The word blog is one of the many thousands added to the English language during the recent twenty years of the digital era. It was coined by putting two existing words, web and log, together (which by then had little to do with spiders and woods) and then cleverly splicing the new creation into we blog. Or, for you, grammar lovers, by merging the two nouns in the noun phrase web log and reinterpreting it as a clause, we blog. To log means to keep a regular record of something and I wish I could say that about myself. On the contrary, my last entry was a shameless five months ago. The reason why I am logging behind (well, it's actually lagging behind, and don't ask me why not legging behind, which seems to make most sense) is not that there was nothing to log. Just the opposite -- a lot of things have happened in and outside of the classroom.
Let's start with the babies. If the class still has only 28 seats, it has certainly grown in other dimensions. In May, Oanh Le gave birth to her son Johnathan Thai (top right). She brought him to class the other day. He was calm and composed just like his mother ... until he woke up. Oanh had been offered a job as an office aide at our school, but her maternal responsibilities did not allow her to accept it. Undeterred, she took a placement test at Mesa College and scored right into ENG101! Kyunghee and Daegeun Kim's son Chanho Benedict (middle right) was born in July. We knew exactly when it happened because that day Daegoon, always very diligent, did not come to class. Congratulations! And just before Thanksgiving, Muynghuyn Kim became a proud father of baby girl Jena Sooyeon (bottom right). The mom and the baby are doing great, and so is the father, who in the few weeks before the baby's arrival had passed the life guard exam and the driver's license exam. Way to go, Myunghyun! |
Changing the focus, many of our students have moved to college or started graduate programs. Maher Alhaja, who is now at Mesa College studying for his associate degree in Chemistry and preparing to transfer to Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSD, had dashed through the ACE2 program and in July was already on the Dean's Honor List with a GPA of 4.0. Biology, Chemistry, Anthropology, Math, or English? Piece of cake. He aced them all. Huichu Hsu sent us a long letter from Niskayuna, NY, where she is now in a master's program in Teaching at Union Graduate College and preparing for the New York State Teacher Certification Exam to teach Chinese in K-12. Heyeon Kim and Shuyi Zan started the master's program in Accounting at San Diego State University, and I am sure they are also acing the classes.
Many other students have moved on to the professional world. Lourdes Brewer is very busy teaching Spanish at a private school in San Diego. Yoshi Okamoto and his wife Reiko continue their affiliation with the San Diego Humane Society, serving as foster parents to rescued dogs. So far, they have helped thirteen dogs: Athena, Teddy, Sizzle, Rheba, Razor, Luna, Pumba, Cooper, Cookie, Cami, Cotton, Nilla, and Lulu. Talk to them if you think you may be able to adopt a dog. Atsuko Matsumura has successfully launched a new a Japanese-American fusion food product, takoyaki with a Southern Californian twist, which she named Diego Ball, and is now a permanent vendor at the Hillcrest Farmers Market. Hy Buu Truong is helping her almost every weekend and thus gaining valuable job experience. You can learn more about GIVE & TAKO on Facebook. Kahye Kang passed the NCLEX exam for Registered Nurses and has started a search for her first real nursing job in the U.S. Fei Yin, who before coming here was a piano teacher in China, has become a teaching assistant for the piano class at Continuing Education at Mesa and loves it. And last, but not least, Melee Lee is going to work at the school in our own ESL Placement Office!
What the New Year will bring is yet to be seen, but with so much talent, hard work, and good spirit, there will sure be a lot to blog about!
What the New Year will bring is yet to be seen, but with so much talent, hard work, and good spirit, there will sure be a lot to blog about!