Awesome song by k-pop group "2AM"
Friday, May 25, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
I have a good job!
I am
very lucky to have a job at this school for a number of reasons.
First of all, we have fewer
students per class, and we see our students more often than public school
teachers. For example, one of the teachers I know who teaches English at a
public school nearby has 40 students in each class and she teaches about 10+
classes each week, so she has 400 different students each week and she sees
them only once a week! The majority of the time we teach, it’s to 15 students at
a time, and we teach approximately 50-60 different students per week; we see
the same students at least 4 times a week! The number of students we have and
the amount of time we have with them is much better than other teachers of
English.
Secondly, we have a pretty sweet
job because communication isn’t as huge a problem as for other English
teachers. We have lots of support due to the large number (16 currently) of
other English-speaking foreign teachers at our school. Also, many of the Korean
staff members speak enough English for us to be able to communicate more than
just basics.
Overall, our experience as foreign
teachers teaching English is a lot better than English teachers at public
schools or hogwans (private after-school for-profit “cram” schools).
Friday, May 4, 2012
All-School Sports Day
Friday was unusual. Instead of having classes, all teachers and students participated in an all-school Sports Day. Wow - Koreans are competitive! There were relay races, tug-of-war, and other activities.
Two points of interest were:
1. the military-like stretching, and
2. the Korean teachers verses Foreign teachers Relay Race.
Before any activities began, all classes lined up on the "field" (all dirt, no grass) each an arm's length away from the next student, grades 1-6. Then the staff put on recorded patriotic-sounding music that included a voice giving stretching instructions! Picture it: a dirt "field" of 600 students, either in white t-shirts or orange-and-blue gym suits, and all Korean and Foreign staff in red (smelly) fishing vests, leaning with arms overhead at the same time.
"Hands forward, up, out, down! Fwd, up, out, down!
Lean and stretch left, two three! Lean and stretch right, two, three!..."
As for the Relay Race, it was quite exciting for all! Us foreign teachers had been asked a few weeks ago which of us were interested in competing against the Korean teachers on Sports Day in a relay race. I thought they'd said 3-legged relay race so I signed up! Heh heh. No, it wasn't a 3-legged relay race; it was a "normal" relay race, and we were all up against healthy fit Koreans!
The first foreign teacher raced against the Vice Principal! She did get ahead a bit of the vp, but not by much. I was second and I knew that I'd have to get as far ahead as I could because I was racing against the very fit 29-year-old teacher whose wedding I just attended! The excitement was unreal! Shortly after me, another foreign teacher raced the *principal* (who must be in his fifties or so). He was ahead but he was *obviously* waiting for her to catch up to him. Once she got a bit ahead of him, he sped up naturally as if he did this every day!
Towards the end the Koreans were slightly ahead, but then Jon- our head foreign teacher- (who is also super tall and thin and fit) caught up to him. Finally it was two sixth grade teachers racing against each other. The Korean teacher was ahead, but in the last quarter of the circuit, he turned to look back. Apparently he intended to take hands with his foreign teacher partner so that they could finish the race together. However, in looking back, he tripped, and they both went down! The foreign teacher rolled back up a second later, but the Korean teacher stayed down; he was hurt!
Alas the race ended with two dirt-covered teachers, one of which was hurt. Luckily there weren't any other injuries that I know of during the day.
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