On Friday I was teaching my children and I think the novelty of me as a foreign teacher has worn off, in terms of the discipline of the students. I caught one child throwing a paper airplane. I was teaching different adjectives like “short, tall, happy, sad, fast, slow, beautiful, ugly.” I made a sad face and said “I am…” waiting for the response “sad.”

One of my children yelled out “ugly!” Then everyone laughed. I also found one student writing a note and I took it from her. I tried to read it later but it was in Chinese and I didn’t understand it. I had a student translate it for me. It said, “Lee, you are a pig. Ha ha ha. How does it feel to be a pig?”