A Dialogue.

[I walk into my last class of the day to see two scowling boys sitting at the table]

Me: Hello Danny and Roy! How are you doing today?

Danny: Bad. Very bad.

[Roy just gives me the evil eye]

Me: Why are you having a bad day?

Danny: Because you are here! I hate English! I hate Kid’s College!

Me: Well, for hating English you sure speak it well.

Danny: No! I am very bad at English!

Me: Okay then.

[After much cajoling and threatening I make the boys take out their writing books. Danny does his sentences reluctantly but well. Roy continues to give me the evil eye and sits with his pencil by his book.]

Me: Roy, you need to finish your sentences or I’ll take stickers from you.

Roy: [in an awful whiny voice that sounds like a cat is dying] NOOO!

Me: Then do your sentences.

[Roy continues to dawdle. I walk over to the sticker chart and remove one.]

Roy: AAAAAAAH! Okay! Okay! [throws his pencil against the wall] I hate English!

Me: If you hadn’t been angry all this time you could have finished the sentences by now and we could have played a game.

Roy: Too much work!

Me: Life is work!

Danny: No! Life is play!

Me: Yeah. Right.

I have these two boys at the end of every day and I swear it’s like pulling teeth for two hours every day. They mutter awful threats in Korean and scream and throw pencils and spit water on the floor when they’re angry. When they’re happy they’re quite pleasant. I talk to Roy about his trip to Europe, they teach me about Korean food and share their candy with me. How they feel is an incredibly random event. One minute they’ll be fine and the next they’re screaming how much they hate me. I’m learning how to become Zen about it… although today I was pretty much on a warpath. Oh the joys of teaching.