Eyes on the prize

I'm sitting in the library at Aviation University, about a 20-minute bus ride from Shinchon. This campus is small and isolated. This area is quite rural, though it's such a short distance from the city. The quiet location reminds me of Morrisville College, which I attended for two years in upstate New York. The buildings are very modern, so this may be a relatively young insitution. I've come out here with Yoon Young, one of my students, who is a chemical engineering senior and has a pretty busy schedule, including 10 hours of study just for today. I'm using his laptop while he's attending a two-hour English resume-writing class in the next building.

The Korean workaholic concept is more than just a stereotype here. Many of these folks work like crazy, whether they want to or not. One of Yoon Young's friends just told me over lunch outside that the TOEIC English exam, which virtually all Korean students wanting a good job must take, focuses strongly on the technical aspects of grammar but does not function as a accurate measure of the student's actual English-speaking ability. He said, in so many words, we're studying, but we're not having enough opportunities to speak. I agree with this young man (whose spoken English, by the way, was impressive), but how do I begin to respond to something like this?

Yesterday after one of my writing classes, one of my favorite students told me very plainly how she found the writing assignments cumbersome and boring and, subsequently, was having some difficulty motivating herself to do the work. Her remark surprised me as she is one of my best students and her essays are better than most of those I've had to grade. I don't know if I agree that the assignments are that difficult--then again, being a native English speaker, I might not have an accurate concept of how difficult the assignment would be for the students. I do agree that some of the assignments are not very exciting. However, being a representative of the school at which you teach, you have to watch you say and what you agree with. I told her that the best way to motivate herself was to remember her goals of English fluency and to always be mindful of those goals when having to walk through the rudimentary elements of learning a language, which are seldom exciting for most people. This is the way to motivate myself with Korean, which frustrates me on a regular basis. Steve Kaufmann has written about the importance of visualizing oneself communicating fluently in the target langauge, however far off that day may be. It's basically keeping your eyes on the prize. That works for me.

I find that I often refer to my own Korean study in my classes--for example, I'll say, "When I'm studying Korean, I do ABC and XYZ, and in same way you should do ABC and XYZ with your English study." My students, who are often shocked that I would even have an interest in learning Korean, really respond to this type of thing. It's not that I necessarily want to talk about my study and my activity all the time with students, but it definitely seems to motivate them.

Right now I'm supposed to be grading papers and I'm still typing away, ha ha. The reason I started this blog entry was because while checking my e-mail I was pleasantly surprised to receive a message from a family in Pennsylvania with whom I haven't communicated in a few years. A mutual friend of ours informed them of my venture, and they visited this blog and responded to my post yesterday about my crisis. It was such a wonderfully encouraging message that I'd like to reprint part of it here. Much thanks to the Hageman family...

"The crisis thing is thoroughly understood. The best way to combat this (I've found) is to exercise faith in (the fact) that you're walking in the Lord's will for your life, and that's all that He requires.

"You can't look around at what others have or are experiencing at your age or it'll cause some emotional suffering. Keep your eyes fixed on what the Lord has provided! It's what He wants you to have right now.

"Another weapon to use against this type of crisis is to keep in mind that this life is only a temporary thing--much like your stay in Korea (unless the Lord's will would be ultimately for you to stay there). Our real home is spending eternity in heaven, so your labors of love for the Lord are going before you and your retirement plan is truly OUT OF THIS WORLD.

"We'll be praying that the Lord will help you rest in His will for your life. Keep your eyes fixed on Him! He's the same yesterday, today, and forever!!!"

Wonderful. Back to work...