dear stan,

I meant to write you sooner but I just been busy,
You said your girlfriend's pregnant now, how far along is she?


Yeah, I'm beginning this post with a 12 year old Eminem song. I'm tenuously using it to denote my lack of written output on this here blog. It will also eventually tie into one of the themes of this post, which is  how it feels to be ignored. Impressed?

Sometimes I just can't think of anything to write about. I remember during the first year of this blog I bemoaned the struggle to find topics to write about; nearly three years later the well is that much drier. I know that nobody is hanging on my every post here, but I still feel compelled to say something every once in a while.

I received some fantastic news today. My least favorite student, possibly of all time, has left my school. He is, or was, an 11 year old elementary school student. Students come and go every month in this business, but it always seems like only the good ones go, and the shitty ones stay. Not having this kid anymore will brighten everyday, even the days that he ordinarily wouldn't be there, hell, even weekends. He was a colossal pain in the ass; not only did he seem distinctly adverse to learning anything, but he actively prevented any other kid in his class from learning as well. He craved attention. There were times when I'd turn around from writing something on the board and he'd be casually scribbling on the wall, or ripping wallpaper from it, to the amusement of his classmates. One time I turned around and he was jumping up and down at his desk, flipping me the double bird.

That incident sent me into a rage, and I had to leave the room to prevent myself from impulsively punching him in the throat. I went straight to the Korean teacher to try to get him taken out of the class, for my sanity and his safety. Her response wasn't what I was hoping for. She kinda laughed it off, explaining that to Koreans the middle finger doesn't mean anything too bad. I, in turn, explained that he certainly understands that to me, an American, it's quite aggravating, and if I'm expected to respect their culture, the least I deserve is to have them respect mine. My protestations fell flat. The next class he was right back at it, peeling wallpaper off the wall.

The most frustrating thing about him was that he would ingratiate himself to the Korean teachers. Whenever he wasn't in class, he would be at the front counter, chatting them up, being a precocious little angel. While doing this he would occasionally shoot me sinister looks, as if to say, I'm robbing you of your credibility. These are MY people. They're on MY side. This way, anytime I would complain about him, they would be somewhat leery. What? Him? No, I don't think so. He's a good boy. He probably just really likes you. 


Recently, he turned class into a bit of a game between himself and the two other boys in the class. The game was to see who could finish all the questions in their book first. Ostensibly, this seems like it would be a great thing for me, the teacher. However, the game wasn't that whoever got the questions correct was the winner, but simply the person who filled in all the blanks first. So, rather than listening to me explain the lesson first, and then answering the questions correctly, they would just scribble whatever mangled version of English they thought was right. Telling someone every 30 seconds to stop doing what they're doing and to listen, only to have them immediately disobey and continue on unabated is the apogee of frustration. If there's one thing I've learned in Korea, it's that the most maddening thing in the world is to be ignored.

In conclusion, that kid can go to hell.