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Published: December 8th 2006
Yesterday was the first day of teaching at a school in one of Busan's most run down districts. I have now nicknamed the students the 'Bronx brats' as they tried their up most to intimidate me!
The day started ok, 'how hard can teaching really be?' I thought. My first class consisted of 17 students aged 9 years old all crammed into a classroom the size of your average kitchen at home in UK. Children obviously find it fascinating to see a new face so I gave them the opportunity to ask me some questions..Name? How old? Where are you from? Are you married? Why come to Korea? What’s your boyfriend called? When I answer that he is called Andy they all fall on the floor laughing. Not wanting to miss out on the joke I started laughing too only to find out the biggest singing sensation in Korea is called Andy and the children think I am dating a pop star. The best question I got was 'why is your hair yellow?' How the hell do I answer that one? YELLOW?! MY BLOODY HAIR IS NOT YELLOW!!
My lessons went ok, its very difficult teaching basic words to 17 kids who lack interest as they have already completed 7/8 hours of studying the same day and they are tired. One Child annoyed me so I 'hit' him over the head with a plastic mallet (I am assuming it’s meant for this purpose as why else would it be in the classroom?!?!) which shut him up! Korean teachers are allowed to smack the kids so I didn’t feel too bad.
By my last lesson of the day I was knackered. I forgot to use the white board to draw diagrams or write key words down but it was a good learning curve and I feel confident about doing it better next week. The Korean teacher has invited me to a school camp on the 12th Jan with 400 excitable Korean children for an over night stay at a temple so they must have liked me! When I left the school at 8.10 I was greeted by a bunch of screaming girls waiting to escort me to the bus stop. Korean kids are lovely but very very cheeky and the girls erupted into a chorus off, ' We are hungry, we have no money' very loudly. A kind Korean woman went over to them and shouted at them to shut up and they then stopped. I felt bad, I could have given them a couple of quid but I thought if I did that they might expect it each week so I held onto my purse! I was surprised as I would have expected that sort of 'begging' in India but not in South Korea; I am constantly being surprised.
After this first experience I have full respect for those who teach in England, if I had to teach the sort of child I was at school I think I would have cried and walked out!!
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Helen Laryea
non-member comment
The return of MC hEmma
Hooray, MC Emma is back and teaching foreigners a thing or two about dodgy dancing!! Well done Honey, blog is good and made me laugh! Glad the teaching is off to a decent start - hope it's still going that way?! Pictures are needed to go along with the descriptions! H x x