life at school.

I have been in Korea for about three weeks. At times, the days seem to drag on. For example, my contract limits me to teaching 22 hours/week. For me, this means twenty-two 50-minute class periods. The rest of my 40 hours are spent sitting at my desk, twiddling my thumbs, surfing the internet, preparing lessons, etc. The week doesn’t seem to fly by when I have to repeat the same lesson 18 times! However, it also feels like I just arrived in Korea…how could I already have finished two weeks of teaching?

I have been biking to school every day (except the very first day when it poured). I love waking up by pedaling down the uneven brick sidewalks swerving around all of the oblivious pedestrians. There really is something special to be said about riding a bike in a skirt too, some sort of unspoken feminine power. Once I am on my red cruiser headed home, suddenly everything negative that happened during the day seems to disintegrate. I just hope that the bike will last throughout the year…the sidewalks are so haphazard that I constantly fear a flat tire. I know the 15-minute bus route to my school, but it is generally crowded and costs about $1.75 roundtrip. Cheap, I know, but biking is even cheaper…especially when I didn’t even have to buy the bicycle!

My classes throughout the day vary by grade and gender. Some of my classes are co-ed and others are segregated by sex. The all-girl classes are definitely much easier to manage, but I do enjoy the challenge of entertaining 40 hormonal, 16-year-old boys. Having 40 students at a time is not as crazy as I thought it would be, but it does present a problem when the classroom is only so big. Once the kids sit down and pull their chairs out, I rarely have enough room to squeeze through and circulate the room and I do not like to be stuck up in the front at all times.

As for the content of my classes, I do not have to focus on grammar. The students already take at least two other English classes that focus on the logistics. My class is considered a conversational English class, so I am supposed to get the kids to speak as much as possible. With 40 students, speaking on an individual basis is futile, so group work becomes essential. After finishing my “about me” lesson last week, this week’s topic was “modes of transportation.” Eventually, we will be using the mock subway seats and ticket booth which were built into the classroom (see photos below).

front of my classroom

the fast food area of my classroom

I love the teachers at my school. Everyone is so friendly and so eager to learn English. I have gotten so many invitations to people’s houses and offers to accompany me around Korea. For example, on Monday, I went biking with a teacher whose English name is Lisa during our lunch break. We simply biked around the Song-do area. I was able to see some new sights and she was able to practice her English by conversing with me. I’ve also been invited to her house to celebrate “chuseok,” Korean Thanksgiving, this weekend. Whenever I mention a place that I would like to visit or something that I would like to do, the teachers offer to take me or allow me to join their family’s events, etc. It is flattering and welcoming and I am more than happy to stay busy with all of these activities.

Last week Friday, was our school festival. This meant that there were no classes. Instead, the students had set up exhibitions in the classrooms that they had been working on for several weeks. Some examples of the exhibitions included:
* a magic show
* a shooing range with a toy bow and arrow
* a haunted house
* a face/body painting room
* a dance club
*a pregnancy/contraceptive information booth
* a nail art room

It was very cool to see everything that the students had been working so hard to prepare. The best part about this festival was to see the maturity and responsibility displayed by all of the students. Everything Friday morning was student-directed. Many of the teachers simply sat in their offices or had to teach the seniors (who were not part of the festival since they are preparing for entry into the university). I could never imagine such an event happening in an American high school and being successful. Most students in the U.S. would just skip school or behave wildly without any adult supervision. The Korean students, however, took a lot of pride in all of their work and wanted to be a part of the school’s event that only happens once every two years.

The exhibitions were open in the morning. After lunch, everyone moved to the “Lifelong Education Center” since they have a large auditorium. The next part of the festival was all about performance and the students displaying their individual talents. To me, it seemed a lot like a talent show or the Pop Concert at Wausau West High School. Students sang, danced, acted, and played musical instruments. It was very entertaining for the first hour and a half, but after 4 whole hours, I was ready to go home. The worst part was that everything was in Korean, so I had use my imagination to figure out what was going on. I think the dancing was the most entertaining since dance is an international language.

my students dancing (a little risqué , eh?)

After the 4 hour performance, the teachers were all going to dinner together. I was expected to go since it was my first week here and not everyone had met me. I didn’t mind going because I knew the food would be delicious and the school was footing the bill! We went to a typical “galbi” restaurant, which is often called a Korean BBQ. The server brings many side dishes (the fancier the restaurant, the more side dishes) and a plate of raw meat. Built into the tables are grills where hot charcoal is placed. The smoke that is released during the cooking of the meat is sucked up by silver snake-like vents hanging from the ceiling. I am glad that I decided to eat red meat here in Korea because the “galbi” is sooooo delicious!

the photo on the left shows a japanese teacher (female) and my co-teacher, bo. the photo on the right shows me with a teacher (female) and a student (male).