Classroom frustrations

I love teaching here in Korea and there are sometimes when teaching is better than others (i.e., the kids are not as wild, they pay attention and they are pleasant to be around).  There are other times, however, when teaching can push your patience to the limit where even the Dalai Lama could not resist an explosion or two.

Here are some examples from this last week alone. 

me: "what continent do you live in"
students : "....................."
me: "do you live in Africa?"
students: "Mexico."
me:" Mexico is a country, you don't live in Mexico, look at the map.  What other countries are you near on this map?"
students:".....Australia."
me: "oh come on, you live in this continent.  Don't you know what continent you live in?  You live in Asia, you are Asians."
students: "yes yes teacher."
me: "ok, so China, Japan, South Korea, the Phillippines are all in what continent?"
students: "..............teacher.....what?"
me: "YOU LIVE IN ASIA!!!"
students: "teacher what?"

*same class*

me: "ok, were going to play some hangman (to kill some time).  I will think of a word and you guess letters."
student 1: "amphibian"
me: "no, thats not the point, do not guess the whole word, just guess letters."
student 2: "zoologist"
me: "no, do not guess the entire word, I know we are reviewing the unit words, so don't just go through the word box and guess the words.  The point of the game is to guess the word by guessing letters."
student 3: "microscope"
me: "ok I am going to start deducting points to the next person who guesses the entire word without guessing a letter first."
student 4: "Q"
me: "just out of curiosity, why would you guess Q?  We are reviewing our unit words and none of them have a Q in them?"
student 5: "X"
me: "again, there are no words with an X in them.  Do you guys understand what we are doing here?  Here's a hint, try guessing either A, E, I or U.  There is a good chance the word has one of those letters in them."
student 6: teacher me teacher...V."
me: "didn't you just hear what I said?"
student 1: "reptile"
me: "ok, we're doing something else..."


Billy: "Peter teacher do you live in Korea?"
me:  "Billy, do you think I commute to Korea everyday from America?"
Billy: "....no"
me:  "then where do you think I live?"
Billy: "....I think you live in Korea."