As part of the #introduceyourself theme I thought it would be fun to introduce you to a few of the young ladies that i spend a few hours with each day. These two young ladies are Lexy (황혜림) and Haein (박해인). They are both grade one students and boht very bright young girls. Lexy and Haein are 8 years old (in Korean age) or 7 in Western age and we have been studying English together for the past 8 months.
I teach these two girls at a private English Academy or Hagwon in Korean (학원). Hagwons are very common in Korea and a large majority of children attend these after school academies in countless subjects such as: Math, English, Taekwondo, Music, Chinese Calligraphy, Sports etc. We don't really have a comparison in the West, besides some enrichment programs, however they do not compare to how ubiquitous Hagwons are in Korea.
When these girls started learning English at our academy it was one of the first times they have ever interacted with a foreigner (외국인) and they were a bit hesitant. After a few classes they started to warm up to the idea of learning English from a Canadian giant (캐나다 자인트)(that's what these girls call me).
Their shyness didn't last too long as one of the weekly traditions is to mess up my hair which I spent so much time and effort on. They call me 'Horangi Meori Teacher' (호랑이 머리 쌤) which means tiger hair teacher. From the video you can see exactly how I got that nickname.
It has been amazing watching these two young girls develop over the past several months, from having now confidence when speaking English, to now not being afraid to speak, make mistakes and try to converse with me in English. This is what makes being an ESL teacher rewarding. When you see students take their ability to the next level, but also enjoy the learning process. I am a big believer that language acquisition should be fun and the best way for anyone to learn a new language is by enjoying the process. When it becomes a chore, students have a habit of losing interest, motivation and eventually just give up. Its up to me, the teacher, to keep the classroom a positive and exciting place where these girls look forward to learning English.
So without further ado, here are Lexy and Haein giving you a brief introduction about themselves
