I Kiss Your Hand

Yesterday I realized I focused on just the negative parts about teaching. Today I'll focus on some of the good parts. 


When I arrive at school I am often arriving right when the bell rings at 8:00 a.m. The reason is the bus doesn't drop me off until 7:58 a.m.  So when I arrive to class there is no prep-time, no time to rest, I have to hit the ground running. My Tuesday's start off with my second-graders who are sweet, enthusiastic and a bit hyper. The first thing one of my boy students did was come up to me and say, "An apple for the teacher!" And then handed me an apple. It was my first official apple as a teacher! I thanked him and then another student came up to my desk. She handed me a angol-magyar/magyar-angol dictionary and told me it was to help me learn hungarian better. I then looked around the room wondering if this was some sort of teacher holiday in Hungary? Were they all going to come up to my desk bearing gifts?  But it wasn't a teacher holiday, it was just kids being nice to their new teacher. 


Another thing that kids like to say to their teachers here is csókolom. It is also used in reference to females or the elderly as a form of respect. Csókolom generally means "I kiss your hand." Students usually use this word as a form of goodbye/or hello. I'll often hear it several times as I leave the building. At first I was paranoid wondering what they are saying, "Are they insulting me in Hungarian and I don't know it?" Nope. Just the opposite. I think this is a great word because it catches you off guard. I'm so use to the seriousness of the hungarian language (or at least it sounds serious) that when I hear this word I can not help, but smile. 


My favorite thing about teaching is also how happy the kids are to be learning English. Granted not all of them are ecstatic, but the majority do seem excited. I have kids come into my classroom between passing period and recite to me new words they know in English. Or if there are flashcards on my desk they will recite those in English. They are so proud to show off what they know. I don't remember being this excited as a kid about learning a new language. These kids also inspire me to continue learning Hungarian. If I say just one word in Hungarian they get very excited. But I try not to say too many words in Hungarian, after all I'm suppose to be teaching them English. :)


But one phrase I love saying to my kids in Hungarian is "nyugodt, nyugodt," but it sounds more like nogi, nogi, which means "calm, calm." It works surprisingly well. Fortunately, most days I don't have the need to say it, but when I do it makes me smile on the inside. 


Teaching is hard especially when you have never done it before. I'm not sure if I will be a teacher when I go back to the States, but I am glad that my first experience of teaching is here in Hungary. It's not everyday you have students who want to kiss your hand! Ha! :)