Who Was That Masked Child??

Korea is pretty cold during the winter and people here worry quite a bit about being sick. The first cold day of the year brings in legions of people wearing medical face masks wherever they go. 2/3 of a class might have on face masks when I come to work, and for some reason I decided to snap as many pictures of students as I can. Sometimes I have to sneak, other times I they are more than willing to appear in a picture.

Sports Day Is An Excuse To Wear A Costume During P.E. Class

Students flutter around in colorful T-shirts and pants. The usual blue and while uniforms are exchanged for green and blue P.E. Sweat suits. Out come freshly made signs written in Korean. The teachers are dressed down. It's my favorite school day of the year: Sports Day.



Of all the school days in the year, Sports day is the one I find most fascinating. It's the one day were the students are allowed to kick back and be a little wild. They get to paint their faces, wear costumes and funny clothing, along with oddball accessories. I have nothing to do but watch and observe this day, so I get to really enjoy watching the students.


Sports day is like Field Day for some schools in the states or summer camps. In this case it's class vs. class. There are various events, most of them kind of silly; but it's meant to be fun.



The students usually wear some kind of uniform clothing to match with their classmates. 2-4 might wear blue t-shirts while 1-3 might wear funny hats. This year one of the second year classes decided to wear headbands with Giant flowers on them. Boys as well as girls. Another class decided to wear animal ears. Another got Giant Bows.



They all make signs, most of which are in support of each other. Most are Korean so I can't understand what the hell I'm reading. However, many of them are in English. What's even funnier are the ones that are written in Korean to phonetically spell out an English word or phrase. Clever kids.



My role in this is very limited. I walk around all day and do squat. No classes, no tutoring. Just wandering around and talking to students and/or teachers. I usually take a lot of pictures because it's one of the few times I can get pictures unexpectedly. It also might be one of the few times students might willingly pose for a shot. So I get to pose in pictures with them and they act a little silly.



I spent most of my time around the 3rd year section. This is odd considering that I tend to favor the second year students. But many of them were talkative.



I won't go into a lot of detail, but will say I was a bit disappointed with this year. Last year seemed to have more events and the students wore more interesting clothes. This year they mostly wore their P.E. Uniforms with an added assessory or two. Also, the students seemed to have more fun last year. I recall several students doing commentary during events over the PA system. I also remember them having a Talent Show after the regular events. No Talent show this time, so no students showing out. I have no idea why, but I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with the more conservative principal we have this year.

Regardless, pictures are here for your enjoyment.

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?

Don't Speak While You Kick Push

This week has been very laid back at least in terms of teaching. Because the students will have mid-terms soon, the second year students have to play catch up. This means that my classes for them have been canceled this week. That effectively cuts 1/3 of my classes for the week, so I haven’t tried to actually use the books to teach from.

For the first year students, I’m doing a light review. I have a tough time explaining it to some of them, but the idea is that they have to make a 4-panel comic strip using the lessons we have already gone over. I give them the book pages to use as references; but basically they have to make a comic showing an introduction between people, two friends greeting each other, one person inviting another to do an activity. I wish I had gotten to use it on class 105 (my angel class) but I had to play catch up with them. The test class was 102; a class where I don’t have English co-teacher. It wasn’t too hard to get them to understand the concepts, but I know it would have gone smoother if I had a co-teacher who could help with questions.

The third year students have a lesson that involves music. I selected two songs; one song because it is slow, the other because it’s tougher and I had a feeling they might like it. The songs are “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt and “Kick, Push” by Lupe Fiasco. I first made a lyric sheet for them for each song then I made a worksheet with words missing in the lyrics. It’s to test their listening skills. The first class didn’t go as well as I would have liked because I wasn’t able to set things up like I should have. The next class went much smoother because I found a copy of the video for “Don’t Speak” on youtube that had the lyrics. It’s gone over fairly in well in the classes. . . but it’s third years so you never know. The girls seemed to like “Don’t Speak” and the boys “Kick Push”. . . overall, “Kick, Push” is the favorite.

As I expected, the students keep up with “Don’t Speak”. In fact, I’ve caught some of the girls mouthing the words to it. They all seem to find “Kick Push” hard to keep up with. Still, some of them were able to catch on to it after listening. I eventually want to do a lesson where classes pick a song to learn and I give them the lyric sheets. I will try hard to find song with easy lyrics to learn. I have talked about it with my co-teacher and the big issue is songs that are overly sexual. Considering that many students requested “Sexyback” by Justin Timberlake, I can see this will be an uphill battle.

Pictures of the Week (April 15)

I know, the Pictures of the Week segment is a little sporadic, but I try to make up for it with more than one picture. So for this week, a few random pictures from school and around town.

This first picture is another one from the morning line-up at my school. The difference here is that these kids were all caught smoking. Their punishment: make signs and stand in front of the school all morning with them. So far, the count is three days stright. These boys have to stand up every morning while all the other studends walk past them.

This is an example I decided to use in a lesson. Korea's national baseball team made the finals of the World Baseball Classic and it was a huge deal over here. They lose to their rival Japan near the end, so I decided to use this as a part of an example. The students got a giggle out of it, however, I'm sure I misspelled Ichiro's name.

The next picture is a very random and odd picture from the subway. Me and a friend were walking around and randomly spotted this rather confusing can inside. Does this mean that ANYTHING can come out if you slect the random can? Or perhaps it's just whatever they decide to load in it's slot? Perhaps something even more insane like some random thing will happen if you pick this can. I didn't spend the 500 won to find out.

Freak Out the Students

Yesterday, one of the kids in class said something to me and for some reason it caused me to respond in Korean. It was simple No (An-Ne-Yo) but a few kids were suprised I even could say that much. I heard a few of them say, "You can speak Korean."

My response?

"Han Guk mal jal moat hey yo." (I can't speak Korean well.)

The whole class went "WWWWOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAHHHH!" Took them a moment to clam down.

It's a small. . . VERY small step. Hell, three months ago I couldn't even say that! Who knows; maybe ONE day I'll be able to speak in full sentences.

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.

Uniform Code

So I figured out the oddball issue with uniforms here.

It's not secert that Korea (and many Asian countries) have uniforms for schools. It's just one of those trademark things here.



Well, when I got here, I found out that many of the uniform companies use pop idols to advertize the uniforms. I find this odd because many of the uniforms used in the adds are always over the top compared to the uniforms the school use.






Now you see the uniforms in the ad here. Now take a look at the uniforms my students have:


Nothing quite so colorful. I'll go out on a limb and say that this is more of the normal look of the typical uniform here in Korea. I've seen a few oddball ones here and there, but most of them look pretty standard. So to me, it seemed like a waste of advertising. Especially when I saw the uniform shops near my friend's house.







I can only imagine telling an American student they had to wear something like that everyday. The riots would be intense. Honestly, we already have issues in America with the very idea of wearing a uniform, much less one that looks like it something out of an anime. But still, the whole thing still confused me until recently. Pointless to have pop stars selling your product when it's an pretty much something you HAVE to have. I mean, the school makes you wear them, right?

Well, sort of.

I asked one of my co-teachers about this the other day when the issue of school dress code came up (more on that another time). When I told her that I figured the school picked out the uniforms, she told me I was mistaken. Apperently, the students vote on the uniforms before the school year starts. In fact, she informed that that this year the uniform changed. . . at least the brand did. The same style uniform was used, but the students decided to change the brand they bought from.

NOW the advertizing makes sense.

Which makes things even more interesting that the government recently banned the practice of using idols to sell uniforms. The reason: rising cost of uniforms. Unifroms can run you between 150,000 - 300,000 won per set (That's anywhere from $100-250 bucks USD). Now consider that kids wear these things every day from 5-6 days a week from Late Feb. to The end of the year. That's a LOT of wear and tear.

However, I feel sorry for the school that has to wear the wild hot pink unifroms. . . ugh.

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.

. . 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.

Random Conversation: American Students vs. Korean Students

Part of a conversation I had with a Korean teacher about differences in middle school students and elementary school students today:




Me – “When the students at my school go to sleep, I yell by their ear and wake them up.”

Korean Teacher – “You should be careful, there has been an issue with students hitting teachers here.”

Me – “That doesn’t worry me.”

Korean Teacher – “Why?”

Me – “In America, students have been known to pull guns and shoot up schools. Hitting is the least of my worries.”





Not to say Korean kids cant' be annoying. . . . . Trust me; kids will always be kids. But at least this country has very strict gun laws. (It also doesn't hurt that I'm bigger than they are but quite a bit.). One of my friends used to be a teacher in one of the rougher districts in Atlanta and she saw more things with younger kids than I would want to admit to. I can only wonder what will happen when the day comes that I go back home and become a certified teacher back home.

Put A Little Smile On Your Face

So it's Christmas Eve and I'm at school. Can't say it's got me in the most cheerful of moods, but what do you expecct with culture clash? But as I'm walking to the teacher's office, I get rushed by one of the students and I was given this:





Yeah, I know they aren't the best in terms of English (and the poor girl messed up my last name), but the effort more than makes up for it.
I got a few more from students, but this one is special. Made my day.


Merry Christmas, folks.

My Hood - Around The School & Neighborhood

I took some time and snapped a few pictures one day around the school and neighborhood. As always, click to see bigger images.




This first one is of a few of the random students. They are first years (7th grade) and from one of my nosier classes. Rather goofy group. They think I don't understand that I know when they are joking about me (at least the middle one doesn't). The one with the glasses is always acting goofy, yet she gets mad if someone calls her a comedian.










Schools over here don't have janitors, so the students are responsible for cleaning the school. Everyday after school they clean their classrooms. I don't know why, but the brooms here are so short. They have regular sized mops, but super short brooms here. Confuses me to no end.













I sometimes bring my football to work and throw it around during lunch with the students. They still call it a "rugby ball" and have no clue how to throw it or catch it. Still, they find it interesting that i like it so much.















Anyone who's spent time over here will tell you about the street food. You can't get away from it and you will eat it. This one happens to be the snack stand next to the school. The kids raid this place after school. They also sneak over and buy food during school hours and lunch when they aren't supposed to. I often stop and grab something here either during lunch or after school. Not the best food in terms of health, but it's good and cheap.








The owner of the corner mart next to my apartment. He and his wife are so cool to me and have even started carrying items just because I asked about it. A pretty remarkable accomplishment considering they hardly speak any English and I barely can greet them in Korean. Still, they always speak even when I don't come in to buy something. I can only imagine what they think of my random buying habits.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow. . . .

I Woke up this morning and opened my window. . . . only to be greeted by snow flurries. .

SNOW!!! WHOO HOO!!

Forgive my oddball southern ways. If you are familiar with Atlanta (or just about any part of the south below the Carolinas), then you know that it rarely snows in the Southeast. For me, snow is a rarity, something to be amazed at. I quickly revert to a six year old kid ready to toss snowballs. While I knew that snow wasn’t uncommon in Korea, I’m still not used to seeing it. I walked to school in the snow and it picked up as the morning went out. The staff and students were a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed watching the snow fall from the window. I explained that it rarely happened where I’m from so it’s a bit exciting to me. I decided to snap a few pictures while I could. I had no idea how long it would last.

From My Hood - Area I live and Around School

From My Hood - Area I live and Around School

From My Hood - Area I live and Around School