I am home now after spending an extra 2 hours at work. I don’t like to come home. It’s so lonely without internet, TV, people, the usual. So I’m typing this on Word and listening to music that I don’t frequently listen to. I need new music on my iTunes! E-mail them my way people!!! Last night was so boring, I decided to look at a map of Gwangju elementary/middle schools and labeled them with the people that work there. The result is very useful to know where my friends are, but it was time consuming and boring, but then again, I had nothing else to do. It also helped me practice reading Korean. Another thing I did to keep busy was write some Korean words on post-its and stuck it to whatever the Korean word said, e.g., door, window, bathroom, etc. Hopefully this will help me learn! I also signed up for Korean class and that begins in less than 2 weeks. When I got home today, I had a solitary dance party in my apartment. That was fun while it lasted (a whole 2 minutes). I need company!!!! PLEASE VISIT ME!!!
Forgot to also say that yesterday, I gave my co-teachers and vice principal, and other important people ( I don’t really know what position they hold…) chocolate that I had bought from America. I handed it to them with my right hand or both hands (because you HAVE TO or it’s disrespectful) and I kept getting the question: “Is there something special today that you’re giving me candy to celebrate?” and I was like, “No, I just wanted to give it to you. I bought it from America.” I didn’t realize why I they kept asking me this until I got home and had all that alone time to think. Before I had left for Korea, I was reading another fellow ex-pat’s blog (don’t remember which blog it was..) and he had written that he had gotten a Yakult type drink on his desk and didn’t know where it came from. He asked his co-teacher and she had told him that so-and-so had bought a new car over the weekend and this was a type of celebration. In America, this would be deemed as bragging or showing off, but in Korea, it is customary to do so. Interesting, ain’t it??
So today, I did my introduction presentation again, and again, and again. I’m really sick of it. How do teachers teach the same lesson over and over again?? It becomes very trite very quickly. I don’t even know if the students are enjoying it. It seems like they do…I’ll just tell myself they do. So today, I have a girl in one of my classes-total attitude. I can tell she’s gonna give me trouble this semester. She sits right in the front and I have a feeling it may not be by choice. She just has that attitude-y look that I do not get a good feeling about, so I picked on her today to share what she wrote with the rest of the class for our little activity. She did it and I’m glad because I don’t know what I would’ve done if she didn’t! haha I’m not quite the disciplinarian yet, but I’m sure when these kiddies push my buttons, I will do something…I just don’t know what yet. Have you guys any suggestions? Please let me know!
Today, I had my first boys class. Oh yeah, they separate their classes into boys and girls. Right when I walked in, I heard, “I like you.” I didn’t respond and wrote the rules on the board. Oh boys. Some of them are gonna grow up to be very handsome! haha I also caught a couple boys sleeping in that class too, but I didn’t yell at them or anything like that. I just tapped them on the shoulder and asked if they were alright. These kids work SO hard in school, it’s really ridiculous. I think I already wrote about this, but I have to stress that they go to school in the morning at, I think, 830am and then that maybe ends around 330 for some, 430 for others depending on if they have after school class. Then they go home for about an hour and then it’s off to academy. Some even attend TWO academies and don’t get home until 9pm. That’s a 12 hour day of school!!! In America, we only stay in school for about 7 hours. It is SO crazy that they go to school for so long. So far in my classes, I’ve asked what their hobbies are and some of they say “studying”. No American child would say that! A lot of the girl students like the Twilight Series. I’ve taken an informal poll and the majority of them prefer Edward over Jacob. I only found 2 students that like Jacob! haha I forgot to mention this before, but at the end of my presentation and the activity, I let the students ask me any question they want. The first class I did this with, almost in unison, they said, “How old are you?” That would always be the first question in all my classes. The second would be, “Are you married??” Then after I say no, they would say, “Why?” Then I would say, “Because I am too young.” Then the next question would be, “Boyfriend?” “No.” “ohhh….” Another popular question is “Do you know Wondergirls?”
I ended the school day with my first after school class. I was given a lesson to teach and that is what I did. Too bad the lesson was freaken boring. I was boring myself, but of course I couldn’t show that to the kids. The class was SO quiet! I couldn’t stand it. My other classes are super noisy and that gets frustrating, but when I’m trying to teach conversation English, I want these kids to talk! The kids I have in my after school classes are voluntarily there and they already have a pretty good grasp of the language. I could actually have a full on conversation with them and I did with one of the students before class, but once class started – silence. It was deafening. My co-teacher said that Korean students are very shy, so they don’t want to sound stupid and lose face. I hope I make their learning environment comfortable enough where they can speak in English. I thought my after school class would be GREAT, but it wasn’t as I expected. I have 4 after school classes a week. Two are with the advanced class I had today, and the other two are for the intermediate level students. I took a look at the intermediate lesson and it’s the same as the advanced class. I don’t know how to make it fun. It’s such a boring lesson, but I’ll think of something…
And now I am singing as if I’m at a noraebang. So fun living alone.
lol
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