Hello, my name is Ta-jeong

This semester, I not only have my regular 22 hours of teaching in which I have no co-teacher or curriculum, but I also teach an after school class. They decided that the after school class would be for the high-level English speakers because the in-school English classes are very basic and some high-level students don't get a chance to learn anything new. So, about 20 students interviewed for my class and I was able to pick the best 10 students. The class is twice a week, for an hour and a half each session, which makes for a lot of planning! I thought that this would be daunting on top of the planning I already have to do, but the class (called English Club) turns out to be an absolute delight. There are 10 girls in English Club (yup, no boys made the cut) and they are all great, dedicated students. It's definitely my favorite class to teach and one I know I will miss when I leave.

So, last week, my students asked me if I could give them English names. Having spent a lot of time memorizing their Korean names (which are very difficult to remember), I was a little reluctant. For example, So-young, Se-young, Sun-young, Tae-yun and Yu-jeong are just a few of them. But it's very popular to have an English name for when you travel abroad or meet foreigners and my students wanted me to be the one to name them. I told them that I would create a list of my favorite names and they could choose from the list, but on one condition; they had to return the favor and give me a Korean name. The excitement in their eyes to hear that I wanted a Korean name was unbelievable and I think they were way more excited about that than getting a name for themselves.

We decided that we would pick the names the following week in class. In the meantime, I saw the girls in the halls and in my regular English class. One of them told me they were still trying to think of my Korean name, but they already knew part of it would be "jeong." Personally, I thought that was not the prettiest of Korean names, but I wouldn't ever tell them that and of course I went along with it.

The next week, at the end of class I wrote all of the English names I had come up with on the board. Each girl immediately gravitated towards a name, and they surprisingly didn't fight over any at all. They chose Kelly, Eva, Emma, Hannah, Jenna, Courtney, Sasha and a few others that I can't remember right now. At first no one wanted Sasha, but when told them that Obama's daughter was named Sasha, one girl decided she had to have it. Anyway, it was so cute and I think the girls felt a sense of pride that they had really earned their names because they have improved their English so much this year.

At the end of class, one of my favorite students, Yu-jeong, reminded me that they still had to give me my Korean name. She stood up to formally present my name to me. "We chose the name Ta-jeong for you because it means "kindness" in Korean. But Jeong is the most important part. We wanted you to have Jeong in your name because our school is Gum-jeong Elementary and we always want you to remember us." At that moment I suddenly realized that I really care about these students and it is going to be so hard to say goodbye to them. I was very touched by the thought that they put into my name, and just as they felt a sense of pride as English students, it gave me a sense of pride as an English Teacher in Korea that I am doing a good job.

The experience also showed me how much I'm starting to love teaching. Though there are a lot of difficulties I face here, I really like the job and the results of my hardwork are definitely paying off. Now, I know that no matter what situation I'm in at school, whether I'm dealing with a problematic student or frustrated by the lack of communication, I can remember that moment and remind myself that it's all worth it in the end.



It's springtime in Korea!!...