질문 있어요?

I can't count the number of times I've asked "Do you have any questions?" in class. A lot of the time I mean "Do you have any questions about today's topic/vocabulary?" but a significant portion of the time (especially at the beginning of the semester) I mean "Do you have any questions about me?"

I know that many of them are really curious about me. Korea and myself in Korea no longer seems like a novelty to me (most of the time), and so sometimes I forget that my presence is still a strange thing for my students and some of my co-workers and many of the people I see on the streets. (It's a little weird to feel like you belong somewhere when you're seen as out-of-place by nearly everyone around you.)

I always answer personal questions when the students ask me. I've lost so many of my boundaries. As previously mentioned: if putting my insecurities on display makes my students more excited about learning, then I'll put them on a goddamn poster. The things that make me feel insecure have been on a goddamn poster for a long time. There's not a lot I won't tell my students to gain their attention (though I'll admit that I lie to them about some questions [e.g. "Why aren't you married?"] out of self-preservation).

And the students are curious about me, still - I learned that today. I stayed at school about an hour past the time I'm allowed to leave to prepare for speaking tests next week, and 5 of my students ran to catch up to me on the way to the bus stop and had so many questions.

They were really good questions, too, like "Live in Korea is hard?" "Why come to our school?" "Teaching our school students is difficult?"

I told them I love living in Korea (I thought that was common knowledge by now). I told them teaching students at our school is sometimes hard because the students talk loudly in Korean and I have to yell. I told them I didn't have a choice about which school I was assigned to, but that I am really happy that I was assigned to Seoul Electronics High School.

They told me about dance club, which is why they were staying late at school too. At the school festival (which happens SOMETIME) they will perform this dance. "Heartbeat" was all the rage amongst my students during the deep winter months/is sometimes still all the rage. I told them I'm excited to see them perform - that's true.

We all took the bus together to Sadang and then they waited for me while I recharged my Hello Kitty subway card and then we all took the green line west together. I was so impressed with their English and all the things they managed to talk to me about, I couldn't figure out why they'd never approached me before. Three of them were 1st graders, that's easy - they've only known me for 3 weeks. But 2 of them were 2nd graders (I don't teach them this year, they told me they miss me), they've known me for 7 months.

My stop was first, and they actually said "Please don't go" as I prepared to get off the subway. I wouldn't make that up.

I wonder what made them decide to approach me today. I wonder how the 3 1st graders will act when I see them in class again next week - quiet as usual? or newly confident about their English (which sometimes seems to happen)?

I'll definitely get on their nuts more in and out of class now that I know what they're capable of.