Teacher's Block

I'm preparing for tomorrow's freshmen class right now. I'd have to say that as far as listening materials in the ESL/EFL industry go, the quality of the voice acting is about 40% bearable and 60% straight from the butt of my brother's cat after it's eaten Mexican food.

Right now I'm listening to a woman on a tape who is attempting to sound like a younger girl with a slightly breathy voice. She sounds more like a crazed gremlin that combined well-intentioned medicine with some hard liquor. However, I can hardly blame the listening tracks for the quality lacking in my teaching. I've been at my new job for a month already and my students still aren't learning anything. I'm serious, I suck. I'm even boring myself in class. And though after each failed class I resolve myself to prepare better next time and do an awesome lesson, I end up procrastinating too much and not getting it done. I do get some great ideas, but the light bulb usually turns on only after I've taught the lesson. I must be a dyslexic educator.

Well, I guess this isn't really Teacher's Block as much as it is Teacher's Laziness. Oh, and while we're on the subject of laziness, props to my bro and his new job. Hopefully this one will be less internet surfing/rubber band wars and more actual work....then again, surfing online is all I've ever really done at most of my jobs too...

Crying Rice

Okay, so I wasn't planning on letting almost a whole month go by without posting. Just got caught up in the busyness of life. In general, that's...starting my new job, looking for a new apartment, studying Korean, doing my taxes (complicated by foreign income yechh), trying to survive my new job making all-new lessons and materials being a rookie and all, and doing normal daily errands. Anyways, I've decided to make up for my absence with an especially deep and thoughtful entry.

I'm watching a Korean drama on TV right now, entitled "Super Rookie". I've never heard of it, but apparently I've stumbled in during a crucial plot point. Flashback to a beautiful young woman sharing wonderful memories with her adoring boyfriend. Cute shots cutting to more lovey-dovey shots. Next comes a sad scene where he's preparing to leave to go abroad for a year. It's only a year. It's not that long. Cut back to the present. The beautiful young woman is at the airport, eagerly awaiting his return. He appears through the gate...with another woman. She's dumbfounded, can't speak, and tears begin to roll down her face. The ensuing scenes of sadness are layered with mournful background music as she meanders around the airport in a trance. After drifting around for a while, she eventually heads home. She reminisces about the great times they had together as she rides an empty bus. Her stop is a ways from her apartment, so she has to walk home in the pouring rain, but that doesn't matter. She shuffles slowly through her door and falls down on her blanket, tears still flowing. I know this is all cliche soap opera material, but I start feeling sorry for her at this point. Well, she finally gets up to get something to eat. What does she do? She pulls out a rice cooker, sits down, and dejectedly starts to eat it right from the pot with a rice scooper. This is when I bust out laughing. I mean, I just watched a 10-minute music video of infinite sadness and lost love only to see it climax with a scene of a rain-drenched figure spooning out rice from a rice cooker. Rice, I might add, that has a slightly yellowish color from being left out for a couple days. And she's just scooping it out, crying and sniffling, snot and tears mixed in and all. It was so ridiculous I ended up spraying my juice on the TV. Okay, so maybe you had to be there, but I'm serious, it was laugh out loud.

And before the sarcastic comments fly, no, I'm not reguarly watching Korean soap operas. Well, maybe one...