Private Lessons!

I am excited to report that I now have a new class to add to my schedule. Well New student really. Kim Too He, was at another academy for one year and though she is a young student she was far behind where she could be in her English skills. So Her parents got fed up with her other Hagwon and sent her to Kim Eun Hye for some one on one lessons. Well since I have a break period on MWF, Grace asked me if I would be willing to help work with her one on one to help improve her basic english skills ( we are talking ABC's here people) so she could soon join the other class I teach of beginners.

I was sad to lost some planning time but excited to take on the challenge, and could not say no because she is absolutely Adorable!

So I began my work with her this week, and I really feel a special Bond with her. Though she speaks almost no english and cannot even recodnize most of the letters I can see that even with just three lessons together she is making leaps and bounds in her pronunciation and her recodnition of the letters and sounds.

Monday we focused on ABC, which she got right away, but I was suprised that she could remember the words apple and alligator, but not ant.... Those must have been remnants of the previous lessons at her other school.

Wednesday, I was suprised to hear her say loud adn clearly " Elephant" but have trouble with egg... and by friday I realized she really on got as far as G before she began having trouble... Those B's and G's sound alike, and she just needed some special attention to help clarify the difference.

I really enjoyed working just us, so we can pick our own pace. Her Victorys are my victories and her failures somehow become mine too.

Today with the word gorilla and girl... she had trouble and they began to sound like the same word... "Girrillla"... but with my patience and her hard work we acomplished a difference, and then with no problem she proudly stated the words Hippo and Hat... no problem...

She is getting better and better, and that makes me happy. Hopefully my work with her will help her advance enough so she can stay in my Phonics class by the end of December.

Another fun part of working with a brand new student to Kim Eun Hye is that you get to name them... yes Kim Too He is her Korean name and I got to help pick out an American name for her... So I made a list that included every female in America I knew.

Lindsey, Amanda, Kyra, Candace, Caroline, Nancy, Carol, Anne, Sara, Teresa, Emily, Meagan, Kathleen, Connie, Kristy, Kelly ( last name) Julie and Julia ( I love that book!)

and also a few names I thought were cool

Allegra, Alice, Jane, Lisa, Hanna, Anna, Sophia, Zoe and Bella ( Twilight!)

So with much confusion on the first day I thought she picked Allegra... which I thought was cool. I like that name even though it had a terrible nickeloden kids show called Allegra's window....

But much to my suprise, I found out friday, she and her mother had met with Grace on thursday to access my work so far ( apparently in two days I had done much better than her last academy), and Graced and her ended up picking another name alltogether... Now that she understood what all those names on the paper meant.... and it changed to another name on my list... which is good because she had a hard time saying Allegra... ( maybe she was pointing to the one she didn't want, i have no clue)

But my student is now named Carol.... After Joseph's Aunt or Amanda's old roomate's cat... (haha) one of the two. I am actually really glad she picked Carol... it is very fitting. She is so sweet and always has a smile so she reminds me alot of Joseph's Aunt Carol!

When the school year changes at the end of the year we will get new students and I will get to help name them too... adn don't worryt I am going to guide them to pick names of people I know then as well, so stay tuned to see if your name gets picked!

(I saw the list that they had written on so it was a close call between Julie, Lindsey and Carol, but Carol had the final say and picked the one she liked the best!)

So for now, that is all, and Congrats to Carol for having the best name out of many to one little Korean girl!