ESL Stories You NEVER knew Before

 Hanaking for the japanese. Bulgem for koreans.  Literally means "Fire Friday". I will never forget how happy my students' face were whenever I said those phrases. T.G.I.F. as we, ESL Teachers, say to our students or even to each other every Friday. However, some crazy party goers change TGIF to D.B.I.F. which stands for Drink Beer, It's Friday. I personally love Fridays because Mondays to Thursdays are quite exhausting. In our school before, Mondays to Thursdays were my busy days because I needed to teach from 8am to 5pm. If I had special classes, it would take me until 8pm to finish. However, every Friday, it seemed like the atmosphere was not too heavy. Even if I had to teach for eight hours, it was not that exhausting at all.. Maybe because I was looking forward to Friday nights or weekends, as much as I look forward to Pay Day. Koreans and Japanese university students love having a party every Friday night. If you have seen in kdramas or in jdramas how their part...

"People who love to eat are always the best people."  I do not know if it is just a mere coincidence, but most restaurants that I have been to where I read this quote on the wall often serve good food.   Aside from the diverse culture and traditions that I have learnt from teaching ESL learners, their love for food will always be notable for me. Korean food is loved by many filipinos as much as we love korean dramas. In this blog, I would like to share my journey in discovering korean food. While many people meet korean food through watching kdramas, I met them as I teach korean students. First was Kimchi. I had only seen it in kdramas and judging by its look, I did not like it at first.  One day, we went to a Diner just near the school we used to teach to have dinner. My friend who was also my co-teacher could not contain happiness when he saw this red colour radish with strange smell for me and smiled like a child after having a bite, but I, who found the taste str...

I am writing this blog without any intention to reveal someone, but I just want to remember and express how grateful I am to have met such a wonderful person. My second story for my blog is about Apong Yoji. (Apong means: Grandpa).  He belonged to my very first batch of students as an ESL teacher of one company in the Philippines. I do not remember exactly how old he was when I met him, but he was quite old, I think in early or mid 70s. My first question to him when I met him was that why he wanted to study English. "I want to learn English now that I am old, because I could not do it when I was younger." That answer stuck in my head. While some people easily quit in doing what they want to do, there he was, The Apong Yoji who wanted to do what he wanted to do while he was alive. Every December, he would go back to the school and study. The reason (this is according to him) He wants to skip winter in Japan. I was touched and learned a lot through his life story. He used to se...

 Perks of being an ESL Teacher: Sometimes, you can meet good-looking students who can make your day and be a reason why you want to go to work everyday. It happened during my first year on the ESL company I worked in when I was still in the Philippines. (I was a stay-in teacher, it's one of many perks being a Full-Time teacher).  Aaaahm.. Let's call him Shu.(Not his real name). He is very weird and it seems like he has his own world all the time. He doesn't have a lot of friends and often hangs out alone. During his free time, I often saw him sitting down on one corner in a play area, reading some stuff. At night, I see him through the window glass of the study area, and he often stayed there until midnight. He seems like a good student right? Well.. was he a good student? partly. I was 20 at that time, and he was 19. At first, I did not think of him a lot. He was boring, and did not want to speak. When I asked him a question, he would give me a very short response. Well, m...