Edu-tainment

I just finished a two hour class and I was a big hit with my students. Is that a good thing?

I teach at a university far from Seoul. That's a sort of euphemism; In Korea, Seoul is the sun-source of education and my university is in the wintry distance. To be charitable, Pusan and a few other big cities have good universities but they are even further away. Anyway, this is a lower tier university, a school of last resort. There are a few strong departments - and if a student is reading this, you must belong to one of the stronger ones (I hope that keeps my foot out of my mouth), but only a few.

I see each class once a week and I don't feel that anyone can learn a language once a week. I emphasize that students must practice away from class and my big goal in class is to make English clear and fun. To make it clear, I use a lot, an awful lot, of body language and really ham up the emotions. This makes my teaching style almost indistinguishable from a comedy act- perhaps not a great comedy act. I think I do a good job of modeling the grammar and the conversations but does the humor overwhelm the lesson?

I do notice that my stronger classes laugh more and seem to enjoy the class more than my weaker, Bump-On-A-Log classes. I hope that if they understand enough to laugh, they are learning.

Well, we'll see tomorrow. I have three BOAL classes - and one good one (notice my foot-out-of-mouth skills!)