with cheese, lettuce, mayo... but what if they don't like mayo? We should add jam so the kids will actually eat the sandwiches. Jam? Did I hear that right? Does "jam" mean the same in Korean? Yep. I don't know if I'll ever do it again, but that ham, cheese, and jam sandwich was pretty darn tasty. The kids thought so, too, and I was reminded not to be so critical when things don't look "normal" to me. Who knew sandwiches could be so eye-opening?

Hard at work, making cheese-lettuce-mayo-jam sandwiches.

Another fun station was the pharmacy, which provided Jelly Belly "medicine" as a small reward for doing well during the lessons. The kids also reviewed their colors, and had to describe their requests. In preparation, we sorted two tubs of Jelly Belly by flavor, a task that was strangely relaxing. I happen to love the beans, so I'm proud of myself for leaving some for the kids! It was also a nice chance to get to know the other volunteers, Reverend Kim's granddaughters, both fairly close to my age. The kids went nuts for the pharmacy and they came back for more on Market Day.

Which of the 7 light-oranges did you mean?

What a Market Day it was! The kids were all loaded by the evening of the last day, and there were plenty of opportunities to blow that cash. They bought dinner, stationery, toys, accessories, and snacks. As is the case in the best markets, they had to haggle: sing an English song, and maybe I'll knock down the price. (You do the hokey pokey and you... turp yamerp amutter? I don't think so!) Most importantly, it was clear that the kids had fun. They felt pretty good about their English, too, as well they should.

I want to keep things up now that things are back to normal, especially since Korean class is over and I have more time on my hands. I'm also going to Beobdong more now: every Wednesday, I spend the afternoon with the kids without the pressure of class. I'm excited about this new routine, and English Camp was an excellent start to the rest of my time here. I'll have more stories soon!

More highlights from camp: