Hey, Teacher! Leave Those Kids Alone!

Teaching, so far, has been a fairly fun experience. Even though i'm unable to control about half of the classes the half that go well make up for the crazy half. The majority of the kids that i teach are probably in the 6-8 year old range. Since i had zero experience with groups of 6-12 kids in this age range it has been a little stressful at first. I think part of the problem was bringing us in the middle of a four month semester. Figuring out the curriculum and where the kids were resulted in some problems for me at the beginning. In one class i prepared for where the syllabus said they were, and they were actually four units behind. It's surprising to me it's not the lowest level classes that i have the most problems controlling. We've been taking Korean lessons from the director's wife twice a week. In exchange we're be helping her with her English, which is already quite good. The kids in the lower level classes get a kick out me butchering their language, and they have fun trying to teach me new words. Sometimes i have to stop them so we can get the lessons done. There are a few classes i can't get to pay any attention to the lesson at all. One 1B level class i have spend the entire time talking in Korean. There's only one girl who pays any attention and can answer the questions. I can't get through the lessons, and telling them why their answers are wrong is pointless because they refuse to listen. I have a feeling they may not be advancing to the next level. Keeping kid in their seats is an issue as well. Some kids can't sit still. In one class two kids began fighting when one got up and attacked the other. I got in the middle and asked the instigator to sit down. When he refused to listen i picked him up with one arm and put him in his seat. I've only done that a couple of times so far. If teaching has done one thing for me so far, it's raise the volume of my voice several notches.

We found out when we get our vacation the other day. We have a week at the end of July/beginning of August. It looks like we'll probably head to Japan if we can afford it, which i don't think should be problem. We thought about Thailand as well, but i looked on the internets and safety seems like it may be an issue there. It looks like we'll be cruising the streets of Tokyo a little sooner than we expected. Japan was the first place i wanted to go teach. At Christmas we have a break as well. For that one we're planning on going to Australia. I think i've wanted to go there ever since i saw that classic movie Crocodile Dundee as a kid.

I really knew nothing about Korea until just before we started applying for jobs here. Now that we're here i'm very happy with our decision. Everyone at this school has been amazing. I thought the post on the internet made it sound too good to be true, so we were a little wary. We are ecstatic to find out every word was true. It really is a close group. As we were leaving school the other night the director said to us in his broken English something to the effect, "While you're in Korea we are your parents. Don't be afraid to call us for anything." He and his wife have been so amazing. We feel very grateful.

We ran into a fellow Canadian tonight at the supermarket near here. We met him our first week here when we were at the Korea Exchange Bank. He saw we were exchanging Canadian money and struck up a conversation with C. I gave him my email address and he sent an invite to a local expat bar in Wonju called "U2". Even though we're not really into bars, even back home, i think i may have to check it out sometime. The chance they may have Canadian beer will lure me in eventually, i'm sure.

-insomniac out.