A few things Korean do really well

Over the past month here I have discovered a few things that Koreans do well that I wish we had back home.

1. Heating system. Korean heating system is done through the floor. In Korean culture you take your shoes off at homes, and all the flooring is wood. There is water under the floor, and it is heated up and that is how your place gets warm. I think this is the best idea ever. Your feet are always warm, and since heat rises, it makes more sense. I sometimes just put my heat on to get my feet warm and that's all! If my floor didn't seem so dusty all the time, I would lay down on it.

2. Public Transportation and taxis. Having just come from London, I was a little bias toward their Subway system, but after a little time in Seoul, I have seen how efficient their subway transportation really is. The fact that I am using the word efficient in describing something Korean is amazing! But, they do have the subway system down pretty well, including exit numbers in the station so you know which staircase to take out of the station to be on the correct side of the street. All the stops are written and announced in English, so foreigners can navigate on their own. Also, once you can figure out how the bus transportation works, it is useful. The buses are not in English, so you have to learn from another foreigner or Korean just what bus you need, but once you do learn it is pretty useful. I have not figured this out all that well yet, but I am slowly learning new buses that are helpful. Lastly, taxis are dirt cheap here. You have to pay a minimum of 2400 won (about $2.00) regardless of your destination. 2400 won will take you a decent distance though. The other day it was snowing when we were leaving work, seeing how none of us were prepared for this we decided to take a taxi to our neighborhood. It is about a 20 minute walk, and the 2400 won took us home, so we each paid 600, which is less than 60 cents! I have never been a fan of taking taxis because I feel they are a waste of money, but here in Seoul, I have come quite accustomed to them and most taxi drivers are friendly, and usually find us quite amusing!

3. Family style dining. Korean restaurants are big on sharing meals; in fact you can't really go out to dinner by yourself because everything is made for at least two people. Korean restaurants prepare the food for you at your table, and you can even add your own spices sometimes. I enjoy having the food prepared in front of me because then I know what I am eating! Friday night I had my first Korean bbq, and it was delicious! I pass by these restaurants all the time, but they are never in English, so I was waiting to go with a Korean or someone who knew what they were ordering. On Friday I finally went with someone who knew what they were ordering, so next time I can go try it and not feel so helpless. They put the meat on a charcoal grill at your table, and you add whatever you want to it. There is a heat vent coming down from the ceiling which helps cooks your food, as well as the charcoal grill beneath it. I wish my camera hadn’t died, because I would have taken a picture. Also, Korean food is fairly cheap, considering how good the food taste. There are more restaurants than you could ever imagine lining the streets, so you can always try a new place.

4. Friendliness toward foreigners. Of all the countries I have visited, Koreans are the most genuinely friendly people toward foreigners. If a Korean speaks English and sees you looking at a map, or you seem lost, they will come up to and ask if you need help. It doesn’t matter the age of sex of the person; they will still stop and ask if you need help. I truly find their help genuine and honest, and I appreciate it!

Field Trip Day!

I couldn't decide which picture was funnier because really, they both are for various reasons! I swear the kids had more fun than these pictures portray!

All the 6 year old classes, my class is the second to last row

Chloe and Bonette on the bus

Stephanie and Tonghu (my ocd boy)

Today was our first field trip! All in all it went pretty well, although, I do hope this will be the least entertaining one of the year. When I think of contemporary art museum, I do not think of 6 year old children. I am not sure half my students even understood where we were going. I began talking about the field trip on Tuesday to get my class prepared for the big day on Thursday. We practiced lining up, and how we should talk and behave in a museum. Although, to be honest, I was not at all that concerned because I have a great class! From the beginning of the day on Tuesday, my one boy, who is OCD, or something, was convinced we were going somewhere to see dinosaurs. He has such an obsession with dinosaurs this did not surprise me too much. I just didn’t want him to be disappointed when the day came. Every time we talked about the field trip he said, “we see dinosaurs there.” And I would reply the same every time “No Tonghu, no dinosaurs on this trip, we will see art, pictures people painted.” And he would continue to say “no, we see dinosaurs there.” This constant battle of us going back and forth happens every day on various topics. He gets an idea in his head and can’t get it out again. He also cannot deviate from a plan, so if ever something has to change, he does not believe you. One of the other 6 year old teachers, Gordon, is across the hall, he can see and sometimes hear, when we are in the hallways, my conversations with Tonghu, and just laughs at me. He has to experience these same conversations during theme and knows exactly what is happening. It makes me laugh every time, but I truly love Tonghu for this! I actually told him this at lunch today because he had it in his head he had theme next because that is where they go after lunch He couldn’t process that the field trip had altered our day and lunch was an hour later than normal. I finally just smiled at him and said “Tonghu, I love you.” He smiled at me and went on eating his lunch. This may be my new trick to get him off a given topic.

Although we did not see any dinosaurs on our field trip, we did happen to drive by some dinosaur museum, or something, and there were huge, life size dinosaurs outside of it. This made Tonghu incredibly happy, and it’s as if we actually did go to the museum and see dinosaurs. It is also all he could talk about the rest of the day, but none the less, I was very happy for the boy!

Our drive to the museum took about 30 minutes, and each class was split up onto different buses (really, just large vans). We get in the van and I am all set to strap these children in nice and tight, considering they are really only 5 and back at home would be in booster seats. Well, once I get them strapped in, my Korean helper Liz informs me it is dangerous to put the seat belts so tight, and really they should be loose. Now, if they are loose, is a seat belt really doing its job? I don’t think so, but who am I am to go against Korean logic. Plus, I knew I was having one of the head Korean administrators in my van, so I knew I would lose this battle regardless of what I said. I was terrified the whole drive, Korean drivers are insane, even with children in the car! We made it there safely though and joined Gordon’s class and went off to explore the art museum.

We were really only at the museum for about an hour and in this hour we had to squeeze in a snack. I am not sure why we had to squeeze in snack because they had just eaten and would eat again when we got back to school. But, again, we don’t have a lot of say in the matter. Our trip to the museum consisted of us walking up a spiral ramp, seeing two rooms, walking back down a spiral ramp, having snack, and walking quickly through the children’s area and making the children stop and take a picture in pairs in front of some random artwork. Then, back outside, for our second bathroom break and one group picture with all the 6 year old classes and back on the bus. I think the students enjoyed being on a bus, and out of school, but I am not sure what they got out of the museum. Plus, even when Gordon or I stopped to have the children look at the art work, we were all told to “shh….be quiet” by a worker at the museum. The children were not even being loud is the worst part of being told to be quiet! On the drive back to school, one of the Korean school workers (I am not sure what she actually does at the school) was in my van and started speaking in Korean to my class. I got the gist of what she was saying and that was for them to be quiet. I looked at Liz, who looked just as helpless as I did and waited until we were back at school to find out what happened. She informed me that she told the students to be quiet and they were too loud, and that since I had not told them to do so then she would. I looked at Liz, and said, “really, were they being loud?” She agreed with me that they were not and told me not to take it too personal. What bothered me the most about it though, is that my class was laughing and singing, not being loud to be obnoxious or mean, and really not even loud. All that aside, my class said they had fun and next month we go to an animation center. I think that has to be more exciting than this field trip!

Are you Canadian? You look nice.

On St. Patrick’s Day we went to a bar near our house called Woodstock. While there, a guy came up to me and asked if I was from Canada because I looked so friendly. When I told him I was from Seattle, he said Seattle must share its water with Canada and that’s why I look so Canadian. Aside from this being a horrible pick up line by a Canadian, it is very true to how Canadians and Koreans view themselves and Americans. My first week in Seoul, I was amazed by how many Canadians are here teaching. I would say about half of the foreign teachers we meet are from Canada. Considering the size of their population to that of the U.S., it is pretty impressive. Of the 10 foreign teachers at my school, 4 are from Canada. Apparently, a stereotype for Canadians is that they are very friendly, and Americans are not. When I told my co-worker Gordon, who is from Canada, about this horrible pick up line, he laughed, and said I do have a very Canadian looking face. I guess I am to take this as a good thing. Since there are so many Canadians here, many of them have friends who are already here. One of the teacher’s I work with, Colleen who is from Prince Edward Island in Canada, invited us to see her friend’s band play on Friday night. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on the weekend here, so her friend’s band played covers of songs from various Irish bands. I guess I missed the memo that Canadians know every random Irish song ever made! I thought I had a vast knowledge of Irish music, but I was mistaken. Every Canadian in the bar (which was the majority of the bar) would randomly burst out in song and dance to Irish songs. At first Casey and I were speechless, and then we started laughing and tried to join in, although we were told we were not clapping the correct way!

Aside from being surrounded by Canadians at the bar, we were also surrounded by American military men. The area of Seoul, called Itaewon, it where the military base it located. It is also where you can find any foreign food you could ever want, I enjoy the Turkish kabobs! Itaewon is the only place in Seoul I ever feel unsafe. The rest of Seoul is incredibly safe. My friends and I had a conversation about this and we decided part of it is because there is such a strong, harsh drug law and enforcement here. Because of this no one does drugs, and thus there is less of a need for crime. Also, guns are not allowed here, so it brings the level of violence down a great deal. However, when I am in Itaewon, I always feel a little on edge because there are so many foreigners present, and they are the ones most likely to steal from people.

After we listened to the band we decided to call Gordon, since we were in his neighborhood and have him show us around the area a little more. It ended up just being us four teachers from the second floor, and we had a great night together! Gordon showed us some new places to go that were not full of military men and the places to avoid. Again, we were reminded of what a great, fun, group the four of us are and how lucky we are to be working together. We also found out that Gordon had some say in the foreign teachers that were hired, and thanked him for choosing us!

Other outings in Seoul this week included a trip to the mall to see Alice in Wonderland in IMAX, Changdeokgung Palace, a Jamaican themed Hookah bar (don’t worry, I never smoke the hookah!), Mad for Garlic restaurant, and Nakseongdae park. Next weekend I am going to a Buddhist Temple and to tea at a tea house!

“Miss Alison. I. AM. FINISHED.”

Three out of the four classes I teach have already been at Bambini for at least six months. Most of their English knowledge comes from these earlier classes. One of the first phrases they are taught is “I am finished.” The students who speak very little English say this phrase ALL the time. At first I thought it was assuming because they know so very little English, yet, they know exactly what this phrase means in the correct context. However, after the first week of school I quickly grew tired of hearing this. The students say this whenever they think they are done, regardless of if they are or not. Also, when they say this it is always incredibly loud! There have been nights when I am falling asleep and this is all I hear in my head.

After three weeks of school I think I finally have all my books sorted out. It turns out the latest curriculum from last week is not actually what I am going to use after all. I had a good idea this was going to happen. Since my direct supervisor left, I was unsure of who to ask about curriculum. I decided I should just ask Gordon, one of the teachers in our rotation, because he has been here for over 2 years and seems to know better than anyone else what is going on. He quickly solved the problem for me and Casey, and we ended up rearranging who and what we are teaching. I am now in charge of phonics and reading comprehension, and Casey is in charge of writing and grammar. I never really understood why I wasn’t teaching phonics to start with, but every time I asked, I was given some crazy response. When we all finally sat down together and Gordon was allowed to have more control and say over the situation, the confusion finally ended.

Watching how Gordon responded to the situation and interacted with the directors, I learned more about Korean culture. Generally speaking you never question an elder, but sometimes being a foreigner, especially a male, you are allowed a little more leeway with this cultural practice. Since Gordon has been at the school for a few years, he is respected and knows how to correctly approach the situation. Because of this he ends up getting what he wants and needs. I am certain if I had gone to the director, my input would not have been appreciated or considered quite as much as Gordon’s was. This makes me incredibly grateful to be on his floor and working directly with him! The four of us 6 year old teachers(Toriann, Casey, Gordon and I) went out Friday after work and had a great time bonding over our crazy students and learning more about how to work around Korean culture to get what we want. It was also a great opportunity for us to get to know Gordon better, since Toriann, Casey and I hang out all the time. We went to a restaurant near school that has all you can drink Korean bear for 6,000 won (about $5.50) and quickly decided this should become a monthly ritual of the 2^nd floor teachers. By the end of the evening we were all convinced we have the best floor and group of teachers!

Next week we go on our first monthly field trip. This one is to an art museum. We asked Gordon if there is a tour guide, and replied “no, this field trip pretty much is crap.” This is one aspect to Gordon I appreciate; he tells us the honest truth all the time. I guess we just walk around the museum with the students, I am not sure how much 6 year old children will be entertained by this activity. Luckily, I think Gordon and I are combining our classes and touring together, so he can lead my class by experience! Of course, teachers are not considered or asked where an appropriate field trip should be. Many of the school’s decision are based on how it will make the school appear, and not necessarily what is the best for students and teachers. I learned this week that the school I am at is in the top 5 of early childhood education schools in all of South Korea and its goal by the end of the year is to be the top school. I also learned that even though we feel things are crazy and disorganized, it is better than almost all other schools in South Korea. Every time I meet another foreign teacher and hear their stories, I am reminded of how grateful I am to be at Bambini.

My food adventure for the week included quail eggs! One of the dishes at lunch on Thursday was small, round, and brown. I asked my students what it was and they said egg. I had never seen an egg like this, so then I asked my new Korean helper, Liz, and she confirmed what the students said, egg. I tried it and it turned out to be really good. As I was eating these small hard boiled eggs, I began to wonder what bird these eggs came from. Liz could not tell me in English, so I asked after school and it turns out it was quail eggs. I can now say I enjoy quail eggs!

Toriann and Casey’s class already shared a Korean/English speaking helper, Angela, but I thought it was just because their classes did not speak English. Then, on Tuesday I was introduced to Liz by one of the Korean supervisors who does not speak English. After I was introduced to her, Liz was around and helping and I was confused. I asked Gordon who she was and he said, “O, did you not meet her yet?” I replied that I had, I just didn’t know why she was there. Gordon laughed and informed me she is the helper for our two classes. She is the one who makes the phone calls to the parents and basically helps out in any way we need her. She eats lunch with in my classroom because I only have 6 students and Gordon has 10. I love having Liz around and hope she is here for awhile. Many of the Korean teachers leave because the demands on them are so great. They are not allowed to leave until they are told everything is done for the day, regardless of what time it is. On St. Patrick’s Day Liz and Angela were going to meet up with us to celebrate, but they could not leave work until 9:30 when everything was done, so they never showed up. I feel bad because we leave at 5:00 since that is what it is stated in our contract, but yet they can’t leave until allowed to. Because of this, there is a very high turnover rate. In fact, Angela just quit and her last day was Friday. We were all sad by this because she was great with students, and great to work with. Gordon told us a few pointers of things to do to make our Korean helpers feel appreciated, including bringing in small gifts, like coffee, juices and candy. I will be bringing Liz something all the time, hopefully this will help her stay longer!

2 weeks of teaching down, 50 more to go

It is the end of my second week teaching and I am down one supervisor, but up half my curriculum. Friday after work I was informed that my direct supervisor had quit. My first week here I was told this happens fairly often, but still, to have it happen with no warning and no one even telling us teachers seemed crazy to me. I only found out because I asked another teacher after school was Sarah was and they informed she had out her notice in earlier that week. On the positive side I did receive curriculum for two out of the four classes I teach. I still have no book for the two classes that speak little or no English. Teaching to students who have NO idea what you are saying has been quite the learning experience. When Korean children come to an English school they are given an English name. However, I am not sure the children even know their name for the first few weeks! Toriann’s students, who speak no English, certainly do not know their names. One girl even had her name change three times during the first week, from Heart to Park and back again to Heart. I guess her parents couldn’t decide what to call her. I say her name often and she has no idea I am even speaking to her. Of course she is one of the children I am responsible for at the end of the day during the chaos of the buses, when I call her name to come on the elevator she has no idea I am even speaking to her.

On Tuesday night three of the other teachers and I decided to order Domino's pizza. Pizza in Korea is nothing like Pizza at home. Most pizza has corn on it, along with crazy topping choices. To get pizza without corn on it you have to go to a pizza chain from home. We have a Domino's right by our house, and have already ordered it twice. It taste so much better than at home, it isn't greasy at all. Tuesday night we enjoyed pizza, Korean wine (cherry wine) and a delicious carmel ice cream treat. It was nice to finally be at someone’s place and just enjoy new friends and conversation without being at school or a restaurant. When it came time to leave we looked outside and it had begun to snow! I was extremely excited about this turn in weather. Casey, from New Jersey, did not share in my enthusiasm. I guess this is the benefit of not growing up with snow. The snow continued through the night and Wednesday morning. Sadly, by Thursday it had all melted. I guess I have something to look forward next winter.

One of our adventures for this week included a group trip to the immigration office to get our Alien Registration Cards. The highlight of the experience by far was the taxi ride. There were 4 teachers in each Taxi and our driver was highly amused by us. Since drivers are crazy here (I could write a whole blog about it), we decided to embrace it, rather than be afraid. In our embracing of it we encouraged our driver when he went through lights, cut lanes of traffic and drove fast. I have to say it was one of the best taxi rides I have ever had! We were in the taxi for about 45 minutes, so we saw a great deal of the city. This city is HUGE, I am not sure I will ever see it all. Just to get an idea of how cheap taxis are here, a forty minute taxi ride only cost about $16. The actual time at the Immigration office was again a wonderful example of how Korea is run on inefficiency. We had to wait over two hours, and they almost did not take us because it was after 6. However, there are times being a foreigner works in our favor, Korean culture is so concerned with offending people that they will bend over backwards to help you. The eight of us English teachers, along with a few other teachers we met there, threw a little fit and they stayed open for us. Of course, everything was incredibly rushed and stressful, and the whole process ended up taking place on three different floors of the building. Why they wouldn’t put everything on one floor is beyond me, I guess that would just make too much sense. In the end we all left with the confirmation that we will be receiving our Alien Registration Card by the end of next week.

Costco was another adventure and highlight of the week. I talked about Costco all week long, and I am pretty sure my enthusiasm for going rubbed off on my fellow teachers because by the time it came ready to go on Friday, everyone was excited! We even enjoyed pizza and frozen yogurt from the cafe, and it tasted just the same as home. In Korea it is extremely difficult to find cheese, everyone who goes to Costco buys cheese, and I am not sure I have ever been more excited to purchase a block of cheese in my life. Other purchase highlights included chicken, frozen vegetables, and a Swifer wet jet! We had to take a taxi home because we had entirely too much to take back on the bus! Our poor taxi driver almost broke his back trying to put our big, heavy Costco bags in the trunk. He was impressed that we could carry such a bag.

I finally ate Korean food that was not made by my school and it was delicious. A few of the teachers found a restaurant last week when I was sick, and took me back there this week. Most of Korean food is shared by everyone at the table. We ordered a rice dish that is made right in front of you at the table on a skillet. It had chicken, vegetables, and these cheese stuffed noodles. It was delicious and cheap!

I did manage to work my washing machine successfully last weekend. However, I discovered after I did my first load that I had not used detergent, but instead something to clean the washing machine. I did not know such a thing even existed. After a good laugh with my co-workers, I ended up rewashing my clothes with the correct soap and now know how to clean my washing machine, and will do so often since I have a whole box full of this soap. Next task is to fully understand what all the buttons on my microwave mean!

Pictures

Celebrating the end of our first week in Seoul with Mexican food

Two of my homeroom students looking at their favorite dinosaur book

Proudly displaying our gift wrapped Domino's Box

Yummy chicken rice dish at a Korean restaurant.

Walking to school in the snow

Inefficiency is my new friend

I made it through my first week! After all is said and done, it went pretty well. I still don’t have curriculum and books for the students, but I was told they will be here Monday. I will believe it when I see it. Again, I was reminded of how change occurs here every day. Already, we have had three major changes in how we run things, changing from just a day before. One is the weekly reports, which we all completed, just to be told the next morning they are not being used anymore. I finally came to the realization that I can’t plan more than one day in advance, because it will most likely change.
Despite the changes, my homeroom class is wonderful! I may be a little bias, but I feel my class is the best of the 6 year old classes. They are even trying to teach me a little Korean. Every day they try and teach me a new word. Due to my lack of language understanding, I am doing quite poorly. I am still trying to master saying hello the correct way! It is a humbling experience having 6 year old teach you how to say hello and break it down syllable by syllable.
There are 4 classes, and we rotate throughout the day. We quickly discovered Toriann’s class does not speak ANY English! Because of this we use hands motion all day to explain ideas and tasks to the children and have found ourselves using these motions when speaking to adults too. The other afternoon Toriann told me it was raining, while using her hands to motion down rain. We laughed about it, but then realized we all do it now without even thinking about it. So, if I come home and begin motioning everything out with my hands, you know why. Despite the fact that Toriann’s children do not speak English, they are still a sweet group of kids. We both have stated we have the best of the 6 year classes.

Our day begins with snack, then we rotate between four classrooms; reading (me), math/science (Toriann), writing (Casey) and theme (Gorden). Theme is basically choosing a topic of the week and doing various activities around it. The classes also rotate at the end of the day between 5 electives; drama, art, gym, storytelling and golf. Storytelling takes place in the student’s homeroom class, I have Gorden’s class one day a week too because he teaches drama.
The school provides a lunch for both us and the students. This has been a good introduction to Korean food. So far I have found quite a bit of food that I enjoy, and a few I now know to avoid. There is another teacher there who is allergic to shell fish, so they do not serve our two classrooms any shell fish products. This is very helpful because I am never really sure what I am eating. I am still trying to figure out what and where to eat outside of school, there are so many choices and so little English, it makes it hard! We have already found two Mexican places.
The end of the day is perhaps the most frustrating part of my day. We have to get three floors of students down one elevator and on the correct buses. There are about 120 students total at the school, ages varying between 4-7. Also, in Korean culture you take your outside shoes off and put on inside shoes, thus adding one more thing to do in the hallway. By the third day of school they decided to separate the children by bus numbers, meaning I would take down all the children on bus #2 from my floor. This sounds like a good idea in theory, except for now it means every class is ready at the same time to go to the elevator. It sounds like it really shouldn’t be that stressful, but it truly is. The fact that not all students speak English, and you have to get their shoes on them, and not confuse them with the other 20 or so children in the hallway, it gets crazy. Then you travel downstairs on the elevator, when it is actually free, and have to figure out which bus is the number 2. I have one boy who I am pretty sure is autistic, or at the very least extremely obsessive compulsive. By the time we got to the bus yesterday, he was so stressed out he was repeating the same thing over and over again to himself. I assume he was doing this as some defense mechanism, although I have no idea what he was saying since it was all in Korean. All of us English teachers have many ideas about how to make this run more efficient, but of course we are not allowed to say, or even if we do, we are dismissed. Again, lack of efficiency here is beyond frustrating to me.
This inefficiency is also why we don’t have internet yet, but we are hoping to have it this week. The process of how things are done from year to year with new teachers changes, so the information you receive from a past teacher is almost guaranteed to be wrong. I have always considered myself a flexible person when it comes to my work environments, but I think this year will definitely challenge me.
This weekend I plan on exploring a little more of my neighborhood, which I am quickly discovering is huge. And to learn how to use my washing machine!

My First Day of Teaching

Before I arrived to Korea everyone who had ever been here told me the same thing; "things are disorganized and you will get annoyed very quickly." Well, after my first few days of "training" and organizing my room, I thought it wasn't too bad. I had come in expecting the worst, and when I didn't have the worst, I thought I was in the clear. I was definitely premature in having this thought. After my first day with the children was over I was told I would not be teaching out of the curriculum given to me after all. This may have seemed less aggravating if I had not spend hours arranging my room and planning out lessons for the next few weeks based on this curriculum. I asked the most logical question next, "so what will I be teaching then?" The response I received was long and confusing, and resulted in an impromptu staff meeting, with no real results. In the end no one knows yet what I will be teaching, and they will decide by the end of the week what books to order. In the meantime I was told to "be creative." All I could think was it is a good thing I already know how to teach children reading, or else this class would be a joke for the next few weeks!
Other than the lack of structure and organization held by the school, my kids were great! I have 7 children in my class. Most of them speak English fairly well and can understand for the most part what I am saying. I on the other hand have no idea what they are saying. I kept having this feeling that whenever they were speaking Korean to each other they were talking about me! However, they did draw me nice pictures, so I guess this means whatever they were saying about me could not have been too bad.
Tomorrow begins the rotation of the four 6 year old classes and my job is to teach them reading. Exactly what I am doing tomorrow is a mystery to me. I gave up planning because I am most likely going to be told to change it when I get there!

I've arrived in Seoul

It's been quite a first week; they have you jump right into work. I
think it's so you don’t have time to second guess your decision! My school
is great though. There are 7 new foreign teachers all from the U.S. or
Canada, 3 returning teachers, and about 15 Korean teachers. I had an
opportunity to meet the foreign teachers who were leaving, and they all said
the same thing; that the other teachers were amazing and the kids were
great. All of which is making the transition that much easier. My new
co-workers and I have already had a few dinners out and adventures
navigating the transportation system, all of it being quite the bonding
experience.
The class size here is a teacher's dream; I only have 7 students in my
homeroom. I am teaching reading to all the 6 year old students, the most
students I have at one time is 9! I spent Thursday and Friday getting my
classroom together, which was very exciting to me. I finally feel like a
real teacher! Monday is a holiday, so the first day of school is Tuesday. My
work day is from 9-5, but the students are only there from 9:30-2:30. There
are a few after school activities that I think I am helping to supervisor,
but I am not sure which ones or when they start. That is one thing I have
learned very quickly here, you never really know exactly what is going to
happen, and it can change at any given moment. Another thing I learned
quickly is how inefficient Korean people are due to their culture.
Listening to your elders is extremely important and you can never question a
boss or elder. Because of this, things do not always get done in the most
efficient manner because you have to listen without question. Also, not
offending someone is important, so even when discussion can be had, no one
really speaks up right away in an effort not to offend the other person.
This has probably been the most frustrating thing for us new teachers.
I am spending the weekend getting used to my neighborhood and
unpacking. My apartment, or should I say room, is quite small. In my head
I pictured this small, but quaint apartment, and in actuality it is just
small. My first night here I was not sure I was going to be ok with this
small set up, but I have quickly adjusted. I even rearranged my room to
make it seem a little bigger than it actually is. Toriann is just down the
street from me, only a 5 minute walk. All the other new teachers are in the
same area as well, and we meet at our neighborhood dunkin donuts every
morning for our 20 minute walk to school together.
The language barrier is a bit harder than I anticipated. I have traveled
enough to be used to not always understanding the language I am around.
However, I could at least understand the letters, having no idea what
symbols stand for is a bit frustrating at times. I do however already know
a few key phrases. Maybe by the end of my year here, I will even know how
to read Korean words! The Korean people I have encountered so far have been
extremely friendly. My first day here when I was forgotten by my school and
trying to get a hold of the school, using the pay phones that were not
taking my coins, many Korean people stopped and helped. . The same day I went
into an electronics store when my computer power cord would not plug into my
adaptor and was surprised by how helpful the Korean men in the store were.
I had brought my power cord in to use as a way of communicating what I
needed, and they just gave me a new one that had a Korean plug already, all
for free! This kindness was the answer to my prayers at the moment. It was
a bit overwhelming being alone and not knowing where I was exactly, or
having a way to communicate with anyone. It all worked out and when Toriann
arrived that evening, I knew our neighborhood well and where we were
supposed to meet our new teachers!