Highlights of my Day... Wednesday, April 15

1. Got a really awesome email from one of my students who had remained shy, up until his email that is. He emailed me asking me for advice on how to improve his English but how he wrote for advice was in a manner that was very sweet and very admirable. I wrote back to him, offering him some advice and lots of encouragement. I also noted ways in which I personally try to improve my Korean, to show him that learning a language regardless of whether it’s English, Korean, or whatnot, doesn’t have to be boring or tedious.

2. Ways I try to improve my Korean:

* I watch Korean TV shows and mimic their speaking (listen and repeat).
* Everyday I write a page in my Korean journal. (This has helped me the most!!!)
[In it I write in any new words, write-out the corrections from earlier writing entries, create short conversations between friends, write-out that week’s grammar rules learned]
* The main place I practice my Korean is at boxing.
* I use my cell phone dictionary sometimes when talking to friends.
* I listen to a lot of Korean pop songs.
* Sometimes I watch Korean movies at the movie theaters (no English subtitles).
* When I watch English movies at the movie theater I try to read the Korean subtitles.
* I make it a rule to spend at least one hour a day studying Korean.
* I had a language partner but he moved to the States, am looking for a new one.
* I go to Korean tutoring once a week. It’s a three hour class where I get a lot of homework.
* I sometimes study Korean by watching Korean TV dramas.
* The Korean drama called “My Lovely Samsoon” is over but sometimes I watch it on DVD (no subtitles).
* I try to only talk Korean to Q.
* I sometimes go to Kyobo Bookstore and read Korean children’s books.
* I print out the lyrics to Korean pop songs and try to sing along.
* I sometimes write out Korean text messages sent to me so that I can dissect it.
* I occasionally print out Internet articles and read them aloud. I may not understand all that it’s about but it really helps me with my reading.
* When I first was learning how to read Korean, I use to play a racing game while in the car or on the bus. The point was to read the store signs before I passed them.
* The guys at boxing are always trying to teach me slang and sayings.
* I randomly write words I hear through out the day in my agenda.

3. In my second class on Wednesdays there’s quite a few number of students I find particularly interesting and so I always look forward to chatting with them. My White Day letter/gift student is in this class. He’s also the same student who left a dog bone for Mi Nam on my desk the other day. I had prepared a letter for him and a little birthday present for his dog. He was all smiles when I gave it to him.

4. After planning a 37-screen Power Point file specifically for the class I substituting for, they were a no-show. Correction, three students showed up, one of which came only to tell me that he couldn’t attend class today… something about a school baseball championship.

5. Headed off to boxing and slowly entered the club. Actually, it was more like I crept in, making sure Junior Mint didn’t catch me eyeing him. Then he looked up and spotted me. I didn’t know what to say and so I approached him at his desk and waited for any kind of sign. Black Skinny’s fight had been a hugely anticipated match by all of us at UP Boxing Club and so I didn’t know how Junior Mint was taking the loss. But when he looked up to me and reached out to shake my hand I was thrown off. “I’m so sorry” was all I could scrounge up to say. He reassured me that it was OK and looked quite happy considering but a loss is always hard to accept. The experience though, both Junior Mint and Black Skinny traveling to Japan for a game was such a great one, I'm sure of it. Junior Mint noted that he felt proud to see Satoshi come out to cheer Black Skinny on and also noted that Satoshi was dressed to the nines... awesome.

6. Junior Mint and I joked around a lot about him missing kimchi while in Japan. Apparently he found a restaurant that sold kimchi but it was so expensive and so it made him really miss Korea… hahaha. That’s like when I went to Canada last summer. I was so happy to visit but I really missed Korea’s spicy food, hence why I hung out in little Korea… hahaha.

7. My foot injury continues to annoy the heck out of me during training and is now more obvious than ever as it is slowing down my foot work. I talked to Milk Dud about it and his advice was to go to the hospital. It’s no longer the ball of my foot that hurts but instead it’s the ball of my foot. Is it possible to bruise a bone? Maybe the muscle or tissue around the bone is bruised. I’m curious because that’s kind of what it feels like.

8. I guess Junior Mint felt he had to make up for lost time and so tonight he was brutal during pad work. Don’t get me wrong, I love the feeling of satisfaction that comes after with pushing your self and squeezing out every last drop of energy but it’s quite challenging. No sooner had I dropped my gloves down after the third straight round but then he yelled out “last round”. Needless to say if it was ever possible to drown in your own sweat I was definitely in danger of having that happen after the last round… hahaha.

9. Q had the day off today and so he and some of his coworker buddies hired a boat captain to take them out on the ocean fishing. “Catch me a big fish!” I texted him. A big fish wasn’t exactly what he brought back for me though, it was more or less twenty some fish… hahaha. He ended up taking many of them to Junior Mint and Milk Dud at the club and then he returned to prepared me some for dinner.

10. Raw fish + lots of lefty green veggies + black rice + a little bit of white rice + garlic cloves + red pepper sauce = one smelly meal but one overly delicious meal that made even Mi Nam reach the verge of drooling… hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson