Not Too Old to be Taken Over the Knee... Monday, January 10

Snickers is a bad student, straight up.

I tried the whole Adam Sandler/Billy Madison teacher thing, bribing him with play time if he were to study hard and finish his English work. He ended up being all play and no work.

He seems to think that his cuteness and tender kisses will distract him from the reality of the situation. And the reality of the situation is that he's still only on page 5 of an English textbook I bought him a year ago (it doesn't actually start until page 3). More importantly though, on New Year's Day we walked in about a dozen different stores, looking for the perfect daily writing book for him. He promised to write English in it everyday if I helped him with it. He's three days behind in it and we're only ten days into the new year.

As for my little Mini Koreans I privately tutor at Ggum Guum, I shocked the socks on the one when I told him today that I thought he was a bad student. "But my English is good" he responded with. He may speak English well for his age but I don't care for his strange prince-like manners. He knows I tutor his little friend, the boy who lives next door and whose English is much lower than his, so he's always comparring himself to him, asking me who is better and whatnot. I usually am able to circle around his questions and not answer them but today I wanted to give him some food for thought when he asked me why I gave the other boy some cookies and not him.

"I save the good, big cookies for the good, big boys" I told him and with that he huffed.

Snickers and I have labelled this particular boy as being the Ggum Guum Prince (Prince G.G.) because he freaks out at the sight of Mi Nam's fur on his socks and insists on picking it all off before he starts and ends the lesson. He insists on doing all his work over again if it's not neat or doesn't look "pretty", and heaven help you tell him that his answer is wrong. Sometimes I am convinced I'm the only one who has ever said no to him.

As for the boy who lives next door who I also tutor and who'll I will now refer to him as the Little Cookie Monster, his English can't compete with that of Prince G.G. but his manners and his efforts are very admirable. He struggles with reading, can't seem to remember his English name, and his writing is hardly legable but he tries hard and I don't have to repeat myself with him.

Snickers is convinced the Little Cookie Monster has a bit of a crush on me because two days in a row now he's randomly walked into my house to bring me grape-filled choco pies. I was sleeping on the floor when he first did this. He walked right in, approached me on the floor and then tapped me on the shoulder. I'm not too sure as to whether it's a little crush or the fact that he's "love hungry" and afraid to stay home. He always shows up extra early for tutoring and getting him to leave sometimes means literally picking him up and putting him in the doorway. Living next door to him means I hear way too much of what goes on in his apartment and now that he's a student of mine, it really drives me crazy to hear his father yelling at him and to hear him crying practically every day. I've never met a kid who cries so much and it's weird too cause when he's at my house he's full of giggles. He's always trying to randomly tickle me and he smiles every time I pretend to punch him in the bum. I laughed the other day when he tried to color a picture using two hands so now he insists on coloring in this fashion all the time.

I really want his parents to show some kind of interest in his homework so I told him he had to get one of them to sign his homework sheet once he finished his work. He keeps on showing up minus a needed signature so the other day I frowned at him and told him that I am sad when he doesn't try hard for me. Well, today he showed up and low and behold his homework sheet was signed. In a little box no bigger than 2x2cm, there was scribbled the signatures of his mother, father, grandmother, and uncle.

Now if only I could get Snickers to be as eager and hardworking as the Little Cookie Monster.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What kind of student were you in school?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
-- Abigail Adams