This is B2-1 class, the very first class I taught at WinSchool. This class has evolved a lot, as do most classes at Korean English hagwons (institutes). It started with five students, two of whom rarely came to class. Then the best student left. Students leave for many reasons, ranging from generally being bored and/or uninterested in learning English, to being completely overwhelmed with work to do, or having completely inappropriate class materials, to disliking their teachers...
At WinSchool, the students see many teachers. Most students come twice a week, for four 40-minute consecutive sessions each day. Of course, this is after they leave their regular school, which they usually attend from about 7:30am until about 3:00pm. Usually, I see them only for one or two of those 40-minute sessions, and as many as 3 other teachers will teach the students for the other sessions. So it isn't necessarily me that they hate, but it could be... ;-)
These two guys have been in the class since the beginning, and are still with me. The other original students have all left (though 2 of the three rarely came anyway), but now there are many new students. Originally, all the students in this class had nicknames, mostly given to them by me. Though the first nickname was imparted on a female student by Terry, which is what started the whole thing.
The nickname he gave was 양파 (yangpa) which means "onion" in Korean. This was because with her new haircut, the poor girl's head looked a bit like an onion. So I gave Terry the nickname 원숭이 (wonsoongi), which means "monkey" in Korean. He kind of looks like one, don't you think? Sam's nickname was just "Sam" — he didn't seem to like having an English name, so that seemed sufficient.
The last student with a nickname was Martha. Or at least, that's what I usually called her. I think her English name was actually something different, but I didn't understand what she said, and she never corrected me. So I called her Martha until the day she quit the class. But her nickname was 공주 (gohng-ju), which means "princess" in Korean. She always wanted to be the center of attention, and usually wore some sort of delicate fashion to class... like a princess. That missing photo down at the bottom should be hers, but it won't show up until I get my hands on a scanner. Sigh.
Terry and Sam
Left to right: Tony, Kevin, Eric, Billy, Rusty, Steven, Diana, and Sam
Left to right: Tony, Kevin, 미나, Eric, Billy, Diana, Rusty, Steven, and Sam
Martha