Things I Love

I've been a little hard on Korea in my last couple of posts, so I figured I would make a post sharing the things I like about working here.

First of all I thought I would start with my job. There are frustrating classes and days that I have, but there are plenty of enjoyably parts too. To start with, one of the first classes I have in a day is a class that is new to English. On my first day it took my literally 10 minutes to convey that I wanted them to draw a cat. They didn't know what cat meant, or draw meant. I of course didn't know this when the class started, but I quickly figured it out. This is a difficult class since they don't understand most of what I say, but it is also highly rewarding since whenever they can answer questions I know it is because of me. I realize that the Korean teacher has helped out too, but when I ask questions based off the of the book, and they can answer, it makes me smile. Some of them can also figure out and add to what the book teaches. For instance, one of the units dealt with foods you like and don't like. The phrase to learn was “I like....” or “I don't like...” and some of the students could figure out that they could say “I like Trevor teacher”. That made my day. This class also makes me smile because, between the Korean teacher and myself, the class and I can now communicate, even if it is in a very basic form.

These kids are in 1st grade, and nearly the youngest kids I have. The youngest kids I have are in kindergarten, and I have two classes of such kids. One of the classes is new to English, I am working off of books to teach them “science” and “social studies”. I don't particularly like this class, but the kids are very cute and some days they are very good. My other kindergarten class is in their second year of English kindergarten. This class is kind of fun for several reasons. I tend to think of them speaking pretty good English, although that's partly because I don't really know how well 6 year olds speak English. The main reason I like this class is because the things I'm teaching them is difficult to teach, especially to 6 year olds who don't speak English as a first language. There are of course simple things I'm teaching like reading and pronunciation, but a few days ago I had to try to teach syllables to these students. This lesson was in their work book, and I had seen it a few days before hand, and since then I had been racking my brain trying to figure out how to teach syllables to these kids. Shortly before class on the day I would have to teach this (I can't skip pages in the workbook because the kids would freak out, especially at this age) I remembered learning about syllables when I was young. Basically you put your hand under your jaw and count every time your mouth moves. Anyway, this brings me to one of the joys of the job, I was actually able to show this class of six year olds, who spoke Korean since birth, how to figure out how many syllables are in an English word. This technique only works if they actually pronounce the words correctly though. In practicing this I went through the English names of the students, asking how many syllables they had. They were mostly good, and almost all of them were putting their hand under their chin. However, there was one student, named Jason, who would not believe that there were only two syllables in his name. With hand faithfully under his jaw, he said his name, but with three syllables. I attempted to correct him on the pronunciation of his name, but he would not hear of it. His name was Ja-a-son with 3 syllables, and no amount of saying his name would dissuade him. This brings joy to my heart because he was actually doing the counting correctly, as I taught him, but he was pronouncing was wrong, but it was so cute that I eventually gave up and said, “Okay, Jason has 3 syllables”.

The kids also pick up on this you say even though they aren't part of the text. For instance I say “Good” or “excellent” a lot, depending how how well the person answers the question. As such every class of mine can say excellent very well, even though it is a difficult word for Koreans (an “x” sound followed by a “c” and a double “l”). Sometimes I'll just have them sit there and repeat “excellent” in a Monty Burns type voice while I imitate Burns' finger motions. It is my goal that by the end of the year all of my students will be able to look and sound like Burns while saying “Excellent”.

This brings me to another thing I enjoy about working here. I have a lot of freedom in the way I teach and the rules I impose in my classroom. For instance, there was no indication on how I should teach syllables to these kids, so I had to invent my own way. It seemed to have worked (although I'll be checking on Monday to see if they remember), but if it didn't work I could try something else. There is very little penalty for failure. If something doesn't work, try something else. It might make for a difficult half hour (the length of a class) but beyond that no harm done. Has for rules, there are several discipline options open to me. The Hagwon I work for gives coupons to students, and these coupons can be used to buy things a few times a year during market days. Thus one of the ways to keep order is to promise coupons (or stickers, which are exchanged at a rate of 10 stickers to 1 coupon), or to threaten to take coupons or stickers away. I of course have to option to call my Korean teacher or the main disciplinarian to settle matters too (as a side note, I have gone out on several nights with the main disciplinarian, and if they could see her singing at a karaoke bar, they probably wouldn't be as afraid of her). I like this freedom because it allows me to change things based on the class, allowing me to be really strict with some classes, a lot more free with others, based on the temperament of the class. This also applies to teaching. I have books that I teach from, and there is an end date that I have to finish the books, but apart from that I have a lot of freedom. There have been times when I've looked at a page and had no idea how to teach this, or more usually, no idea how to convey the information since the layout was awful. One such instance was teaching a class, and they were learning about bugs and things like between, on, next to, behind, etc. The picture covered two pages and consisted of characters from “A Bug's Life”. Basically the picture was so poorly organized that, even though I spoke English fairly well, and not exactly stupid, I couldn't figure out where the various bugs were based on the words given. I tried teaching, asking “where are the ants” without really studying the page, the student gave an answer which caused other students to shout “No teacher”. I looked at the page and thought, and thought, and said “Turn to the next page”. So long as I finish the books on time and don't physically harm the children I'm fine.

I said “physically harm the children” for a reason. In Korea I am much more able to physically touch the children and play with them than the average kindergarten/elementary teacher in the States. Every day I have kids hugging and kissing me, and I hug them back. I routinely throw them around and tickle them while they tickle me. Basically I am allowed to be affectionate towards the kids without being worried about being prosecuted for being a molester.

Apart from the job, there are things I like about Korea itself. Partly I like the weired nature of Korea. It is an advanced country with many aspects of a non-advanced country. They have new computers and LED TVs, but it is also easy to find cassette tapes and tape players. To further make this point of Korea being a country of contrasts, let me describe the shopping options. On the one hand near my apartment there are vendors who sit on the street corner selling food, clothing, blankets, etc. There is a truck that is near my apartment nearly every night selling things like strawberries, oranges, orange like fruit, and fresh crab. To contrast this, recently I wen to the largest department store I've ever seen. I don't mean to exaggerate here, but this department store was 8 stories high, it was more or less an entire mall built up instead of out. I got lost several times trying to get out. Getting out led me to the second largest department store I've ever seen, only a few blocks away. I find it amazing that I can buy things from an old woman with her goods on a blanket, and a 20 min. bus ride I can go to the largest department store I've ever seen, a store so large it would put most malls to shame.

Apart from the actual Korean part of things, I'm enjoying living in a city. I've never lived in a city before, always living in suburbs. I enjoy going doing the elevator and being only a few minutes from several convenience stores, a couple grocery stores, a bakery, and many street merchants. I don't really miss having a car, since the public transportation here is good, I can get most places by bus, and taxis are cheap enough that it isn't a big deal to take a taxi to most places.

There are many other things I enjoy about Korea, and I'm sure I will expand on them later, but for now I will leave it at this.