Keeping that Desk Warm

I’d like to thank one Jeremy Polio for inspiring me to blog a little at long last. This post will be a running tally through my ordinary day at work. I’ve decided to leave it unedited to provide some insight into what I’m thinking at the time, I might do a spell check.

So right now, it is 8:50 am November 23, 2009 and I am 20 minutes into my day. I woke up a little early this morning, around 6:40 and managed to sleep till 7. I needed to wash my bed clothing, desperately needed to, so I couldn’t sleep till 7:20. On my way out, I brought the garbage down but I desperately fear the Adjeoshi door man from saying something to me cause I never use the appropriate bags and am completely lost when it comes to navigating the trash system here. I caught the 8:03 train to Macheondong, got out at Geoyeodong at 8:14, one minute early, and was able to buy my Kimbap, juice, milk, and cookies for breakfast without coming in characteristically late. I made it through 15 pages of the current book I’m reading, “The Complete Sherlock Holmes”, while on the train and am still wondering why he is prattling on about Mormons finding their Zion.

On Monday’s my typical morning schedule involves eating my aforementioned breakfast, reading the various websites that I do on the internet, and preparing for the weeks lessons. I typically will need to print the work sheets for the first two classes. I will then make my weekly and bewildering visit to the copy room where the lovely Copy Adjumma will make the 700 copies I need. She’s awesome. I make last minute touch ups to whatever I’m doing as well. This typically takes 10 minutes leaving me 20 minutes to waste away before my first class at 9 am. Typical websites visited include, BBC, Facebook, Dave’s ESL Café, Penny-Arcade, SOME world, Hotmail, and Wikipedia.

It is now 8:58 and my first class will start soon. Class 305. They organize the classes based upon the room and grade. So this is third grade, our 9th grade, in room 5. They are the most taxing class to deal with. Especially now that their finals are over and there is nothing to do. Yes, that’s right, the 3rd graders have already had their finals a month and a half before the end of the semester. Add in the air of too cool for school and the first class on a Monday morning, they are a riot.

So the day begins…

So between each period of 45 minutes, there is a 10 minute break. Normally I stare blankly till I have to trudge to the next class. I’ll never have more then three classes in a row. Sometimes the students will come around a bother me. There is one particular student who is in love with me and makes it especially awkward. As I am writing this she is telling me “You are not alone, I love you.”

So my break is up and I must once again attempt to fill the gap in the younglings. So the second grade class I just had was a lot more excitable. They’re typically more easily entertained and not as jaded. This week we’re playing Jeopardy review and they enjoyed it a lot more.So its 10:40, and now begins my two half hour break in between classes.

I’ll check back in later…

So during this break, I pretty much waste my time. I find it pretty difficult to lesson plan during this time, though I know I should be doing that. Typically I will read a book or read on the internet. I’m attempting to get better at productively using this time, but the temperature of the office, around 75-80 Fahrenheit, 23-24 Celsius makes me really drowsy. I’m trying to make a point of writing more and just being more productive, ala this blog post, but the instant coffee I have to drink is not nearly powerful enough to keep me awake.

Currently two students are being punished five feet away from and being forced to write letters to the teachers. They’re whispering quietly, knowing I neither care about their predicament nor do I have any real power over them. Unhappy face.

The office I’m in has desks for 20 teachers, 4 head teachers, and the vice principal. I’m smack dab in the middle and the vice principal has direct line of sight to my computer screen. I doubt this is intentional as she doesn’t seem to care at all what I do but it severely curtails what I can do. Also, the computer is in Korean.

Well, its 12:20 and I’ve just returned from lunch. There were a breathtaking amount of options, all Korean food today. It was actually rather tasty if saltier then a drink of sea water. On some days they’ll have American options like spaghetti ala ketchup or corn dogs (?!). Today at lunch, one of my Co-teachers, Cha Eun Yeong was discussing discipline problems with her students. Apparently they don’t take her seriously because she is single, young, and kind. Another Co-worker, I Hye Jin, started at the same time as Cha Eun Yeong. She was telling me, they “They screwed this year.” Of course she had meant “They screwed up…”, this was possibly the best gaff so far.

I’ve still got an hour till my next class.Korean food is quite pungent and garlicky, so it makes sense that one would brush their teeth afterwards. It’s a ritual that kind of weirds me out. For one, they all do it in the sink in the room, so the entire room constantly smells like it, and I really dislike the smell of tooth-brushing, especially someone else. They all do so together and carry on perfectly normal conversations. I was in fact presented with my very own toothbrush on my first day here. This is one ritual I could do with out. I think they think I’m a little weird for doing it in the bathroom.I just returned from brushing my teeth and I got a question for the fellow teachers, do your bathrooms always smell like the “kimchi shits”?

In addition to my goal of writing a blog post, I’ve been attempting to figure out a good location for a thanksgiving dinner. You can find both pricey and crappy quite easily, I don’t mind pricey, but I’m really spoiled when it comes to food, so I won’t settle for anything but quality. So in an atypically typical fashion, my last class of the day has been cancelled. Apparently some of the graduated students have returned to give presentations to the current 3rd (9th) graders.

I am now free till the beginning of my after school classes.I have three after school classes, two are for students and one is for the adult teachers. The adult classes are a blast. I get to know my coworkers better and have intelligent discourse concerning English. It’s always interesting and lasts typically an hour longer then I have to. The after-school classes for students are kind of a drag. The students are normally exhausted and tired of work by the time it comes around. I tried once to do a lesson but it failed miserably. I can have extremely mixed levels and mixed grades. The mixed grade thing is a real problem. 1st, 2nd,and 3rd grade classes won’t interact with each other at all. So getting them to participate with each other is a challenge. Additionally there are a couple of students who speak better then the English teachers and then there are students that can’t string three words into a coherent sentence. I’ve just taken to watching TV in these classes. It’s a cop out but the students love it because they are unanimously against work and won’t participate with each other in activities and games. We are currently watching Harry Potter.

So yeah, that’s pretty much a typical day here at work. Oh, sometimes I smile; occasionally I laugh.

Pop Music in Korea

Pop music is ubiquitous in Korea. Everyone likes it, from the old to the young, that includes those who are too young and too old to be liking it. Cleverly known as K-Pop, it's catchy. Like, really catchy. You hear it everywhere, from the trendiest bars and night spots, to the oldest salaryman's ringtone.

Here is an example:




At my school, I was the judge of an English pop song contest. Each class put forward one group to compete in a pop song contest. I'm kind of vague as to what the rules were but there had to be some aspect of English involved and it had to be a performance.

Some of the groups were really cute and well put together. Others were cute and clearly not rehearsed. One group of 9th graders did their own version of the above posted song.

That type of performance was a bit atypical for the contest, but I have an example of a good typical performance that was done there. I'm calling it "Summer Day Hot".




It turns out these performances were for a district wide English contest. 5 different schools ftom my district each submitted two different acts. There were a lot of plays and pop song performances. One of my schools teams for second place!

Beginning, Part 2

So, onward with my little tale. Everything hereafter will be just blog posts, this is the end of the recounting. There's so much to say and it's all jumbled in my head, I apoligize in advance if there are continuity errors or whole details missing. I will probably end up making posts about everything covered here in greater detail with pictures. Comment if you want more clarity.

So, my co-teacher Ms. Kim and department head Mrs. Cheong picked me up from the Gang Dong Gu (The district I am in) district head quarters. A very very friendly round of hellos was had and we got to know each other a bit. They are two of the sweetest people I have ever met and have been invaluable in helping me out. I think they are a little, I don't know how to describe it, between weirded out and put off, that I've only accepted a little of their help. They discovered very quickly how independent minded I am and accepted it and moved on.

The apartment I was put up in is anything but acceptable to me. I'll spare the you the full details, but it has mold, is really small, and in the boonies. The one plus is that it is a 5 minute walk to school. This is a benefit to a degree, except that I see my students everywhere. I'm starting the process of apartment hunting to change, so all's good on that front.

Two days later on Monday, I started my job. It was a bit daunting at first to say the least. Only 7 people can speak English at the school and only 4 passably. I've made friends with a couple of people and at the very least, people smile and want to make conversation. I had to wait about 7 school days to teach because of this paranoia surrounding swine flu. It might not just be paranoia though, 3 kids at the elemtry school in my area had it.

I wasn't sure at my reception, but to counter this, I brought in 3 asian pears, diced them up to the best of my abilites, plated them in a nice design, and served it to my fellow teachers and admin. This went over incredibly well. I made a special plate for the principal and he loved it. Speaking of which, the principal is this stoic middle aged man, who sits kind of aloof like, and then speaks to you in a direct, hesitated way. More on him in another post.

I've started to teach now, and it's awesome. The students are all really excited. I can't go 20 minutes without hearing the words, handsome, pretty, and ohbaby. It's quite nice even if a little alarming.

So, those are the most basic of introductions. Excuse this phrase, but now we're blogging with gas.

First Post

Well, I've joined the many and have become a blogger. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I feel I need to start jotting down thoughts and what not. I'm currently living in Seoul and most of this blog for now will detail my life in Seoul, teaching and other wise, and other possible Asian topics.

So to Begin, Part 1:

Upon arrival in Korea, 500 newly hired foreign teachers were shipped to Sung Kyun Kwan University in Suwon for a week of orientation/indoctrination fun. We were housed in a newly built dormitory and were fed cafeteria food. At first we were served Korean meals which were decent, but after three days they were serving us "white food". It didn't taste particularly good.

The purpose of the orientation was to give teachers new to Korea or the public school system (SMOE) an introduction and a leg up in what they were going to deal with. The classes were mostly helpful and the people I met were mostly awesome.

There was one hitch. In addition to the campus being dry, there was a blanket ban on leaving the campus. The going reasoning was to prevent the spread of possible Swine Flu. Amongst the many rumors that spread like wild fire this week, one rumor as to why were kept on campus was because of the lack of insurance coverage. I'm no more wise then anyone else to say why, so I'll leave it at that.

Some of the more entertaining rumors were

-A crazy drunk had gotten so intoxicated that he ran through the halls of the dorms completely naked and accosted the coordinators of the program. He was promptly sent home.

-Not one, but two lesbian couples had been immediately sent home.

-5 people had swine flu and were immediately sent home. (It was true 5 people had swine flue, but they were sent to a hospital and given the anti-viral.)

-3 people had been sent home for having been off campus.

These rumors kept most of the recent hirees at bay but a select few, including myself of course, by the third day in, were braving the streets of Suwon looking for edible food and drinkable drink.

The week wasn't all bad but a common theme throughout was the lack of information made available to us. They refused to tell us what type of school we were teaching in for about two days and would not tell us the locations/districts we were teaching in, until the last night. This was not the only information withheld but it was the most frustrating.

After 3 days, cabin fever had set in and most of us were itching to get out. But before we knew it, we were shipped off to Seoul to our district offices to meet our Co-Teachers and to move into our new apartments.

to be continued...