EWIS Course Finished!

I started this EWIS course with sixteen students but lost six within a week - four of them after two days. They wanted a faster pace, apparently. After two weeks of the course, another four no longer came, though I later learned that they remained enrolled, which usually bespeakes an intention to attend.

My class attracts mostly graduate students, who often find that their graduate duties - for example, caring for white rats or doing somesuch similar labwork - dominate their time and bring them to attend only sporadically.

Anyhow, I had six who attended regularly, though two of them couldn't make our last day Tuesday, so I needed treat only four to coffee, as the photo below indicates (the hidden photographer being a Writing Clinic TA):

The four students - clockwise from upper left - are Set-Byul, Kamila, Bora, and Eun Young, and they're flashing the typical peace through victory sign so beloved here in Korea . . . though Bora appears to be enforcing the victory with pistols.

In the second picture, we are shown standing our ground, guarding the peace won through hard victory(,  which Eun Young continues to signal), and you can probably figure our identities out by now:

Same goes for the third photograph below:

Except that Eun Young no longer shows the sign so beloved by Koreans . . .

I suppose I should add a few words concerning a decision I've reached. This was the last time I'll teach EWIS. My style of teaching doesn't fit the expectations of about half of the class at the onset, so they withdraw. I've come to see that many Koreans really expect to be inundated with exercises from the first class on. They understand the "I" in EWIS - which stands for "Intensive" - to mean "Inundated," whereas I take the "I" to mean "In-depth." Mine is thus an English Writing 'In-Depth' Seminar. I might (and often do) therefore have a student write and rewrite a thesis statement several times. Or a paragraph. About half the students appreciate this approach. The work isn't fast-paced, but it's effective . . . for those who remain. Anyway, I've come to realize that I'll never retain an entire class with my 'slow-down-and-think' method, so I made the decision to stop teaching EWIS.

Farewell, EWIS, you've been a learning experience for me.