First Impressions

I finally arrived here in Korea on Friday night. Thursday/Friday was such a long day. It's strange leaving Thursday morning and arriving Friday night, but only really going through 24 hours. I ended up flying from Toronto to San Fransisco to Seoul. In total, it was about 18 hours of flying, and five hours of waiting. A very long day! The school sent someone to the airport to pick me up. It was amazing, that with the taxi waiting for me for an hour or two, he only paid around $1.50 or 1,500 KRW (Korean Won), which is ridiculously inexpensive! In Canada, airport parking would have been $20-40! Travelling through Incheon towards Bundang was really interesting. Everywhere you go, you are always surrounded by mountains and lakes. The mountains here are almost a cross between B.C. mountains and New Brunswick mountains in that they are rugged and covered with trees.

My school is in a city called Bundang, which is pronounced like "Poondang," which is a suburb of Seongnam City, which is part of the Greater Seoul Area. It's around 30 minutes south west of Seoul. I'm teaching at a school called L.C.I. (Language Clubs International). On the Saturday after I arrived, all of the teachers went on a picnic, up in the mountains, about three hours away. I don't know where I was, but wherever it was, it was amazing. Along the roads there are random crops, and rice paddies. It's not like in Canada where crops are laid out in a systematic order. Here it seems like they plant wherever there is room.

At the picnic we have authentic Korean BBQ. That is where there is a mini BBQ in the middle of the table. You then put meat on it, and cook it. When it's ready they pick it up with tongs and cut it into bite sized pieces with scissors. Apparently they use scissors for everything, which is a big strange at first. There are always side dishes with every Korean meal. They are usually vegetables cooked in different ways, and kimchi - always kimchi. Kimchi is pickled anything (usually cabbage or cucumbers) in spice. And of course there is always rice. I never used to like rice. Rice in Canada is not the same, I don't think that we cook it properly, but here it is good. Sometimes they serve raw lettice with the meal. You make a sort of roll with with the lettuce. You put rice and whatever else you want in it, then roll it up like a small lettuce tortilla. It sounds strange, but it's not bad.

This week was my observation week where I learn to teach. It was supposed to be two weeks, but for obvious reasons I missed the first week. It's not that it's hard to teach or that the information is complicated (it's Kindergarten to Grade 2 English), it's just a lot of information about the curriculum and all that is expected. It's a good school, but there is a lot of work involved. As one teacher said, you earn your salary here. I have read about other ESL schools and some of the teachers have said that their kids don't really learn, but just repeat, but at this school, I think that the kids are actually learning. They understand what they are saying.

I teach at what is called a Hagwon or Hakwon, which is a private language school. I have three classes a day. The first is morning Kindergarten. Some people say not to teach Kindergarten because it is exhausting and just babysitting. It's true that it does take energy, but it is much more than just babysitting. These kids are expected to work.

So I have Kindergarten from 9:30-2:00, with an hour lunch break. I have the same kids every morning, so I get to know them really well. I have the youngest class. They are 3-4 in North American years and 4-5 in Korean years. Let me explain, Korea uses the lunar calendar, so the length of a year is different, as well, when a child is born they are automatically 1, so in Korean years they are "older." So during the morning, I sing songs with them, go over the date and weather, practice letters, addition, show and tell, and have play time. Each of the teachers also teaches a special activity. Mine is arts and crafts. Other teachers teach science and logic. Our school has a gym and a small jungle gym upstairs, that the kids get to use. There are times during my morning, where I don't have to teach, such as when they have play time, Korean grammar, and Korean character building.

My next class is at 2:30. One set of kids I have Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and on Tuesday and Thursday, I and another teacher switch classes. I guess to change things up. These kids are in Grade 1. From this point on, these classes are after school classes. These kids work on reading, grammar, phonics, verbal skills, etc.

My last class is at 4:00. Again, I have one class Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and another class Tuesday and Thursday, only I don't share either of my classes with another teacher. The M.W.F. class is pretty advanced. They are almost fluent in English, so in some ways the class is very enjoyable. All of the kids, in all of the classes are very inquisitive. The T.TH. is more basic. They are older, but didn't start learning English until later so that they only know very basic English. So basic that we have to teach them how to pronounce letters. It must be very difficult to learn English sounds, because in Korean some letters are interchangeable. For instance, g's are the same as k's, r's as l's, and b's as p's. So that class will be challenging, but it will be interesting to teach them English from scratch.

Of course, that is just the classes, I also have grading and homework. The kids (except Kindergarten) gets spelling words and homework every night. But I won't go into all that. This school will be a lot of work, but I think that the experience will be rewarding overall.