Casted

Well, my leg was.

I finally got a cast on my leg, which I thought they should have done originally, but I guess they needed a orthopedic specialist to make the final judgement rather than the general doctor? The specialist actually said that I was borderline - that I might need surgery since the fracture's so big that there's actually some displacement. He also said that had I gone in immediately after I fell instead of waiting a week, they would have suggested surgery. So while it's probably going to take longer, there's hope that I don't have to get surgery done, which would be AWESOME. 

Anyway, I go back to the hospital in two weeks and they'll take another x-ray then and tell me how it looks. So hopefully I'll just heal and there won't be any complications. I can't really afford (money and time-wise) to be sitting in a hospital having surgery. That's totally going to blow my plan of when I'm leaving Korea.

Forced Diets

And I mean this in the best way possible. I sprained fractured a bone in my leg down near my ankle at the beginning of February. I was walking home with groceries and it was dark and I slipped on some ice that was *literally* outside my apartment. Like, ice on the carport connected to my apartment. I think the extra weight in my backpack and the bags in my hand contributed to the off-balancedness and thus, a cracked bone. So now I'm in a leg splint for who knows how long (wasn't paying attention when I went to the doctor the first time) and I can't go anywhere other than where I have to be (work, immigration office, hospital, etc.)

Thus, the forced diets. Yes, diets. I've been on a forced (but much needed) food diet - I haven't had any soda or pastry/bread for the last two weeks, and I've generally been eating less and snacking on less junk food. I'm also on a spending diet, since I can't go out shopping. And thus, I've been on a makeup and Lush diet. This is all perfectly fine with me, since I don't need anymore things, I need to use up what I have since I'm moving back home in the summer and need to start consolidating what I have, and I need to save money.

This has led me to start thinking about a Project 10 pan type thing, to help motivate me. And I figure, why not now, since the temptation to buy/spend is so low, since I'd rather be home than hobbling around on crutches.

Anyway, will continue with the actual products I will be finishing up later, since I'm off to my doctor's visit now. This time I'll pay attention to how long I'll be wearing the lovely leg splint.

Student Names

I've been watching You Tube a lot recently, and I started thinking about how people came up with their user names. Which then led me to thinking about student names.

As an English teacher in South Korea, I've come across some interesting 'English' names. And I put English in quotes, because I don't mean that the name itself is English or American, but just that the student uses an English word. Most of these names fall into one of these categories:

1. Food
Spaghetti
Banana

2. Famous People or Characters
Jack and Sparrow (the boy who sat next to Jack)
Conan (the Barbarian)
Kant (Emmanuel Kant?)
Bart Simpson
Pikachu
Pinocchio
Bella
Harry Potter
Voldermort

3. Random English Words
Subway (a girl)
Sniper (a girl)
Bam! (complete with the exclamation point)
Chris Look
Sky
Bloom
Felino

These are only the ones from my school. I know there are countless other kids across Korea with wacky names.

What would make a kid want to be called some of these names? I asked the kid named Spaghetti his reasoning behind this. It's like if I called myself Donkasu (Korean for fried pork cutlet). He later changed his name back to Sparrow (yes, that kid).

Some of it is from the previous teacher, though. There is a fellow teacher who once had a bunch of new students in his class. He said he was going to give them names from Star Wars. He didn't, but a couple of terms later he named the kid Conan. There was another teacher I worked with who didn't like putting last name initials or numbers by the students with the same name, so the students became Jenny Orange, Jenny Yellow, etc. after their favorite color.

Most of these students are younger or beginning speakers when they come in without an English name, or the name is a carry-over from their first time in English class. But we do have quite a few fluent or near fluent students (reading USA high school level books) who insist on strange names. This includes Banana and Subway.

I myself have only named a few students. Usually I pick out a list of 5 names that look like they would fit the student, and then they choose the final name. I try to pick names that are relatively simple (beginning English learners have trouble spelling their own name) but not just the regular David or Jenny. I've named a Violet, Kelly, and a Michael, though the Michael kid was when I first started and I didn't want to go too original on the names.

Interestingly, though, Korean kids with long names don't like to have them shortened. Michael did not like being called Mike and Andrew never answered to Andy, just to name a few.

It makes me wonder if they'll keep their English names when they become adults, especially if they need to continue using an English name. I've had students who've changed their names several times. Thinking back to my name in Spanish class (Raquel), I would definitely change Spanish names given the chance.