Blogs from Taejon, South Korea, Asia - page 10

Well, another day of teaching done. Today went better than the last couple of days, maybe because I started with REALLY easy stuff. I started off with colours and shapes, and had them copy those words for their next spelling test. We did a little work in the workbook, which focused on fast food, so they were interested and knew some of the language involved. THen I pulled out the everyday items Bingo game, and they had a blast! It had pictures and the words, and we progressed from showing them the pictures while saying the words, to just saying the words. A little repetition never hurt anyone! We played about 6 games this morning I think. I also gave them their speech (6 short sentences to copy and learn) and we learned our class cheer. ... read more

PAY DAY! Yes, we got paid today. Our bank accounts were not ready (not sure why bother?) so we were paid in cash. 100 000 won! (That's close to $120 CDN) Not a lot of money, but exciting nonetheless. Another difficult day with these kids as they really don't understand much of what I say. Had I known it would be this difficult, I would have brought flashcards, but when you don't know what you're getting, it's hard to plan ahead, especially if you're going to be traveling for 2 weeks after camp finishes. The funniest part is that the students have to write and present a speech about the Korea Land Corporation (the company housing, arranging, and paying for this English camp). None of the kids in my class know what a job is, let ... read more

So the kids arrived today. We were told, over and over, that there would be few, if any, discipline problems with Korean children.... I didn't believe it then, and I sure don't believe it now! When the buses started to arrive around lunchtime, we were assigned to greeting positions to help the students locate their rooms, and then shepherd them off to lunch. Many of the students understood little, if any, English and trying to explain the concept of "drop off your bag and follow me" was difficult! We had about 220 students show up here today, some by car, most by bus. After lunch they were sentenced to their rooms for about an hour. With nothing to do, they were restless and silly. They kept popping out of their rooms, wanting to wander around, and ... read more

So we started orientation today. Found out about 5 minutes before breakfast that I was supposed to wear the official T-shirt for pictures. It is a VERY plain white T-shirt with the words "Korea Land Corporation English Camp" in small letters as a logo on the top left. Not so interesting. We had photos taken and then proceded to pick up our picture ID nametags. You would think that was the purpose for the photos this morning, but no, they decided to use a terrible picture they took of me at the first recruiter meeting, and called me "Susan" on the tag. No one calls me Susan! I have to say that it is probably the worst picture of me EVER, but perhaps it is also because the printer quality or scanner was terrible. I may ... read more

Well, the flight went pretty well; I had two seats to myself so I could lay down a little bit, although it was still not ideal for sleeping. The group of teachers is great! Everyone is friendly and nice, and no one is left out. We've already done a little walking around Daejon, and are going to head back out this afternoon. I'm starting to feel a little tired (seeing as it would be about midnight Toronto time and it's 1pm here) and hoping to make it through the day before crashing. Food here is INTERESTING! There was fish and rice for breakfast (fortunately it felt more like dinnertime to me) and then fish and rice again for lunch. At least this time there were also potatoes. :) ------ So what an interesting afternoon! A group ... read more