Summer vacation

     
     For the summer vacation, I don't have any specific plans yet.

All I want to do is take a rest for a while and send my children to

a summer camp, which I've already registered.Accidently, I was asked to teaching

in Korean for young children (1st ~6th grade) in the church as a volunteer.

In fact, I am not a Christian even though I go to church for socializing with

other Korean. Besides, I didn't have enough experiences to teach young children

except my own children who always make me reflect on my teaching philosophy.

Ironically, I have never taught my native language to others, which is very important

to me. I accepted this proposal reluctantly. I need to prepare for this classes during the

vacation to meet parents' expectation: they wish to communicate with their children

in Korean.

     Speaking of communications, I found quite interesting phenomena. When Korean

family talking, parent always speak in Korean while their children keep speaking in English.

As parents use some English but their children cannot speak a single Korean.

Apparently, it doesn't look uncomfortable for them. How two different languages can

be a tool!

What a small world!

        A few monthes ago, I ran into someone on the street while I was driving to my house.

She was also an  English teacher. Ever since we took a teacher's training course

together  in New York state in 2005, I remember that  we met once or twice accidentally.

What a coincidence! Her husband is studying LLM  at USC. Surprisingly,

she knows one of  my  friends that I didn't know they knew each other. In addition,

while we were talking I found that my another two friends who influenced on me

a lot were  her colleagues. What a small world!  She has a daughter who attends to

middle school where my daughter will be go to there this fall. She  encourages me

whenever  I depressed and gives positive energies. I am looking forward to cheerful

chatting with her  after this quarter.

Shall we dance?

I always think that I need exercise. However, because of laziness and lacking of

 will power I rarely did any exercise recently. In fact, I tried many sports:yoga,

swimming, dance, badminton etc. After all, what I found was none of exercise

 last for two months. I was fond of Latin dance once. I joined the club to learn

 how to dance. However, I could  not overcome shyness; usually Latin dance

 need a partner, so I stopped. When it comes to yoga, I really liked it because

 it helped me to relax and reduced the stress. While  I was doing yoga, I eager to

 following the instructions but my body was not flexible enough  to do even

basic steps.

Nevertheless, I will give one more try. First of all, during the vacation  I will

register  YMCA  and I am going to join the Zumba class; in addition, I would like to

choose multiple classes.  It seems to new year's resolutions. I don't want six packs

(I know it's impossible) or extreme  physical changes. I just want to socialize with

someone who has similar hobbies and interests.

Second hand books

 

 

 



 

I have been living LA eight months. As an English teacher and a learner,

 

I am still  struggling for using English and  my shy children are in the same boat.

 

I believe that   they are late bloomer due to their personality. My second 

 

child didn't know the alphabet,  and sometime he still confuses "b" and "d".  

 

My daughter learned English at the previous  school, but her least favorite subject was English.

 

They had never read English books before. Their previous school emphasised

 

importance of extensive reading,  so they always read Korean books and I didn't

 

force to them to read English book  either. Although I am not a proponent of the

 

critical period hypothesis, I am  amazed  by their English development. They are

 

not  talkative or actively involve the classroom  activity, however, they are progressing. 

 

They became enjoy  Disney  and  Nick channel.  In addition, they could write a

 

 short paragraph without teacher's  help.

   

     Now, I realized that my English is more urgent than my children's. 

 

What should I do? At first, I  decided to read many books, so I went to  second

 

hand  book store with my children and bought as  many as we wanted.  Actually,

 

 I went there  several times before. I bought the grapes of the wrath last month. 

 

I didn't finish yet.  All I want  is reading for pleasure. Therefore, I chose

 

 famous stories (John Grisham) and romance (Daniel Steel).  I hope even adult 

 

learner can be a beneficiary of  the extensive reading.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Modern family and the Big bang Theory

     I like watching American TV shows. They  help me to understand  American

 cultures and  they are  useful materials to learn English as well.  My first favorite

 show was " Friends".  I watched every episode from the first season and introduced

 it to my husband.  When the main characters were single  we were single and some

of them  got married  and gave birth we had same experiences.  After that I enjoyed

a large number of shows  depending on my situations.  Most of them were detective

 dramas.

     Now, my two favorite shows are modern family and the big bang theory.  

In terms of  the big bang theory, the back ground of this comedy is Cal tech in

Pasadena, nearby where I'm living.  The main characters use scientific jargon  most

of time.Therefore, it  is almost  Greek to me. However, it's so much fun to see.

Whenever I passed  by  Cal  tech campus or the cheesecake factory, I always

look  around to find  people  who look like Sheldon,  Leonard, Howard,

Rajesh and  Penny.   The big bang theory seemed to led  me to settle  in this area.

   My second favorite is modern family. In fact,  until I came to here, I didn't like

that  show  just  because of  the title. What is modern family? But, once I watched

it   by chance ,  I am hooked on this comedy. Although I don't fully understand

every  small detail of situations, I could get the big  picture of the main streams.

In my point  of view, every character represents  different life styles of modern American.
Sometimes it   describes their daily lives  realistically. At other times, they presented

surprising twisted  plots so that I constantly wait  for the new episodes.

 

Fun fair

 

Living in a multicultural society is truly blessed chance to my children.

They might acquire  intercultural competence in a natural way.

Not to mention that it is worthwhile experience to myself as a language teacher.

My children's school district holds a fund raising fair , named Fun fair,annually.

 This year was May 17th and 18th. Since the school promoted  many times,

 my children  nagged me almost every day to take them  to the  fair.

I knew it from the Hollywood movies and dramas.

 Many parents participated and prepared for this in advance.

 Many families flocked and enjoying the midway rides, games, food truck and noisy(?) band.

 My children looked extremely busy doing games and got the stickers from the booths.

After collecting the tickets and then they exchanged them into small toys,

which would be only short term playing things and never played again.

 I think another unforgettable memories seemed accumulate to their minds.  

Souvenirs from the fun fair

Happy hour

 

 

 

I hummed the melody,  which is "I love coffee and I love tea. I love the java jive and it loves me Coffee and tea, and the java and me ..." That is one of the my favorite songs, but I can't memorize the whole lyrics..  Everyday I drink coffee at least two cups on a regular bases. In the morning I always drink cafe latte, adding extra sugar or syrup, and after lunch I drink americano. Without coffee, my day can not get started. Several days ago, I found STARBUCKS promotion (May 1~May 10. 3pm~5PM.Half price Frappuccino ).Even though I am not a STARBUCKS lover ( I prefer Peet's coffee), it's the time. I drove to the starbucks and grasp it quickly. Wow.. I got brain freeze. Dizzy. Nevertheless, I will drink coffee tomorrow.

 

 

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Earthquake !!



It's almost midnight. Everyone in my home fell asleep. I like this peaceful and tranquil night.  I was enjoying solitude, but I saw the light  swaying back and forth. Through my experiences, I realized that it's earthquake.!! Should I prepare to first aid kit?  I have no idea where to go? All that I can do is just wait and pass it by. Can I get a good night sleep tonight?