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poor thing
Aug. 5th, 2003 07:13 pmToday I started teaching a korean girl called Liz (not sure what her real korean name is yet).... but really I don't want to teach her because I don't want her to be in England at all.
It seems that a lot of Korean (and other east asian) students from well-off families are often sent to schools in England so they can become well versed in the language and go to an English university. I've taught a couple of kids who are from the same situation. Liz is only here for a month, at which point she returns to an international school in Brighton.
She's staying with a host family, by which I mean a dear old lady who feeds her and offers her a room. As it's out of term time there isnt anyone around at college and the classes are one on one tuition. It sounds like hell to me - I'd have gone nuts if my parents had sent me to some foreign country where I had no chance of making any friends just so I could learn a little more than other kids my age.
What's more.... she's 14.
14 years old and is being denied a summer holiday with her friends back home. I'm sorry, but education or no it's prison for someone that age - she has nothing in her life but classes. She's also 14 inthe way that *I* remember 14 (korea being more conservative and traidional, kids are often still kids at that age) - she actually used the phrase "no-one to play with". I haven't heard a teenager say that in a very long time.
So, I've decided to teach an alternative curriculum... something that she might actually enjoy enough to occupy her evenings a little and not just make her cry herself to sleep every night. She's a darling thing too - incredibly well mannered and pretty. A delight to teach, but I just want her to be at home with her friends.
It seems that a lot of Korean (and other east asian) students from well-off families are often sent to schools in England so they can become well versed in the language and go to an English university. I've taught a couple of kids who are from the same situation. Liz is only here for a month, at which point she returns to an international school in Brighton.
She's staying with a host family, by which I mean a dear old lady who feeds her and offers her a room. As it's out of term time there isnt anyone around at college and the classes are one on one tuition. It sounds like hell to me - I'd have gone nuts if my parents had sent me to some foreign country where I had no chance of making any friends just so I could learn a little more than other kids my age.
What's more.... she's 14.
14 years old and is being denied a summer holiday with her friends back home. I'm sorry, but education or no it's prison for someone that age - she has nothing in her life but classes. She's also 14 inthe way that *I* remember 14 (korea being more conservative and traidional, kids are often still kids at that age) - she actually used the phrase "no-one to play with". I haven't heard a teenager say that in a very long time.
So, I've decided to teach an alternative curriculum... something that she might actually enjoy enough to occupy her evenings a little and not just make her cry herself to sleep every night. She's a darling thing too - incredibly well mannered and pretty. A delight to teach, but I just want her to be at home with her friends.
