So this is the new year

The new school year has started in Sparkling (read: sparkling with raindrops) Korea, and so I am being treated to new kids, new teachers, new attitudes, new ways of being totally unable to communicate!

Friday marks the end of the first week of the new school year, and really, I am spending great amounts of mental power trying to will it closer. It's been a long week. An intelligent change to the schedule means that each foreign teacher spends time with 2 classes, instead of bouncing back and forth like a native-speaking ball between sometimes 5 different classes on any given day. However! My classes are Gentle (6 year olds who have no English learning experience) and Sunny (5 year olds, also they tell me that 'juice' is their favorite color). They are cute, to be sure, but it gets a little frustrating when my VERY ANGRY TEACHER FACE AND GENERAL DEMEANOR OF EXTREME IRRITATION are met with giggles.

This is the lowest of the low-level, people. I am nostalgic after four days for the call of 'teacher, what?' when a student's soul is troubled. 'Teacher, what?' seems like beautiful prose to my tired ears. I need to get used to the fact that these kids probably don't even understand the concept of Korean and English being two different languages. I get treated to cute and desperate lines of questioning each day, where a kid is trying to tell me that they can't find their older sister, or they'd really prefer to color with a red crayon thanks very much, or could they please have more curry. I can't answer them, and I can only understand enough to gather that something's pretty darned wrong, or that they really need to hit up the sshi post-haste.

So, hopefully, each child is in fact a super-genius, and they're gonna learn at least the basics, like, tomorrow.