Unfortunately, I didn't get to see all three schools' festivals but I got to sit in on a lot of the rehearsals. Like this one that I snuck a terrible video of while I (pretended to) help paint the gym floor:
These two boys are hilarious. I didn't believe the girls when they told me Daehan wears an Elsa dress until I looked up and there he was on stage proudly dressed in drag and lip syncing the girl's part of an opera. The whole routine was really fun but I couldn't catch it all because I was supposed to be working.
The festival was on a Friday but it was after school so I didn't get to see it. But my English center was used as the staging area so I got to see the kids scrambling around getting into costume and stressing about props and supplies they needed. My 1st and 2nd graders were really excited to show me their costumes and came waddling into my office when they saw me, shoving their little costume paws in my face and proclaiming "Sansaengnim! I'm a cat!" "I'm a duck!" "Look, Jihyeon is a dog!" This was in a mix of Korean and whatever English word they happened to know. Sometimes I think they're so much cuter when I'm not teaching them.
Here's a snapshot of their Snow White skit.
My Tuesday school, Sangcheon's, fourth graders put on an English play about a Korean folk Tale "Heungbu and Nolbu and the Magic Gourd". I got to watch and record their rehearsal and they did amazing. Here it is (It's 15 minutes long so click at your own discretion). And, yes, Santa and the angels were absolutely a part of the original story.
One of the angel's loves speaking English and comes to me every day with a new question or phrase she's learned in an attempt to converse with me like "Can I clean your glasses for you?" "Your hair look nice!" "Do you like milk?" She's adorable. She tried to get me to guess her costume and I thought she was a witch or a flower and she got really aggravated I couldn't tell she was an angel. Whoops.
Odong's school festival was yesterday and I actually got to be in one of the performances. My fifth graders were doing the "Cup Song" by Anna Kendrick and when I told them I knew how to do the beat, their teacher immediately made me a part of the routine. I felt a little silly being the only adult but the school staff seemed excited to have the foreign teacher involved.
The kids actually knew the words better than me and it was usually me messing up the song. Dang prodigies. It helps that their teacher speaks really good English and is constantly teaching them new words outside of English class. She's a lot more interested in co-teaching than the other teachers and is super nice to work with. She's my favorite co-teacher (don't tell the others.) We have similar personalities, I think, so I don't clash with her as much as some other teachers.
I don't have a video of the performance yet but here are some pictures another teacher took and a recording of the kids singing:
I'll replace it with the video when I get my hands on it.
They might mumble a bit when the song gets to "shiver" because it sounds like the "F" word in Korean. But otherwise they did really well and the performance went without a hitch.
The day of the festival, the school had a little market. The parents came and students donated their old clothes, toys, and books, to sell to other students, parents, and teachers and all the money went towards scholarships for the kids. My deaf student, Junsu, made a point of explaining all the prices to me and showing me where to get ice cream. I find I relate to Junsu really well - I think because we both have a lot of communication barriers. We manage to talk to each other through gestures, which I do with my other kids anyway. Sue Young, my co-teacher, went to the market with me and we shared a bunch of the food items.
Parents were grilling hot dogs and tteokpokki and serving ice cream, fruit, and homemade jujube tea as well cup ramyun (which the kids spent all their coupons on). I tried some ice cream, jujube tea, fruit, and tteokpokki (which wasn't as melt-your-face-off spicy as usual so I enjoyed it more). It was awkward talking to the parents in Korean with the kids around since I try not to speak Korean around the kids and I'm embarrassed about how poorly I speak. I almost bought a little hanbok at the market for my niece but it was too small for her and too big for her little sister who's on the way. Bummer 'cause it only cost a dollar.
After the market, the festival started. I suddenly felt awkward and nervous about being on stage. I decided to take my glasses off last minute in case the stage lights made them look weird and that's all anyone would talk to me about after the performance, since I've never taken them off. Not so much the performance itself... but I think it went well.
At the end of the festival a few parents performed. One guy played some jazz on the saxophone and then a group of parents got up and performed a children's story with musical cues and narration. It was precious.
It's sad to think this is probably the last batch of school festivals I'll get to see but at least there are still winter camps and sports days to look forward to with the kids. Korea knows how to party.
Here are some miscellaneous videos I snapped during the festival (The quality is horrible, I really regret not bringing a decent camera with me to Korea):
Junsu's Magic Show
The same story as Sangcheon's 4th graders but in Korean, I only caught part before my memory ran out.
Rehearsal for the mask dance.
Wow, that was a lot of performances! Soooo cute. The speak/sing English so well they must have a master English teacher!
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