Open Class

Two weeks ago we had a day called, “Open Class.” This is a day when the parents come in and watch their child for a few hours. We found out about open class a month and a half before the actual day. The fact that we found out about this so far in advance led me to believe this must be important. It is a common trait for my school, along with most Korean schools, to not give much advance notice of events or deadlines. We had to come up with a lesson plan a month before open class and meet with the director to discuss it. Since the 6 year old teachers rotate classes throughout the day, we would be teaching our lesson 4 times to all four of our classes, and four sets of parents. With the little interaction I have had with Korean Moms I knew this could potentially be disastrous. One problem I have with the Korean culture is that no one ever takes responsible or excepts blame for a given problem. The fault is always directed at someone else .Knowing this made me a little apprehensive about how any potential problem with a child would be with placed on us teachers.
The atmosphere in our school the weeks leading up open class was one of stress. The Korean teachers got the brunt of the stress and I felt bad for them. I felt confident with my lesson and my only worry was how the students would react with their Mom’s watching them. The kids act different with the foreigner teachers than they do with the Korean teachers, so already I was expecting a difference in their behavior.
The day of open class finally came and I have to say overall the day went pretty well. My first two classes were a little quieter than normal, but after a little while they began to speak up and did really well. The last two classes, who are the two lower level classes, acted the same as they normally do. My only problem came in Toriann’s class, which is my last class. One of the boys has been acting up more than normal in all of our classes and he did the same in front of his Mom. Being that I was their last class and they normally have lunch before my class, but the schedule was all messed up due to the parents being at school, may have lead to part of the problem too. I think the kids were a little tired at this point, and Kevin was no different. From the moment Kevin walked into my classroom he was bothering someone. He started with Ricky, poking him, hitting him, just annoying him. His Mom stepped in right away, which I thought would stop his behavior. It didn’t though. He kept bothering Ricky, so I stepped in and told him to stop. He did, but then moved on to the next person to bother. By this point his Mom had stopped trying and so I had to step in again. I finally gave him a warning that maybe he couldn’t finish the activity if he couldn’t leave his friends alone. That worked, but Kevin’s Mom didn’t appreciate that too much. The Mom ended up complaining about me claiming I said Kevin’s name too much during the classroom. I didn’t really have a lot to say to that because I did say his name a lot, he was hitting other children so I told him to stop! Although, Ricky’s Mom liked me a lot and thought I was a great teacher. I laughed a little because at least the Mom of the child who I was helping not get hurt by Kevin liked me.
Another result of working in a Korean school is that no matter what parents say, regardless of the reason why, the director will make someone come and talk to the teacher about it. So, this meant Claire, my direct supervisor had to come and speak to me about Kevin and the amount of times I said his name. Claire is amazing and knows how ridiculous all of this is and has seen Kevin in action before, so knows his behavior. She came and told me what happened and really didn’t say anything else because she knew I didn’t do anything wrong. It bothered me a lot mostly because I like people to like me, and if they chose not to, I want it to be for a real reason, and not because their son was acting up and I wouldn’t let him. Claire had said the director was going to talk to me about it, but I knew she never would because everyone knew I didn’t do anything wrong. And I was right; she never spoke to me about it. However, Gordon, who I appreciate more than he realizes, defended me in our staff meeting. The director wanted us to go around and discuss how open class went. Well, Gordon likes to defend us in his own little way, slipping in little comments here and there in meetings. This time it was me he defended. He talked about how the students that act up normally for us did just that when their parents were there. He then went on to list names of the students who acted up in his class, one being Kevin, and went on to say that he used Kevin’s name often during class because he was misbehaving. It meant a lot to me to have Gordon do this because the director respects him a lot and listens and trusts Gordon a great deal.
Open class is over and work has been a lot less stressful ever since! A little update on my class. Brian, my new boy who didn’t even know how to use utensils when he first came to school has grown a great deal in the last two months. He still needs a great deal of attention, but he is becoming more and more independent everyday, and it’s been great to see how all the work we have been doing with him is paying off. My other semi-new boy, Jayden, is great. He was a little handful at first, but I truly love this kid. I sometimes look at my students and think how much I will miss them, and Jayden is one I will definitely miss the most. He is a very sweet natured child and really does try and help others, he just has too much energy at times. Today we had a field trip and yesterday at lunch the kids took it upon themselves to decide who everyone’s partner should be on the field trip. Jayden decided he should be my partner and all the kids agreed. It was really cute to see everyone’s reasoning for why each child was to be paired with whom. It is amazing how much they have grown up in the past 4 months. My other new girl, Julie, who cried for the first month and a half of school, is doing really well now. Her English is not as great as the other’s in my class, and I think that makes her quieter than she really is, but she is gaining confidence everyday and speaks up more and more.

An art show, a Palace, Ginseng chicken and the shopping capital of Seoul

One of my co-workers invited me to brunch where one of his friends was displaying some of his art work. I enjoy brunch and Koreans are not much of breakfast eaters so whenever I am invited to a brunch place I most likely will go. Toriann and I met up with our co-worker Gordon for brunch, which ended up during into lunch and a pitcher of sangria. After our lunch and sangria, we headed to Deoksugung Palace. Deoksugung Palace is the smallest of the palaces in Seoul. The palace has a mix of new and old buildings and is quite the change from other palaces in Seoul. The other palaces I have been to, I end up forgetting I am in Seoul because the grounds seem so secluded from the rest of the city. However, at this palace, you see both the traditional palace buildings, and the urban skyline. We spent a little over an hour exploring the small palace grounds and taking in some of the local folk music that was being showcased. After our visit to the palace, Gordon took us to a ginseng soup house. The soup is called Samgyetang, and translated means, ginseng and chicken soup. It is supposed to be eaten on the hottest day of the year, in August and bring you good luck. The chicken is stuffed with rice and boiled in ginseng broth. It was an experience eating this chicken with chopsticks and a spoon. I have become quite an experienced and talented chopstick user, but this was a little over my expertise. The chicken was basically just cut in half and stuffed with rice, meaning it still had all its bones. I felt like I had to work so hard just to eat the chicken! Still, it was another new Korean dish I tried and it was an experience.

Finally we walked to Myeong-dong, the shopping capital of Seoul. I had heard about this area, but had yet to visit it. It was busy, crowded, bright, and loud. It had many western stores, along with all the Korean chain stores. It was streets and streets of stores filled with people. I am not a fan of overly large and crowded places and found myself feeling slightly overwhelmed. Next time I go it will be after work sometime, and not on a Sunday evening. We ended our day by going into a little food mart and found these tiny beers called mini beers. We found this funny and thought we too should indulge in a mini beer. It was a great day spent with friends exploring more of the city.

World Cup Mania

It has been a long time since I last blogged. I think about it often, but it has been a busy month and every time I think about starting to write it is usually right about the time I should be going to bed and so I never start. Well, this month has been quite a month filled with mostly good adventures with a few challenges mixed into it. It is almost hard to know where to start, and most likely I will break this blog into a few blogs because I will get too overwhelmed writing it all. I will start with the World Cup mania I have experienced in Seoul.
It is a safe bet to say that of all the countries in the World Cup America is one of the least enthusiastic supporters of the sport. The fact that we are the only ones to call it soccer and not football says a lot in itself. Well the country of Korea goes crazy for the World Cup! Being that I am here in Seoul, I thought it best to join in the enthusiasm of the World Cup and cheer Korea on. The day of the games the whole country stops its normal daily routine and goes into World Cup pandemonium. The first South Korea game Toriann, Casey, Megan and I met up with one of my new friends and his co-workers at a bar in Itaewon and watched the game. The crowd was a fairly decent mix of foreigners and Koreans. It is amazing how easily I can get caught up in a sport and truly enjoy watching it. I think I get this trait from my Mom! This evening of watching the World Cup was the beginning of our obsession with the World Cup. South Koreans have a cheer they say, which in English means, “Go Korea.” My kids taught me the cheer and clap one day at school so I was better prepared to join in the next time I watched a game. The next World Cup game with Korea in it was on a Thursday evening so Toriann and I headed to a bar in our co-workers neighborhood after yoga and this place quickly became our new favorite place to watch the games. We returned there the following night to watch the U.S. and then again the next night to watch North Korea. We also went on Monday and Tuesday of the following the week, making that five times in a manner of one week. The girls who work there now know us and our beer preference. The last time we went to Orange Tree (or as I refer to as Orange town) was for the night of the South Korea game and then a few hours later to the U.S. game. It was quite a depressing evening since both teams lost. We are headed there again tonight (Saturday) for the Germany vs. Argentina game.
Through this time of the world cup I gained a new insight into how South and North Koreans feel about each other. I assumed that South Koreans would not be cheering for North Korea. However, I quickly learned this was not the case. South Koreans were very upset when North Korea lost. While we were at Orange town watching the game there were a few Koreans there cheering for North Korea. This was my first clue that I was mistaken in who South Koreans would cheer for. On Monday I went to work and talked with some of my Korean co-workers and they expressed their sadness for North Korea losing. Through my conversations and observations I learned that South Koreans still feels attach to North Koreans since it was really not that long ago that were one country. Many South Koreans have family in North Korea and thus want to support them. It is really just the government they do not support, and rightfully so. Being from the U.S. and only knowing what I hear in the U.S. news about South and North Korea I never would have understood this or ever thought this to be true. When I have these moments and learn something new about a culture and country it reminds me why I enjoy traveling so much and why it’s so important to me.