Keeping it English

I've noticed my terminology has become more Americanised since I've been here. And this is entirely due to keeping it consistent for the students sake. A lot of Koreans have learnt their speech patterns and pronunciation from tapes, which 9 times out of 10 are made by American speakers. So "water" becomes "waader" and "Saturday" becomes "Saaderday". The words are almost drawled when spoken. They know a rubber to be an eraser so I've been following suit. I go to the movies, have a vacation and wear pants, not trousers. Fortunately I haven't had to alter my accent as Young-Hun is keen for the students to become familiar with the English pronunciation. Previous teachers have been Australian, New Zealander and Welsh as well as English so they have already had exposure to many accents. I've heard of plenty of teachers having to "change" their accents in order to teach the "American" sounds. I'm a lot more careful to dot my "i"s and make sure my letter writing is consistent. They can become easily confused if a capital "I" doesn't have the cross sections top & bottom. I am also acutely aware of my accent and pronunciation, the kids will mimic your every sound in order to get it right. This became very noticeable during a lesson on telling the time when I suddenly found myself listening to a class of 9yr olds chanting "haff past" in a rapid Northern English accent. Could make for an interesting mixture..."Saaderday at haff past.."

One cheeky boy has starting mimicking my every expression. I can't really object to it as at least he is using the English words and trying them out in a context. I know now that I overuse the word "really?" as he picked up on that during one class when they were trying to tell me they had all been to England, India, Mexico or Brazil..."Really?" Anytime now that I explain any grammar point or phonic to them, a little voice pipes up at the back with a disbelieving, "Really?"... This is the same 9 yr old boy that is good at winding me up (in a good way..) with the following dialogue, "Jennifer seonsaengnim, if D + O is "do" ("doo"), why is D + O + G not "doog"?" There's no arguing that logic....

I am acutely aware of my accent and pronunciation