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Published: April 2nd 2010
Wow, as of today we have been in Cheongju for 1 week. Time flies when you’re having fun I guess! After a great weekend we went into Monday feeling pretty good but also a little anxious for the teaching. One part of that was the fact that I was going to be teaching 9 different classes, only ONE of wish I had trained for. If someone told me that a few weeks ago I would have been freaking out but it’s actually not that bad and I’m getting the hang of it. Classes are at 4pm and 7pm every M-F. So I teach 2 classes a day 5 days a week, which equals 10 classes. One of them is the one I trained for in Seoul. And one of them I teach twice, so I don’t have to prep as much. Mondays at 7 and Wednesdays at 4 I teach the same class to different kids. Most of the other teachers repeat classes a few times a week. Like Jake teaches 3 classes at least 2 or 3 times, which is nice when it comes to prepping. The reason for this is that the higher the level, the fewer the classes offered. In my classes so far, the biggest has been 16. And in two of my classes I have had only 2 boys each. The first was the highest level offered and the second one was a test prep class.
What’s funny is that going into this whole experience Jake and I kept hearing and assuming that there is no such thing as classroom management in South Korea. Ha ha! We were naïve, yes. Many of these kids hate being in class and all of them are forced to come by their parents. The goal then becomes to try and make it semi-interesting. I always want to be careful not to stray too far from the material though because of the one kid that goes home and tells his parents he had fun in class. That would probably not make them too happy. Classroom management is a huge part of every class. I had a couple of bad attitude teenage boys who were giving me trouble. I told them not to come back. I was like, “guess what boys? I didn’t ask you to come to class. I didn’t make you come here. Stay home if you’re going to have a miserable time.” Hearing this they just mumble to each other in Korean. They hate coming. I asked one kid to tell me his name, age, and what he likes to do. He said his name, lied about his age, and then told me “I hate English. I hate everything about English. And I hate CDI.” Which is the name of our school. Then when the next kid took his turn, the same kid answered, “he likes to think of ways to get rid of CDI.”
The constant struggle is to make sure and cover the content but try to have fun with them at the same time. It isn’t easy because there is TONS of content. One of my upper level classes will cover about 50 or so pages per class. One of my classes uses a college level textbook. These are kids reading college level material IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE. It’s crazy. By the content and discussions we have, you’d expect to be talking to adults. But then at break time, they giggle and play video games on their phones. So far we have read passages about capital punishment, lowering the voting age, euthanasia, and stem cell research. So these kids debate these topics, as 10 year olds, in a language that is not their native one. I find it pretty impressive.
Blunt and materialistic. Many of these kids are both of those things. I watched and listened to one little girl go up to a fellow American teacher and say, “teacher, you have no girlfriend. Because you are fat, ugly, and big nose.” She giggled her heart out and kept repeating it. Although he is none of those things, she was very serious. The kids are very blunt about being fat, ugly, and wanting money. I had one kid introduce himself by saying, “My name is Eric, and I want to have lots of money and keep it all for myself.” Okay then…moving on…let’s talk about selfishness…
Our school is on the 7th floor of a building that’s about a 8 minute walk from where we all live. The set up is pretty nice and it is kept very clean. It’s so fun to have my own little room with my own desk and temporary computer. Ha ha, I feel like a real grown up! The first thing all the kids want to know is how old we are. We were told in training to never tell them that we are young or new teachers. We’re not supposed to tell them our major in school unless it is English or education related because they will instantly lose respect. Apparently they would freak out if they knew that we were new teachers. I guess they won’t.
On Monday I experienced the most severe foot pain of my life. I guess that’s what 9 hours on your feet will do. I have sympathy for anyone who works on their feet all day. We arrived at the school at 1pm on Monday for meetings and to prep and such. We didn’t finish until 10 and that was followed by WALKING home. I came in the door and literally fell over on the bed and never got up. Ouch. I half expected to wake up in the morning with my feet still pulsing and throbbing from the day before. We aren’t supposed to sit much during class. Obviously this is to help with interaction and classroom management. I was being extra careful because all of our classrooms are on video at all times. All of the people in charge can click on our room and watch and hear everything. We know that they are watching us a lot this week to monitor and evaluate our performance, but hopefully as we get better, they won’t have to use it as much.
Luckily for us, all of the other teachers and staff have been very helpful in making sure we know how to access everything on the computer, use the copier machine, and find all of the different books we need for our classes. It’s funny because Monday and Tuesday just FLEW by. I couldn’t believe how quickly the days were over because we were so nervous and so busy and worried about doing everything right. Wednesday and Thursday were the total opposite. After 2 hours with my first class I was thinking it was time to head home. Nope! 1 more hour with them and then 3 more hours with a new group of kids. Friday is finally here! YAY!
Most of the kids have an English name that they use in class. Sally, David, Patrick, Sarah, etc. Teddy Bear Obama and May2 are pretty hilarious. He really only responds to teddy bear obama, or TBO. You can’t just say teddy bear. And Mary2 is because there is a Mary1 in the same class. Ha ha! On my attendance sheet and in the computer her name is actually Mary2. Diamond is another interesting one…
One more exciting point: I don’t have to set an alarm clock for an ENTIRE YEAR and I will still never be late to work! It’s awesome sleeping until whenever I feel rested…and then starting my day. That’s all for now. It’s time for bed. Oh, and my feet are feeling better everyday.
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Lyndee
non-member comment
Hello, Bethany
I'm enjoying your richly detailed travelogue of teaching in S Korea! Keep them coming and thanx for sharing. XO Auntee Lyndee