37/15. I've been a little bit busy this week. We had another Talent Market Day, and I had a meeting with the boss about my future plans, followed by Changwon College's 11th English Speech Contest. I also begun learning Korean properly by attending lessons at the aforementioned college.

It is certainly great to finally have proper Korean lessons, starting as a total beginner. So I'm starting with Hangul and basic expressions, and have homework to do. I can swap notes with Garry, who has a few months of practice in the bag, but his tutor leaves for Canada soon, so he is on the look out for a replacement. There are 4 other students in my class, a Chinese guy, a South African former wine promoter and two female, American hagwon teachers. My intention is to do the basic course and then do the next stage, elementary level, after I return from Japan.

There always seems to be a level ceremony to practice for these days... so I've got Red Riding Hood and, for the first time, Three Little Pigs, looming onto a stage soon.

Elsewhere, my Speaking Class goes from strength to strength, with hot topics on dating and sex education completed. I would like to do more of these purely speaking classes, although it is hard to get a teenage class to focus and not to be too embarrassed by topics such as we have covered so far.

On Friday, we had another Market Day, when there are few actual classes and the kids get to spend their coupons, earned for good work and behavior. The previous one was back on 19 December - see photos. Anyway, pictures speak louder than words and so the 'snapshot' style photos I have uploaded tell you all you need to know.

On Saturday, there was another Speech Contest, the second within as many weeks. My student, Yeong-jun, had no direct competition in his grade level, but he still managed to pull off a great well-paced delivery and won first place. This was a bright moment, otherwise clouded by one of our younger students, Na-yeon, being beaten undeservedly by a kid belly dancing!

Anna's website is now up and running, although it has a few presentational issues... click the link (or copy and paste) to see my embedded video in it's intended location:

http://www.kgcesl.com/ESL/photos.htm