It’s about time I wrote something of substance here...
I started teaching the first week of September. After not doing much for 2 weeks besides going to the gym with my host mom every day, I was getting pretty pumped up about finally starting to teach. On the first day, I was introduced to the school over their TV broadcast system and gave a speech (in English) about myself. For the next couple days, random kids would shout “Hi Teacher!” in the middle of running around in the hallways. One of the first grade teachers told me her students started talking to the TV because they thought I could hear them! While I was waiting in the broadcast room, the 5th and 6th graders who are part of the broadcast crew did rock, paper, scissors to decide who would talk to me first. The only boy in the group lost and got pushed out into the room I was waiting in and introduced himself really fast and ran away. Then the some of the rest of the kids got braver after the first one went and came out and introduced themselves anyway.
My first week of classes consisted of having the students write self-introductions and bring photos of themselves for homework so my homework can be trying to memorize their names from the photos. (I’m slowly realizing that memorizing over 700 names from photographs is going to be nearly impossible but I’m stubbornly trying anyway.) I started trying to socialize with the students and the teachers during lunchtime to try to get to know faces (because I definitely still don’t know names).
I also started Taekwondo at a gym near my host family’s apartment where my host brother also used to do Taekwondo. There’s 5 other students in the class and at least 3 of them are my students (the other 2 might be too but I don’t recognize them...). They seemed to get a kick out of the fact that their English teacher is doing Taekwondo with them but actually tried their best to help me out and didn’t make fun of me. The kwanjangnim doesn’t speak any English but was also really nice. I think he’s actually nicer to me than to the elementary school boys maybe because I’m just starting out or because I’m a girl or foreigner (or all of the above)...
This past weekend was Korea’s Thanksgiving, Chuseok so we had a 4 day weekend off from school. My host family owns a supermarket so they were really busy with that before Chuseok. During this holiday, people will gather at their relatives’ house, sometimes in their hometown or where they grew up. On Saturday my host dad’s relatives came to Pohang and Sunday morning they laid out all the food they had prepared the day before and formally paid respects to their ancestors before we ate. (I watched but didn’t participate in the ceremony although I participated a lot in the eating afterwards. ^^)
I’ve been in Korea for over 2 months already but it doesn’t feel like it... In some ways it feels longer, but in other ways it feels shorter. First we had orientation, then went to Seoul for a couple days before moving to our placements and then starting teaching... A lot of time has been spent adjusting to new places and situations and things and I’m still getting used to everything, but I get more settled in, it feels more like home.
I started teaching the first week of September. After not doing much for 2 weeks besides going to the gym with my host mom every day, I was getting pretty pumped up about finally starting to teach. On the first day, I was introduced to the school over their TV broadcast system and gave a speech (in English) about myself. For the next couple days, random kids would shout “Hi Teacher!” in the middle of running around in the hallways. One of the first grade teachers told me her students started talking to the TV because they thought I could hear them! While I was waiting in the broadcast room, the 5th and 6th graders who are part of the broadcast crew did rock, paper, scissors to decide who would talk to me first. The only boy in the group lost and got pushed out into the room I was waiting in and introduced himself really fast and ran away. Then the some of the rest of the kids got braver after the first one went and came out and introduced themselves anyway.
My first week of classes consisted of having the students write self-introductions and bring photos of themselves for homework so my homework can be trying to memorize their names from the photos. (I’m slowly realizing that memorizing over 700 names from photographs is going to be nearly impossible but I’m stubbornly trying anyway.) I started trying to socialize with the students and the teachers during lunchtime to try to get to know faces (because I definitely still don’t know names).
I also started Taekwondo at a gym near my host family’s apartment where my host brother also used to do Taekwondo. There’s 5 other students in the class and at least 3 of them are my students (the other 2 might be too but I don’t recognize them...). They seemed to get a kick out of the fact that their English teacher is doing Taekwondo with them but actually tried their best to help me out and didn’t make fun of me. The kwanjangnim doesn’t speak any English but was also really nice. I think he’s actually nicer to me than to the elementary school boys maybe because I’m just starting out or because I’m a girl or foreigner (or all of the above)...
This past weekend was Korea’s Thanksgiving, Chuseok so we had a 4 day weekend off from school. My host family owns a supermarket so they were really busy with that before Chuseok. During this holiday, people will gather at their relatives’ house, sometimes in their hometown or where they grew up. On Saturday my host dad’s relatives came to Pohang and Sunday morning they laid out all the food they had prepared the day before and formally paid respects to their ancestors before we ate. (I watched but didn’t participate in the ceremony although I participated a lot in the eating afterwards. ^^)
I’ve been in Korea for over 2 months already but it doesn’t feel like it... In some ways it feels longer, but in other ways it feels shorter. First we had orientation, then went to Seoul for a couple days before moving to our placements and then starting teaching... A lot of time has been spent adjusting to new places and situations and things and I’m still getting used to everything, but I get more settled in, it feels more like home.
Downtown
My school ^^
English classroom
Some students hanging out outside my classroom
2 comments:
Man this sounds awesome. Sounds like you're making a pretty kick-ass teacher.
Don't hurt any of your students too bad!
<3 JonY
Korea seems awesome. I tried to look up what Pohang is in Chinese but couldn't find it.
I like your school a lot. it looks really really cute.
miss u tons.
Post a Comment