Comments on Temporary Loss of Loving Feeling Noted

• Posted by Notes from the ROK at BCM Language Institute on August 20, 2007 at 3:35am EDT

• Hi there. It's Daniel. Daniel from the ROK. Remember that one time I was a guest blogger here at insidehighered, outwardly enthusiastic, my joy high flung, and how because of you, Mr. Churm, who gave me a chance, a platform, to talk about teaching English in [sultry] South Korea, a kind fellow from Minneapolis, MN emailed me about my blog and we talked about poetry and teaching? It's true. It's all true. We ended up sharing our musical and literary tastes in a couple of pleasantly surprising exchange of emails. We're now Myspace pals, connected, through you.

  As you know, I'm teaching at a smallish English language Institute in Gwangju. My job doesn't require me to profess anything, show my academic side, or prove any know-how; all I have to do is make it cloyingly clear to my students that I'm an utterly fabulous American who can use idioms and tell them what's hot and what's not in the States.

  I seldom know if I am doing it right, if they're listening, if they care, if they're in my class to appease their parents' wishes. Who knows. But I often see communities form. Groups of students will gather, bright-eyed. They bow and make arrangements to meet in cafes for study sessions where I imagine they share their interests, hopes, dreams, and their fears. They study long hard hours over cups of tea, beer and coffee, and often take breaks to lionize me for my English speaking ability.

  My inspiration comes from observing the folk come together, creating jeong, a brotherhood of bilingual native Koreans.

• How do you find inspiration?
• Posted by Bob on August 20, 2007 at 10:05am EDT

• I am committed to academic discourse, to its foundation of nonviolence, to its goal of truth, and to its method, reason. Just a glance at the morning paper reminds me of my principles and my vows. On the rare occasions when in spite of all this I still feel as you describe, I begin my class by sharing with my students that feeling.

• Posted by Oronte Churm on August 20, 2007 at 11:40am EDT

• I'm with you, Bob. I'm just glad that all that academic discourse has made the world a less violent place.

• Posted by Oronte Churm on August 20, 2007 at 11:55am EDT

• Well, hello, Daniel. So glad to see you again. I'm happy you made a connection through this space. I'm a facilitator. It's what I do.

• Posted by jmcc on August 21, 2007 at 4:35pm EDT

• Whenever I feel downtrodden by the clueless yet arrogant faces streaming through campus, I just pause to remember that in 5 more weeks I'll get my first university paycheck since spring and can finally pay off a fraction of my summer bills!

  It's like my heart starts to sing again.

  But really, I do think that this one of the more trying times of the year- tweaking syllabi, trying to decide how to use the new textbooks that often run contrary to what your vision is, getting emails from students trying to force their way into your class or trying to get grade changes from last year, dept. meetings where the word "adjunct" is spat out even though you're right there next to them, the end of long mornings and summer trips. I get my inspiration from students who really want to learn, who latch onto a new concept and you can see theirs brighten as it happens. It's hard to remember them, and even harder to try and identify them as they are herded into their new environment.

• Nonviolence, Truth, Reason
• Posted by Bob Schenck on August 21, 2007 at 8:15pm EDT

• The deluding passions are numberless, Oronte; we vow to extinguish them all. Sentient beings are numberless; we vow to enlighten them all.

• Starting to teach.
• Posted by Juan Eytey , Schlaflosigkeit at Large and blue. on August 23, 2007 at 1:50pm EDT

• Dear Mr. Churm: I share your discomfort. Although I blush at the sound of my own tooting, here goes. I am at such a blessed state in my career (tenured at a large, research institution of Licensed Football Apparel) that teaching, as they say, should not matter. Only the engorged CV should matter, and I'm well on my way towards that. But oddly, teaching does matter to me, hard as I might try otherwise. At my previous, similarly blue institution, it was an open secret that if you cared too much about teaching, scythes would descend; showed some kind of weakness on a par with asking for maternity leave or something. That's why I left in a huff, that showed them. Anyway, fellow despairer, this is why it still matters: I came not to this profession to enlighten ms Sarah Bumpkeen of the kappa kappa kappas on the beauties of the imperfect subjunctive or Henry Ballcap the delicacies knowing what Augustine was and why. I came to it because I wanted to have and relish those beauties and delicacies myself, over and over. To heck with the navel rings and the cell phones and the flip flops. Selfish, I know. This is why I get crappy evaluations on the whole, but I repeat, they don't matter.
  And the beauty of it is that every so often, I run into a Viviana (her real name) or a Marvin (his real name--really) who all of a sudden GET IT: they see why I love one flash of synaesthesia in a line of Robert Lowell, and they find a way of loving it for themselves. Not too frequent, these people, though. But their blessed memory, and the hope of more, can help you through those days. (Oh, and having good grad students helps a bit too.) Admiringly yours, Juan Eytey.