Smart Kids

It's difficult to gauge another's intelligence when there's a language barrier.  We know a lot of our kids are smart as whips, but because they can't speak their mind in a language I understand well, it's tough to see.  When we first got here, I found it easy to forget about the language dynamics and to just assume that these kids simply didn't have a lot on their minds.  But, as I get to know my students, I've realized that many of them are amazing little people.  I hope they go somewhere far from this little city where they can put their minds to work.

I had a few extra minutes in my Basic 3 class today, so I let the kids play hangman.  One of my new students, Bryan (a brilliant, pint sized guy in ice blue glasses) was the last to go.  The word he chose was long, and the class hung the stickman before they got very far.  "Neuschwanstein," he said with a Germanic intonation, "It's German."  "I'll take your word for it," I said.  Google later proved him right.

Later, in my Essential 1 class, one of my favorite students (Ann) was shifting between whistling and singing in class.  She began with a pop song and when the only boy (Christian) in the class, a little irritated, said something to her in Korean, she abruptly switched to whistling Canon.  It was hilarious and surprising as her rendition was really good. I asked her if she played an instrument and she said no.  By the way, this guy is also South Korean (you may remember this video from 2005):

We had left over lentils for lunch today, so we decided to cook them with sweet potaoes and have it over rice.  When Ian cut open the potato he was met with a little surprise:

Purple! We had intended to buy regular sweet potatoes, but these were delicious.

They looked nice cooking with the lentils.  We added cilantro at the end.  It was beautiful and delicious.

I dropped by our little mart on my way home to pick up some milk for the pasta sauce I was going to make (it was a white sauce with peppers, it turned out pretty well).  The expiration dates were all 12/22, so I picked up a little one.

Secreted from milk cows?  Interesting.  On a side note, will this milk give me a tan?

Well, Ian and I are going to settle in and catch up on The Office and Heroes.  Good night!