Riding down Seoul City 3: First Week

Let me preface this post by saying that I'm exhausted. After teaching a full day's worth of classes & organizing activities & preparing for tomorrow's classes, I walked 25ish minutes in the bitter cold back to my apartment, where I spent the next oh, 1.5 hours getting trolled by G-market when all I wanted to do is order a table for my apartment so I'm not eating, sleeping & doing work all on my bed, and watching Mnet Music Countdown for Big Bang's comeback ^^. I forget that in Korea, at least Seoul, websites are optimized for internet explorer...which means things plain just wont work on my mac. saddness. oh but after being trolled & being ecstatic because my boys won again this week, I spent the next 2 hours riding subways, getting lost, and finding my way again...all for an iron, hair dryer, silverware organizers, and some aloe vera...juice?

The reason why I mentioned all of that is because if this post doesnt make sense, that's why.

So yeah, my school. This week was my first actual week of teaching classes. I teach 20 classes per week. I have 4 level one classes (sophomores) twice a week, and 4 level two classes (juniors) thrice a week. But then I also am in charge of this random english time during lunch, when the english classroom (my room) is open & I'm supposed to come up with some activities for the students. This means besides the 5-6(!!!) lessons I teach a week, I have to come up with engaging things for students to do during that lunch time thing...but only like 5 students ever show up at one time. It's a whole lot of effort for only a small result. But whatever, its fine. At the moment I'm trying to find "high school musical" so I can play that tomorrow for 30 mins (I've designated fridays as a movie day, but I can't decide if I want to include subtitles, and if so, should they be in korean or in english...).

I teach with 3 other teachers, 2 for level two & the other for level one. I like teaching for level one because my co-teacher lets me have free reign, I get to decide the activites, I lead the class, its essentially my class. In the other classes, I play a less active roll, I'm there to do activities and to explain vocab...and I walk around the classroom to make sure students are on task, and when I'm not doing that, I'm reading "Catcher in the Rye" in the back of the room, the book shoved in my textbook to make it seem like I'm just following along in the grammar lesson, which is taught in korean.

The students seem nice, and sweet and none of my classes are more than 27 students. I only found out this week that the high school is a private high school, with a fairly decent reputation to uphold, so it's rather stern with the students without crushing them, which makes for students who are fairly well behaved. Plus, they aren't 10 years old so their attention can be held longer.

I have to say, I was reeeeally nervous when I found out that I got an all girl's high school. I, by nature, don't get a long very well with people. And girls, even less so. I didn't get along with high school girls when I WAS ONE. And, let's be honest, high school girls can be vicious bitches.

So you see why I was nervous.

But for now at least, they seem very shy. I dont think it's just because they are afraid to speak in front of a native speaker because my korean co-teachers tell me that they have a hard time getting students to talk. The korean school system stresses reading and writing and even listening...but not speaking or conversation, which is why they bring in foreigners like me. These girls are smart. Some of them go to private academies after school to take extra english lessons, but even not, these girls are smart. They just don't have the confidence to speak because they don't practice enough. I find this to be more true, surprisingly, of my level twos. Because I set the precedent from day one with my level ones that they MUST speak & that I WILL randomly call on them... I can get them to give me answers. With my level twos, even if I randomly pick on someone, they will just shut down on me.

This is just a first impression, but it seems to me that my level twos are like this because they are used to it. I'm not saying that this is bad, but my co-teachers teach grammar and even if they ask a question to the class, they almost immediately answer it. So the students dont try to answer because they know that even if they dont respond, and answer will still be provided. And I've had this happen to me a few times--oh I should mention that my students are intermediate & advanced level students--some teachers have said that I shouldn't expect too much from the students. I suppose they were trying to prepare me, as a native english speaker, not to think that these students were on the level of the western counterparts, but I do want to push these girls. I don't want to make it impossible for them, but I definitely dont want to "dumb things down" for them either. These girls are smart. They ought to be able to speak english as well as they can write it and read it.

Oh, and they were all thoroughly impressed with my knowledge of KPOP! I tried to keep my Big Bang bias a secret, just so I could find out what groups they liked without them saying Big Bang just to kiss up to me, but when one girl said, "My favorite actor is TOP and my favorite singer is TOP," I couldn't help my reaction. The girl won me over LOL. What else, oh EVERY single class asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said no...and my level ones, bless them, were like "WHY TEACHER???" Well shoot. If you know Big Bang, send them my way please, and then teacher will have 5 boyfriends. ^_______^

Aside from all that, the other teachers are great. I got introduced about 1000000000 times & had to speak both english & korea, which I'm sure was lulzy. Last night all the english teachers went out for galbi and it was delish! Did I mention that I'm eating pork again? When I'm getting free (or almost free) meals, I'll eat whatever deliciousness you throw at me. Also, it's just easier for me to eat the pig rather than try to ask if the dish has pork in it, or if I can get something else.

On the agenda this weekend: meet ups with other EPIK teachers, maybe visit the YG building & a visit to se7en's restaurant, and definitely want to get on top of a mountain already! Oh, and maybe lesson plan -____- I love that everyone has these really detailed lesson plans, but I've taken after my college professor, Pollard, and I write my lesson plans as scribbles on scrap pieces of paper & napkins...because that's how you do it at university! lol