Zeb CP#7

    Wednesday afternoon (the 31^st) I met with Haneul and her friend Min Hyoung when I was done with my classroom observations. We ended up having more of a conversation and cultural type meeting, so I decided to label it as CP rather than TP. I was explaining how the tutoring partner and conversation partner program works from the viewpoint of the TEFL students, including some of the ways I feel that it has helped me, as well as some of the difficulties.

    As we began our meeting we were walking over to the Star Bucks at the campus library, but when we got there we found it was sort of crowded and noisy. We tried going outside, but it was very hot and humid, so we went back inside and just dealt with the noise.

    One of the interesting things we discussed early in our meeting was the issue of names: Min Hyoung said that he wants to come up with an English name to go by because he has some worries that people may have feelings of discrimination toward him when they hear a very Korean sounding name. Haneul wants him to go by the name 'Jeff' (for some reason she seems to really like that name), but he doesn't seem to share her opinion.... We had a discussion about names and how they sometimes can be difficult when we want to interact with those of another language. I suggested that if Min Hyoung feels he needs to get a more 'English' name he could get a name book (I explained that there are books full of names and their meanings that parents will sometimes use to help them decide on names for their babies) and pick out a name that he likes.

    After the discussion about names our conversation moved on to talk about South Korea: Haneul and Min Hyoung were both describing some of the merits of teaching English in South Korea and trying to convince me that maybe I should consider going there instead of Costa Rica. They mentioned that there are many English teachers who specialize in the TOFL, but very few teachers who specialize in the SAT, in spite of a large demand and enormous financial gain. They said that there are SAT prep schools that charge students $5000 per month, and a popular SAT prep teacher may make $10000 or more per month. Min Hyoung mentioned that his mother had been a popular teacher who received very high pay, but she overworked herself and lost her health. Haneul stated that she realizes that everything has a cost, even having a good job and making lots of money. At some point in this conversation I heard the term 'hearing something by mothers' mouth', and figured out by the context what they meant by it. I explained that it is correctly said using the term 'word of mouth'. I'm not sure if the Korean counterpart of the English saying contains something about a mother or what.

    I also spent some time explaining the details of buying and registering a car in the U.S., since Haneul was going to be buying a car in the coming days. I looked online and found a list of the requirements in the state of Florida, as well as the local county offices.