Eager Much?

Looking back I suddenly realized that I had been a very eager/aggressive girl in the way that I do the silliest, stupidest things for the sake of a boy. In grade school, I did things like spying on my boy-crush with a little mirror stuck at the back of my sharpener, or practicing a song within his earshot (I was in the school choir), or writing a letter to this high school boy I liked, pretending to be a girl named Jereah and asking if we could be pen pals. And yes, I mailed it to his house—-don’t ask me how I got his address.

After the Storm

It was Christine Reyes who saved me.

Final Words

When I told you what was wrong, you were supposed to say you’d make it right.
When I said I would go, you were supposed to stop me.
When I walked away, you were supposed to go after me.

I held on to you for so long. Now I know how easily you can let me go.

What A Teacher Has In Life

Eye Bags and Aegyo-sal

A co-worker asked “So, how old are you?”

“24.”

“Ahhh.”

“Are you married? Any children?”

“Nope. Haggard lang po.”  (Nope. Just plain haggard.)

Sigh.

I was 8:30 am and I was in a 7-11 store wearing my best just-rolled-off-the-bed look when a guy from school suddenly appeared, pinched my cheek, and loudly said “Ang laki ng eye bags mo ah!” (Hey, your eye bags are huge!”)

Sigh.  I was born with eye bags. I like to think they’re aegyo-sal.

***

Pictures

I have a stolen picture—right-clicked it from someone’s Facebook account and saved it in my flash drive that I, for some reason, hang around my neck these days.  In the picture is an old lady celebrating her birthday (she’s a nonagenarian) and flocking around her is her daughter, son-in-law, and seven grandchildren.  It was a happy picture, but the first time I looked at it I was reduced to a tearful, giggling mess.

In the picture was my father. And my five older half-brothers. And my two younger half-sisters.

Now, just a short background, I have never met my father and had not known how he looked like until the day I found that picture. I just knew it was him, don’t ask me why.  Perhaps those soap opera scenarios do happen in real life.

I was giggling because he looked like Super Mario (honestly.)  He also looked like how my brother Martin would look when he’s fifty. (So brother dear, don’t grow a moustache, ever.) 

Now, in my Facebook account, I uploaded photos of me growing up, labeled according to how old I was in the picture, and I have one for almost every year of my life.

Maybe, just maybe, somebody would like to steal pictures of me, too.

The Online Classroom

If you have been reading here for a while, you know very well what I do for a living: I teach English to Korean students.  From 2006 until last June I worked in a company in Makati that offers Telephone English classes to its clients.  A month ago I started in another company in Alabang, and this time our classes are carried out online.  Ready with my headset and webcam, I sit in front of my office computer communicate with people a time zone away.

This kind of job has been steadily gaining popularity, and a great deal of call center people are leaving the stress of the BPO industry for the more relaxed atmospheres of online teaching centers. With the pay being almost the same or sometimes even greater, I understand why.

Teaching English online can be office-based, or home-based.  If you want to teach at home all that is required is a good internet connection, and of course the ability to communicate in English with a neutralized accent.

The system is very simple: the people over there in Korea take care of the marketing and liaison, and the teachers here just wait for a name to appear on their schedules.  In an 8-hour shift, teachers can be assigned a maximum of 12 twenty-minute classes here in my company.  The remaining time is of course used for class preparation: lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations. Teachers receive a basic salary and receive additional monetary incentives depending on the number of students.

For home-based teachers, the number of students would depend on one’s availability. The bulk of students is usually between 5:00-9:00am and 5:00-11:00pm Philippine time.  The only downside of home-based teaching is that the pay depends on how many students a teacher has, and how many classes are conducted within a pay period.

Many classes are conducted using Skype, but the company I belong to uses special software (pictured above.)  Both the student and teacher can write, type, or doodle on the screen using the mouse or a light pen.

The lessons and teaching materials differ from company to company. Only the objective is the same: to allow the students to express themselves in English and communicate with someone who speaks the language because in their native country, they have very little opportunity to do so.

Teardrops On My Guitar

Miraculously I found myself some free time and this is the result of the boredom.  I dunno why, when I talk to my students I pride myself in being so clearly understood all the time, but when I sing the words don’t come out right.