whirlawind

Greetings from Yong-in, South Korea.


My first few days here have been somewhat surreal. I am currently residing at the Hyundai Learning Center Learning Institute, which is basically a tricked out conference center. We're blessed with some pool tables, ping pong, a 24-hour gym and a astro-turf-like multi-purpose field. There's even a short hiking trail, all of 1/4 of a mile long.


It sounds nice, but I feel like I haven't seen daylight in ages. We're cooped up in a huge room all day and only let free for meals. The training has been intensive and repetitive. These are the things that are the most important, as all the trainers have mentioned them repeatedly during their presentations:

1. The Korean school system and Korea in general is unorganized. Some of us teachers know the district we'll be teaching in, all of us know whether we'll be teaching primary or secondary (but don't know if it's middle school or high school), and none of us know exactly which school we'll be teaching at. Might I note that it is day THREE or orientation and we begin teaching in FIVE days. I requested primary and got secondary.
   




2. Korean students are competitve and love games/activities where they can win and rub it in the losing team's faces.
   




3. All native English speaking teachers will be paired with native Korean speaking teachers. these korean teachers are our co-teachers. EVERYTHING depends on the relationship with the co-teachers. If they like you, you're gravy. If not, they might make you do all the work, or won't allow you to do anything at all.
   




4. Demo classes, or "open classes" are classes where the principal, parents and other teachers are invited to your class to observe your teaching style. These are supposed to be spontaneous but the principal usually requests a script so that the school looks good in front of parents.

I'm most worried about my relationship with my co-teacher. I've been advised not to speak any Korean to my co-teacher or to my students -- at the risk of not getting respected as an English teacher. Therefore, I've been practicing on making my Korean worse than it already is.

The other day we had a discussion on punishment. We were warned that our co-teachers might hit the students. I'm all for that -- but it turns out it's illegal in Korea. Needless to say, most of the other teachers were appalled at the idea of corporal punishment in this country... little do most know that corporal punishment is allowed in 13 states in the U.S.!

The teachers here vary in age and background. There are some who have taught in Asia for many years, and there are some who, like me are teaching for the first time. There are tons of people from the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Korea must be hard pressed for English teaching as they've hired over 500 English language teachers just in Seoul... 50% of whom don't have any teaching credentials aside from the fact that they speak English!

If I wasn't so busy and tired at the same time, I'd miss home a lot more. I'm sure it'll hit me next week when I get situated in my own apartment with no roommates. But let's not get mushy. Here are some pictures:

my tiny dorm room... clean, functional... good.

two hundred teachers gather for a new adventure...

i should be paying attention, but i was playing with this new camera i got as a gift.

behold the diversity!

i came to korea to try this machine. it was pretty hardcore... it didn't really shake your fat... it slapped it...

you'd look like this too if you spent six hours listening to a trainer whose first language isn't english... also, korean girls love taking pictures of themselves... so... when in rome...

this is my shy roommate from new zealand... she's pretty fobby but she's also pretty nice.

this is my other roommate from charlotte, north carolina. as you can see, she's a patriots fan... we had to have a talk about that.

Well then, my good friends, ahn-young till next time!