Student Profiles: Elline

I'd like to start this one off by saying that my students' English names are very normal, for the most part. I'm not really fond of the whole "English name" idea, or taking a fake $language name while studying a foreign language in general, but that's another post for another day.

So, Elline is one of the stranger names I have, and strange only because of its irregular spelling. (It's pronounced Aileen, if you were curious.)

There's not much to say about her except that she is tiny and adorable and very very funny. I want to put her in my pocket and take her with me. For the first few months she was very quiet in class, and very shy, but she's gotten used to me I guess. The best way to describe old Elline is: Fluttershy.

Now her personality's come out. She's still quiet and a good student (part of why I like her, not gonna lie), but she laughs a lot more and actually tries to start conversations with me and answers my questions.

"How are you guys today?"
"I'm bad." Elline made a face.
"Why?"
"Today, math academy test."
"Not very good?"
"No."

The reason I'm even posting this (aside from popular request) (hi Mom!) is because I had class with her not ten minutes ago. I always play 묵찌빠 (muk-jji-ppa) with this particular class when I finish, it's part of the routine. When I first started teaching, Elline was too bashful to go a round of muk-jji-ppa with me at the end of class. But now?

"Teacher, muk-jji-ppa," Elline demanded after I announced my time was up, her brow furrowed with seriousness. She held out her fist expectantly and I obliged. She lost the first round. Elline wouldn't have any of this and shook her head. "No!"

I played her one more round and she won. She let out a quiet little "yay" and then went about her business.