The New Semester

The news from home is that it's Spring Break time, but last week was the first week of the semester at Kosin. I'm teaching quite a few more classes than I did last semester, but I am happy to be back with students every day. The first week made me recall my first week in the fall, when I knew nothing about Korea, the culture, Kosin's campus, the Korean language, my classes, or teaching. Granted there's still a lot that I don't know, but it was great going to classes with some idea of what is expected of me.

The best part of the first week back was recognizing the faces of my friends and students. I requested one of my classes, Senior Debate, solely because I love the senior English majors at Kosin. I recently realized that I don't know anything about debate (or how to teach it), but I'm banking on my stellar students making that a good class.

The other dandy teaching news is that I get to teach a literature class. I'm pretty much just making the class into whatever I want, since it's never been taught before. Usually foreign faculty don't teach lit because the Korean professors have graduate degrees and actually know what they're talking about. Somehow, though, I got this class (titled "English Literature with a Native Speaker"), and I am pretty stoked. Today: the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Countee Cullen. Is this thrilling anyone else?