To Be (In Korea) or Not to Be (In Korea)

And so the time has come; the question of contract renewals has come up. Signing back on means another year in Korea. Another year away from friends, family and the comfort of Atlanta. No Game nights with the crew, no AWA, no UFC nights with the guys and no football. Also, no time with someone special back home I miss, no goofing with my brother, no trips to find a corner in Boarders and read and no random runs to Café Intermezzo or Real Chow Baby.

It also means, more learning Korean, more Korean children, more being stared at, and more random nights out with the expats here. It means a possible trip to Japan and who knows where else, more learning about another culture, more not knowing what people are saying around me, and more Norebang nights.

I can honestly say I’m not ready to head home yet. I feel that my time here isn’t done. Yeah, I want to see my people, but I will see them. I will get a chance to hang with them again when I go home for the summer, but I think another year is needed. Then I’ll be ready.

I just hope everything with evaluations go ok. I enjoy my school, but there are times would enjoy another school. I would like to teacher more motivated and advanced kids, but that would require moving to another part of the city more than likely. I’ve grown very attached to the kids here at Seonam Middle School. Even some of the bad ones.

But, when it comes to the teachers here, I feel lost as hell. They are nice to me at least. I like the well enough. Basically, most of them are women and it’s tough to get past that barrier here. The cultural divide is too tough. I don’t relate to them very well, nor they to me. I barely know the other English teachers here and there are days were I barely say a word at work other than my English class work. And that bothers me. A lot. Particularly when I hear of some friends who have regular contact with their teachers outside of work. Hell, I even know they were hoping for a girl and got me instead. It’s just the truth of the matter.

So the big question is will I ask to change schools or will they ask to have me changed?

Crash and Burn with Pre-teen Drama 101

A few weeks ago, I learned that I would have afternoon classes this semester. The difference between the afternoon classes and my normal classes is that I’m in the classroom with students by myself and I’m teaching whatever I want. This can be good and bad. I like the idea of the freedom to be in class with no one around, but it also presents the problem of what to do with that freedom.



By chance, a friend of mine who teaches at another school told me that she was using a TV show to teach kids English. Because she wanted to use a safe show, she used the Nickelodeon show Zoey 101.
Initially the idea of such a show did not seem interesting to me. A Pre-teen show about a girl . . complete with light romance themes and bubble gum plotlines. I at least wanted to use something with some more teeth. I toyed with the idea of using a show like the new 90210 or One Three Hill, but the content, plotlines and language would have been a bit questionable. I also thought of using Saved By The Bell but I thought it might be too dated. . . plus I didn't think the DVD set would get here on such short notice (international shipping is pricy!). However, I knew that the audience would be younger middle school age kids and mostly girls (boys usually don’t study languages over here so I didn’t expect many boys in the class). I also knew the show’s content would be (relatively) safe. So I ran the idea by one of my co-teachers and she loved the idea.


I got the scripts my friend used, the videos of the show and I made a study guide with vocabulary words and questions. I figured that the kids who would sign up for the class would be more advanced than most in the school, but I still tried to make
things easy for them. I figured the idea of watching a TV show in English with no Korean subtitles would be a bit much for them. As I went thru and watched the first thru episodes so I would know what the hell I was teaching, I got excited about the idea of doing this lesson instead of the typical book work I usually teach in class.

So this past Monday was the first day to teach this class. I came into class with my packets, my TV episodes and more information about Zoey 101 than a man of 30 should know. As I expected, the class is made up of almost all girls and mostly first years (seventh grade). So, I started class with a very light explanation of the show.

And they barely understand a word I said.

Turns out the students in the class were not as advanced as I thought. They had a very basic understanding of the language, so a lot of instructions were hard for them. It took a few tries, but they got a few of my instructions. As I plotted thru the packet with them, I feared that I would have to scrap everything I worked on.

Instead of simply showing them the show and going over the information in the packet as I had planned, I read over the script of the show with them slowly and had them highlight any words they don’t know. Then I gave them explanations of words and we watched only a scene of the show. I was relieved when I noticed that they understood some of what was going on. It gave me some hope to keep trying for the next class.

I ended up going home and revising the lesson. The next day, I read thru the script in class and gave the students English to Korean dictionaries to look up the words they didn’t know. I even went down a basic explanation of the characters and I noticed that they were finally catching on. I played the scene twice for them; once to let them hear the language, then again after reading slowly thru the lines. During the second run thru, a few students were mouthing the words and mimicking the actors’ lines. After class, two of the older girls told me the class was hard but interesting. The class also kept watching the show even after the bell rang.

My goal is to get the students used to the speed of the show and broaden their English vocabulary. If I can get them thru one episode a week, I’ll be fine as long as they are really learning. However, I’m very happy I didn’t have to junk my who lesson.

. . Try, Try, Again. . . if if that doesn't work; Cut & Paste

I feel sorriest for my Monday students. All last semester I would walk in on Monday with a set of lesson plans and at least one of them would fail miserably. The epic looks of confusion on student's faces would be all the evidence I need that whatever I was teacher or working on would need some serious revision. I each time this happened I would go back to the office (or back home if I didn’t have time) and revised the whole lesson. Sometimes I would trash it and start from scratch.

It looks like this time around I’m going to have the same issues.

Yesterday I had two lessons blow up in my face in a colossal pile of crap. I felt bad because I worked hard on them. I’ve been doing a lot better with my planning (at least I thought I was) and I really wanted to do well. I asked my co-teacher about both of them and the second year teacher, Mrs. Kim, gave me some good ideas to go with. The overall issue it seemed was that I was giving too much information but not explaining it correctly. For me, this is a tough situation because I sometimes feel like my co-teachers don’t always explain what they ask for. I can’t put the blame on them however; I don’t always ask questions. I pledged that this wouldn’t be the case in this semester because I felt I really mailed it in a few times last winter. This time, I asked both my co-teachers for suggestions and I went home and went to work. I even showed them the revisions this morning. Ms. Jeoung (unmarried) explained that I had a lot of good information, but it was too much.

I ended up cutting things down and revising my power points. It cost me some sleep, but I was much happier with the results. The students seemed to pay attention and at least understand the basics of what I said. I realize many of them don’t really care either way, but if I get the majority of their attention then I can’t complain.

I have to admit, I feel that sometimes my lesson plans are the result of my ambition combined with frustration. I sometimes assume the level for my students is way higher than it actually is. Ms. Jeoung tends to tell me to keep in mind that the students don’t know as much as I think they do. SOME do, but I often take for ranted the things a lot of things implied that someone who is native would understand. The frustration is a combination of my impatience along with laziness. If I get caught under the gun, I don’t out as much effort into the work. It results in some rather poor lesson work. As I said before, I’m working on it all this time. I’m still learning a lot about what to do and how to do it.

Communication Is Important. . Even If You Have No Clue As To What's Being Said

I'm taking this as a good sign: I seem to be commuicating with my co-teacher better. I actually sat down and had a conversation with her today. In fact, I think I've talked to her more in the last two days than I in a whole month of last semster. She gave my info about classes. I think it's the fact that I'm coming to her about my lesson plans. I learned from last year to communicate more with her and it seems to help. Things can get lost in translation I think and I got to make sure to stay up to date or I will end up missing something.

Let me say that it pays massively to communicate with the teachers here. If you don't, you miss out on a lot. Like the fact that all the teachers are having a dinner tommrow. Which makes things kind of tough for me because I'm supposed to go to a dinner at Epic tommrow at Ariannas. On one hand, I'm all for bonding opportunities at work, but it's Ariannas. Even my co-teacher said it's a better resturant than the one the school teachers are going to!

I also learned that I will have to teach two first year classes with a Korean teacher in the classroom instead of an English one. THAT is going to be difficult. This means I have to take into account that the kids in the class wont' have anyone to translate if things get difficult. Which means I have make very simple lesson plans. LOTS of visual aids, video clips and simple work for the first year students. It's already going to be tough with them because the first year students tend to be the most scared. The current group already doesn't know me, so it's going be a bit of a challenge. I think it won't be too bad because the one thing about first years is that they tend to be easier to keep under control. Nothing I can't handle. Besides, the teacher might end up being good.

Brand New (School) Day: Remember To Set Your Alarm!!!

I had a lot going on recently: Brian’s in-and-out visit, Andrew coming into town, heading up to Seoul with Kathy, trying to go to Busan at some point.

But the biggest thing is that school started this week.

I tried to mentally prepare myself for going back to school. After two months of little (English camps) to no (sitting in my apartment) work, I had to face up to going in and starting up with attempting to get Korean kids to pay attention in class. No easy task when it has no true standing on their grades. I’ll admit I missed working and having something to do, but I’ve thought about a few things I wanted to do in order to make things easier on me.

However, being nearly two hours late is not the way to start things for the new semester.

That’s right, folks. Yours truly had the most epic of screw ups the first day of school. After thinking that I set the alarm the previous evening, I forgot to actually CLICK the switch on the clock to activate alarm. The ending result: me running into school around 9:45 instead of 8:10 like I had planned.

Thankfully, I had taken a shower the night before so I didn’t have to do that. But I skipped breakfast and rush over to the school. I figured that I would have to deal with odd ass stares when I walk in the office, the regular teachers knowing I was late. While I’ve been here I’ve NEVER been late for school. I didn’t count on that this particular morning the school would have Opening Ceremonies for the new school year. As I walked into the school gates, I could see over 500 students along with all the teachers and staff standing outside the school. EVERYONE could see I was late and I could hear the kids saying my name as I walked by.

At that point, I couldn’t say anything. I just took my bag up to the office, came back down and got in line. Stood there as the principal gave a speech. . . I’m assuming it was aimed mostly at the new students. I have to guess or assume because I had no idea what was said. That’s how these functions and meetings go. I sit there and have no clue as to what’s being said. So I often entertain myself by looking around and observing things. The main thing I noticed this time around is that the opening of the school reminded me of Hogwarts only no cool robes, magic or sorting hat. All the kids were lined up in neat rows and sectioned off by their grade level. The watched as all the old first years and second years became the upperclassmen to a group of scared looking kids in street clothes. All the kids in the middle section were former 6th graders from elementary schools. They didn’t have to wear uniforms at their old schools and now they had to be in an extremely rigid world. This is where they had to get serious about school if they wanted to have a fighting chance in life in this country. Middle school makes or breaks you almost for life here, and the new kids looked appropriately scared. There was a point during the ceremony where the younger kids have to bow to both sets of upperclassmen and in return the upperclassmen nod to them in acceptance. I found the ritual of the whole thing so unique than what’s done back home in the states.

When it was all over, I went to the office. I had to end up hunting down information about my schedule and I finally found out what I needed to start doing for the new school year. Once I met the new English teacher, it really sunk in the Mrs. Jeoung, my old co-teacher, was gone. I had known all along that she wouldn’t be here this semester, but she was such a HUGE part of my life here at my school. I never connected with my other co-teachers like I did her and it’s going to be so evident this time. I have to be way more independent now, and that’s not the biggest thing. I’m going to miss her presence around here. Flat out the woman is a good teacher and students did like her a lot. I don’t need to know Korean to see that. She kept my classes in order and things ran smoothly. I rarely had classes that got bad when she was in them. On a personal note, she was the one person I could talk to on a regular basis and she by far knew the most about me. It may not seem like much, but when you sit in a room full of people everyday and you honestly can’t talk to them because of language issues, you notice when things change. That will be the toughest change to deal with.

Still, I’m looking forward to this. I think the classes will not be as tough to deal with because I have a better idea what to do and how to plan things out. Oh there will be problems. . . . no question. The first thing with the students is that 1/3 of the school population doesn’t know anything about me. The older kids have seen me, they are used to me and at least know who I am. Even if they don’t speak to me that much, they at least aren’t freaked out by my presence. But yesterday when I walked down the 1st year’s hall, the kids all started freaking out as if I had grown horns and started breathing fire. That part will go away, but it’s going to get on my nerves a bit.

But one thing is for sure. I'm going to remember to set my alarm!!!

I Wanna Be Sedated

Perhaps I caught it from a student or perhaps it was yesterday’s lack of socks, but I now have a cold. It hit me like a brick wall this morning and it hasn’t let up. I went down to the nurse and she gave me some meds. They have helped, but it’s still pretty bad. I stuck thru my one main class today because it was my favorite class. When they were asked if they wanted free study time or my regular class time they choose class time with me. Strangely, the acted up for the class period and I told them I was rather disappointed in them. I’m NEVER disappointed in 101!

After class I my co-teacher told me to get a rest and come back for one more class. On the way, a couple of the other teachers stopped by the food vendor next to the school and asked me to join them. They don’t speak a whole lot of English but they were nice to me and they even paid for my meal (despite me telling them not to a few times!). Still, I thought it was nice of them considering how little I get to communicate with most of the teachers at my school. Got to love that language barrier, right?

After my unexpected lunch, I went home and took a nap. I ended up oversleeping because my alarm on my cell phone didn’t go off (dang it). She wasn’t upset with me because she knew I was still feeling crappy.

I plan on going to Holy Grill despite how crappy I’m feeling. I have a free meal and I plan on using that up today. Besides, I’m kind of up for some Guitar Hero afterwards.

On a completely different note, my family needs to send me my damn PS3. They don’t understand my lack of entertainment around here! I only have some random books and a few oddball Korean TV shows I find myself watching despite not having a clue as to what the actors are saying. I am not If it weren’t for the laptop and internet I would have gone insane by now. By the time I get my system sent to me, it will be August and time for me to go back to the states!

Random side note: I found out that the 3rd year boys have a running bet to see who can hug me. I had figured this out some time ago, but I just bothered to ask one of the students about it today. This proves my theory that Korean boys are evil.