Introducing My New Host Family

As I previously mentioned, I moved to a new homestay this year. My homestay family from last year was great but due to some personal reasons, they chose not to host again this year. Oddly enough, the host family I was placed with was the one that hosted the other ETA last year. And over the past few months, they make me feel at home in their house.

So its time to introduce my new host family!

Let's start with the parents, Lucia and Chan.

Lucia has everyone use her English name which I thought was odd at first but I've gotten used to now.

Lucia is a sweet woman who is constantly worrying about everything, trying to make sure everything is good and everyone is happy. Her English is really good so I can actually speak to my host family this year. She is so interested in foreign culture and she loves to talk to me about what I think about one thing or another. She is also happy to hang out with me whenever.

Chan is an awesome dad. Right now he is on leave from work as a farmer, so he is taking care of the kids full time. He works so hard all the time and he is so sweet with the kids. Sitting down every night with the older two to work on homework or extra studying. He is a quiet man and likes to read especially non-fiction.

The oldest kid is Gaeun. She is about to finish third grade. She is so sweet. She is a really happy kid who loves to read and draw and speak English with me, and shes into fashion. Just like with her brothers, she loves to sing, and sing very loudly. She is just getting into the age where she wants to hand out with her friends after school and on the weekends. She is like a second mom to the boys too. She is a really good older sister.

The middle boy is Jeong-Hyeon. He is the quintessential middle child. Always craving attention. He loves to dance and sing and put on a show to anyone who will watch. He is still young, he will enter first grade next year, but he is not interested in school in the least. I have a theory that he would make a great comedian when he grows up.

The youngest is Gang-Hyeon. He is just barely three years old and still a baby and so cute. He's really young so he doesn't have too much of a personality beyond just being a really happy child. I feel really blessed to be watching him grow up. He's so cute. Gahh.

Lantern Festival in Seoul

Anyone who knows me, knows I love lanterns and lights and all that stuff. Or if you've read my post from the Jinju Lantern Festival last year, I traveled for hours just to get to that festival for one night to see those lights.


When I learned that there was a lantern festival in Seoul, I had to go. I just wanted to see the beautiful lights and everything again. And Seoul is a lot closer than Jinju. I traveled around a bit in the hours before I got to the festival, and I was very surprised when I actually arrived. The festival was along the Cheonggyecheon Stream, a man-made stream in the heart of Seoul. Because of this, it was very cramped, and you couldn't stand too long at any one lantern. It was missing some of the grandness I had seen at the Jinju lantern festival. I think it might be better if they did this festival on the Han river. It's much bigger.

The floats were nice though. Each one showed some sort of history or represented a story, either Korean or foreign. There was a whole section of lanterns from stories that any American child would immediately recognize. It was also a lot shorter than I expected it to be, but I'm still glad I went. It was beautiful too.

Question of The Week: How I Get My Students To Engage Outside of Class

During my first fall conference in 2018, I thought of a new way to get to know my students a little more and get them to engage in writing in English outside of class.

Question of the week.

I'm sure this sounds silly, but it works. Well...usually.

Every Friday, I post a question for the next week. They are never Yes or No questions. Sometimes they are really simple, like "What's your favorite color" or a little harder, like "What's your favorite part about winter?"

The easier questions tend to get more answers, but I always get some.

The reward for this is at the end of each week, I will put the names of all the students who participated in a digital roulette wheel (one for each class), and I spin it. The winner gets to pick a piece of candy out of my candy box. The candy box is something I pay for on my own. I stock it with M&M's, lollypops, gummies, etc. Bigger candies to make them excited.

Some of my students are really excited about this and will answer every week, some have never answered in the year and a half I've been doing this, but it is fun nonetheless. They get so excited to see their names on the wheel.

I have had trouble with the students not putting their names on the paper or their class numbers, so I've had some bummed kids who thought they were going to be on the wheel but weren't, but they learn, and they remember next week.

(Not So) Casual Hike With The School

As I said recently, I had an unusual Halloween this year.  Just like last year, I dressed up as a witch during school and gave out candy to my students, but I didn't do a Halloween themed lesson. Unlike last year, I had decided they wanted to go on a hike. But this hike was unlike any other hike I have been on.

Now I've been on "hikes" that were just walking around a path, and I've been on hikes that were going up a mountain, with a small climbing section.

I have never been on a "hike" like this.

This was not a hike. This was a climb.

I was told beforehand that we were going to the most famous (i.e. tallest) mountain in Hwacheon and to wear comfortable clothes and hiking boots. I was thinking, cool, this is an excuse to wear a sweatshirt and leggings. Which I did. And looking back, I am so thankful that I did because if I had worn jeans like I was originally planning, I would have been in trouble.

Literally, the beginning of this hike was knees-to-chest level hiking. There were stairs and at some points these orange bars that were fixed into the stone as a literal ladder up the mountain.

Now I am not the most athletic, and with a bad ankle, I knew I wasn't going to last too long, but I didn't want to give up. I ended up at the back of the pack, but I was going to keep going. Slow and steady right?

Well...I tried.

I will admit, I didn't make it all the way to the top. There were three summits, I was told afterward, and I did make it to the first one. It was actually a really nice view, but it would have been better if the air quality was better.  I think if I had a few hours and as many breaks, as I wanted, I could have made it all the way to the top, but I was with the school and felt like I should just move down the mountain before everyone else came back down and caught up with me.

After the hike, we drove to a quaint little restaurant that just barely fit all the staff members in it and ate. I was so tired and sore that night...

I'm glad I went, but I was not prepared for that. It will definitely be a memory that I have for a long time.