Seonam Middle School: Year One Done

Korea Year One at Seonam Middle School is officially over. It is summer vacation and my contract obligations will be finished once my camp is finished next week. It’s been a crazy experience and I really don’t feel like it’s been as long as it has. I got here last August when it was hot hell and I had no clue what the hell people were staying around me. Korea was a strange new place and I didn’t have a clue how to take it. My school has had it’s ups and downs, but I’ve enjoyed my time and I admit I want to see how well I can handle Year Two.

Today was the last day of regular school, so I walked around and took pictures while the kids all cleaned their classrooms and said their goodbyes to each other. One particular touching moment was when a 1st year (7th grade) girl was saying goodbye to all her friends for the last time. She was transferring and one of her friends was taking it rather hard. I got a picture of them all together (despite them all hiding their faces) and I watched them as they all walked the halls together. The girl’s mother was there with her and she seemed to understand and let her have a little time with her friends.

When I left the school, some of the boys were standing outside the gate and I talked to them for a minute. They took a few pictures and I said my goodbyes. Before heading home, I stopped into the usual corner store. The owner stopped me and had his son translate something for me. He apparently wants to give me a gift for my family before I go home. I was very humbled by the act of kindness. The family that runs that store have been so nice to me I’ve always feel real welcome there.

Needless to say, I’m not the same person I was when I came here. I hope thing will only get better from here on out.

Now that the reflection is out the way. . . time to have some fun. IT’S SUMMER BABY!!

More last Day Pictures are HERE.

Destiny is pre-ordained. . . Just like grades

Sparkling Korea hasn’t done this in a while to me, so I guess I was overdue for another headache moment.

For the next three weeks, I’ll be giving individual reading tests to students. I sit in a room and they come in one at a time. Each student will pick from a series of pre-prepared cards and read them to me. I will record and grade each student based on their ability. Simple, right?

Well, here’s the wrinkle in the system. When my co-teacher’s handed me the grading scale to use, they also gave me a set number of grades I could give out per grade. Which means if I have a class of 34 students, then only 5 can be A’s, 6 can be B’s and so on.

Excuse me????

So you mean to tell me that I have a set number of each grade to give out? This means I have worry about the fact that one student might just work their ass of and really do a good job, but because I gave all my “A’s” I have to give them a B? Are we serious?

Somehow they have pre-determined the grades for the students even before they start. How the hell?

I asked about this and while I didn’t get an exact reason, they just explained that I have to use each set of numbers. So I’m forced to be really conservative with my grades. Yesterday I found myself dinging them for every little thing. Plus, I’ve been here a year so I have a fairly good idea of who will do a good job and who won’t. But that doesn’t mean someone won’t harder.

This makes me wonder how many other grades come out like this????

Now it’s been brought to my attention that this isn’t that unusual a practice, even back in the US. To me, the idea of such a practice is insane. What happened to getting the grade you earned?

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.

Lost Entry: Visit to Korean Mom

(Originally written 4/06/08, this entry was saved and upadated later)


This past weekend I skipped my usual trip to the gym with the rest of fight club group and met my old co-teacher Mrs. Jeong (aka Korean Mom). She has a weekly meeting with a group of her friends and they practice English and she invited me to come along. I figured I would be around a group of older women teachers for the day, but I would deal with it.

I was surprised that the group was very mixed across the board. True, most of them were teachers, but it was made up of both men and women and the ages varied. They all come from different walks of life and from different jobs.The group meets to read over and discuss different new artiles written in English. The articles range from current events to And Landers. I got to join in and they had questions for me on a few things. It was a good peek into the mind set of Koreans, at least a few opinions. There were a few things discussed that kind of made me wiggle a bit, but nothing I couldn’t handle.



I was really interested in seeing them interact because in the whole time I’ve been here, I’ve rarely had a chance to interact with Koreans in a non school setting. Unlike some of my friends, the teachers at my school rarely interact with me outside of school. My social experience with Koreans in general is very limited so I feel like that's part of the cultural experience I miss out on. The biggest problem is of course the language barrier; I don't speak enough Korean and most Koreans don't have a strong enough handle of over the English language. However, this was not the case for the English Disscussion group. The majority of them speak very good English and can express themsleves very clearly. I can only hope to get a 10th of that in Korean one day.



I think what I enjoyed most about the situation is that everyone was comfortable with each other. Everyone was joking, even making fun of each other. It was a lot of laughs, both for them and me. . One of the most interesting conversations was the one about multi-tasking that led to a men vs. women debate. They also talked about dealing with cultural idea of chivalry. While it’s a deteriorating idea in the west, it still does exist. Here in Korea, it’s a new idea. There is still an idea of “women’s” work and men don’t do things like hold doors for women. I could tell the women like the idea, but they were very unused to it.

I tired not to say too much (however, I’m sure I failed once or twice, particularly about the chivalry disscussion). Still, I got to pick their brains a bit and see what types of lives they lived. In the end, I was invited to come back and I’m considering making it a once a month thing to join them. Mrs. Jeong thought it would be fine.

After everything was over and everyone went home, Mrs. Jeong took me to get dinner. Did I mention the she rocks? Then we went shopping – she needed to buy things for home and I needed food for the next two weeks. I was more than thankful for this because I don’t have a car here and because she drove it meant I could buy a bit more than normal. Trust me; lugging boxes of crap on the subway is not fun.

We got to catch up and she told me about her new school and I told her about my time at Seonam. I can see that being at a high school is changing up her life. I could see that she had lost weight (the woman is tiny as it is!) and she told me that she works longer hours and has to do more preparation. However she seems to like her new homeroom. I told her that she was missed at the school and that a few students had asked me if I liked her or her replacement better. I can also tell she missed her son (who is recently started his required military service). She told me a few times how her home life has changed between her son leaving and her new job. She says that she gets up at 3 or 4 in the morning to do house chores before going to work!!! I even got a little insight from her about the personalities of the other English teachers at my school. Most of it I guessed, but it was interesting to see her perspective on it.

One thing that was not lost on me was seeing her home for the first time. This is the first time I’ve been in someone’s house other than another westerner. By American standards, she has a small apartment good for one or maybe two people. Personally, I thought it was beautiful. She said it was plain, but I thought it was very nice. A nice view of the city and the mountains, good space, and even a nice kitchen. I could tell that she worked hard to keep it clean because when all her guests left when the group meeting was over, she immediately started to clean (She would not let me help despite me trying three times.).

Despite it being a rather low-key day, it’s still one of the more memorable. I'm glad I got to see it because I don't know when I will get such an opportunity again.

Take Notes In Class

This is how I know I'm taking the idea of teaching more seriously.

I have a few kids who regularly visit my desk in the teacher's office. At some point during the day, a group of several girls will come hover around and start asking random questions. A few of them speak limited english, the rest either try or relay questions and comments thru their friends.

So one day, two of the girls that happen to be best friends start to explain their nicknames to me. One goes by Mouse and the other by the name Spongebob(When I see them together, I call them MouseBob). So after their giggle-filled explantion, they go off to class. Later in the day, I get a pair of notes from them:





Now of course, this is a cute gesture because I know both girls have limited english skills. I happy if any child shows any level of desire to try to use the language. It's technically what I'm here for afterall.

Now, being the teacher, what did I do?

I copied the notes on paper, corrected them, then gave the corrected versions back to the girls. They were actually happy once I gave them back.

However, what bothered me most is that despite the fact that there is a big name tag on my desk, they still got my name wrong.

It doesn't matter, I keep both notes stuck on my desk. Something I have noticed that the kids take pride in.

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!!!

Walking Around In Circles

I started my last English camp for the winter break today, and it was pretty straightforward. I didn’t realize how much my last camp spoiled me. The kids at my last camp were much more responsive than this group, but then still aren’t bad. The younger kids are still the more fun ones because they don’t have inhibitions. The older ones are apathetic and humorous even when I want to ring their necks.

Still, the start of this camp did not go well for me. For starters, I was about 15 minutes late due to odd directions I received. Instead of being able to map quest a place and drive there ( Map Quest I miss you!!!!), I had to get directions from the Teachers at the school. So I was giving a tiny map to the school. . . . . . In KOREAN. Now, consider the fact that during the school year, my trip from my school to my apartment is 5 minutes. This English camp’s location is remotely close to the next to the last stop on the Eastern subway line. . . . . roughly 10-12 stops from me. . who lives on the West line. Now the kicker of this whole debacle is that when I got off the train, I suddenly realized two things

A) I didn’t have a copy of the map and had to go by memory.
B) I also forgot the paper with the name of the school written in Korean: no taking a cab for me.

I took what I assumed would be the right path; going the opposite way of the train because that’s what it looked like on the map when I got it. This guess turned out to be totally wrong. As I realized I was going the wrong way (roughly 10 blocks later), I mentally turned the shoddy map around in my head and went. . . “Oh.”

So I trudged back in the opposite direction knowing that if I ran into another train station that I totally went too far. I trotted along, looking up for some sort of landmark. . that was when I realized something. .

The map only had three: the train stations, the mart where the corner was and the school itself.

Let me also give you a little in-site on Korean directions. No one actually uses street names here. Streets are marked with names or some sort of system, I’ve seen the signs. But No one uses them. I haven’t figured out if this is the norm or not; I have this strange feeling that we westerners are considered too dumb to read Korean street signs and thus never given the street directions. Regardless, I ended up going down another wrong street before being called by the teachers at the school.

Did I mention that said forgotten slip of paper with the school name also had the school phone number? FUN!!!

I finally found the right street with the right mart on the corner, but I was dog tired by then. No matter the fact that I have been in this country for about five months now; you can’t match Koreans and walking because they have done it their whole lives. Me and my fat, lazy American self was more than a little tired by the time the one of the teachers found me on the street. I’m sure it was a humorous site to see me walking in the door softly trying to catch my breath.

Korean walking 1, Me 0. . . . curse you, walking around as transportation!!!!


I taught my first lesson shortly after, which wasn’t bad, but wasn’t terribly interesting. . . even to me. I tried with my power points and pictures but it only work so much. I was talking about hobbies: how much can you talk about hobbies when you have a limited understanding of language. It’s fine, doing the Time lesson is always better and more fun for me. . last time the kids like it as well. I’ll have to take some pictures and post them.

Today was the start of my week long English camp. It was odd being in a room of kids younger than 6th grade. They were a little different. Unlike normal school, I'm in the room by myself. That freaked me out a bit because I'm not used to that. It wasn't horrid and in some ways it's kind of fun. The kids were mostly good, but I don't know if that's because it's that it was new to them.

I kind of like the energy of the younger kids. Generally they were better behaved than my usual middle school kids. What was odd was that I could give instructions in English and they mostly got it. That NEVER happens with the older kids. But from my understanding, the kids in the camp were picked because they are BETTER at English than usual.

Either way, 4 days to go.

Because it was such a short day, I was downtown around 1pm and I was shocked at the number of elderly folk. They are EVERYWHERE!! I was in the mall above Banwoldang Station and they were just sitting on every bench. I have seen random old people just sitting in this country but it's odd to see the massive numbers of them out and about. They generally do nothing. . . just sit in groups or on benches and talk to each other. That is odd compared to back home.

Because I'm so used to being at school during the day, It's a little odd to suddenly have time on my hands. I'm trying to figure out what to do with myself because I think it's a waste to go home and sit in my apartment. I pretty much just came home after doing some light exploring and went to sleep. . . . untlil 11 at night! THAT'S JUST SICK!