A Wee Moan

In a moment I'm going to give you a little update on our trip to Korea, but first I wanted to just complain for a moment.  So that I don't start a blog about our week in Korea by moaning about my first day back at school, I'm making it a separate post.

As Monday was a holiday, I was at my once-a-week visit school today.  Most of the teachers there are great but there is one particular teacher...  He is TRYING to be a stickler for correct pronunciation, but the thing is his demonstrations of 'bad Japanese pronunciation' often sound like a Kiwi accent!  I know I should just chill and ignore it, but I find it really pushes my buttons and I end up tacking on the end of his explanations 'if you want an American accent.  Or you can keep saying it your way and it's like a New Zealand accent'.  I KNOW I should shut up, but it's one of those moments where your inner voice is going 'ignore it, don't say anything, don't - oh, you just said it.'  (Tell me I'm not the only one who does that??)

I know he means well with his explanations, but it really bothers me that when there is SO MUCH to teach these kids, he wastes time on such needless things as correcting students with 'Sa TER day, not Sa TA day' (has little chuckle at the students pronunciation).  Drives me nuts because I feel like he's basically teaching the students that my accent is not acceptable.

However, it's worth noting that this is the same teacher who I mentioned on facebook as not knowing who Rilakkuma, a very common Japanese character, was.  That's like being a Westerner and not knowing who Donald Duck is (if you don't, shame on you.  Our friendship is over!).

Ok, that's all I had to moan about.  Now I'm going to endeavour to write a BRIEF account of our time in Korea.