Hello again,
from…the future. My apologies for not having written sooner. After meeting real people and experiencing the culture a bit, I got in the habit of going out every night with my coworkers (which still happens). That and I got my computer to read my DVD’s again, so I went on a bit of a 24 binge. I haven’t quite recovered from Jack Bauer’s awesomeness and still have season 7 to start and finish.
I’m sure you’re all curious to know what the school system is like over here, so I’ll give you a brief overview before I have to mosey on over to work. If there are any Korean readers out there, forgive me if I butcher the spelling of your language. Firstly, I teach at what is called a Hagwan. A Hagwan is a special private school, or an extended study school where parents force their tired children to learn outside of their everyday public forum. There are English, Math, Science, and various other Hagwans. Hell, there’s probably one for hula hooping. By the time the students have reached me at 3:20pm, they’ve already been up since 6am. I teach several classes and the setting is that of a college where you’re in class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday, with the exception of two everyday classes. The last class of the day ends at 9:10pm. And yes, some of these kids are up from 6am to 9:10pm, if not later. You’ll often see kids leaving other Hagwans at later times. If ever you’ve complained about your school workload back home in the States, consider yourself lucky.
With all that aside, teaching here is actually fairly easy. I teach four classes on Wednesdays and Fridays, I have five on Mondays and Tuesdays (Monday I have a special class at an earlier time where I teach kindergärtners art). Thursdays are by far my busiest days as I have a special class at 1:30, I’ve recently been recruited to teach debate right after that to another class, then have my regular five classes straight after. Seven classes from 1:30 to 8:10 with no breaks whatsoever. At least I’m earning that money, right?
In the classroom is where you as a teacher are tested. We’re monitored by our bosses and sometimes parents constantly. Parents look for the most minute detail to complain about, but fortunately our bosses are non-confrontational, so I doubt I’ll ever get canned (that’s assuming I’ve done poorly as a teacher). My students are fairly smart. I’ve only a few that cause trouble. Class sizes are small. I have no more than nine students in any class. My smallest class is three students. Now, on to the shit-heads.
My everyday class is by far the worst of all. It’s not that they’re dumb. Only one of them is. No, the problem is they’re unruly, rude, disrespectful, and their English still sounds like they’re speaking Korean. It’s a class of five students. Three girls and two boys. The girls are all pretty sharp, but because the boys are a bit slower, they tend to get restless and end up making me want to throw them out the fifth story window we’re at. One of the girls, Nikki, seems to think she owns the damned place, while Edward, the shit-bag who wears his damned taekwondo skirt to class every day, just doesn’t give a shit and ends up getting up and walking to the window, staring out at nothingness. Nikki is egged on by her friend, Mini, who sits right next to her. Together, they’re a mess of frustration. Two weeks into teaching, on a Friday, I wondered to myself “my goodness, how long will it take before I make one of these kids burst in to tears?” Little did I know it would be only moments later.
This class, Taurus class, is my first of the day, save for Mondays and Thursdays due to aforementioned special classes (special here doesn’t mean retarded). It being Friday, I knew they would be more squirrelly than usual. I came in and two students forgot their books, so I sent one of them to get my book photocopied for class. After several minutes of trying to settle everyone down and the students mocking my threats with fake tears I said quite audibly (my coworkers in the kitchen right next door heard the whole ordeal) “Oh, I’ll give you something to cry about.” The next kid who acted up was Nikki. The voice turned into a shout, the orders were for her to stand up. Her feeble attempts to scoot closer into her desk met with my pulling the desk away from her and demanding she stand. The look of sadness and fear in her eyes was apparent as she slowly got up. I commanded her to come with me to the teachers room. Still as a stone, she started crying and shook her head. After asking if she was going to silence herself and a confirmation of such, I said she could sit down, then continued to lecture the class on how disrespectful they were. I’m fairly certain it went over their heads, but at least they’ve managed to be a little more quiet since. Bitch deserved it.
The rest of my classes are all fairly well-behaved. I have a few jerks in some classes, but they’re old enough to not make much of an audible fuss. Most students have no problems with me, and, in some cases, they actually like me as a teacher. The new school year starts in March, so I may not have the same kids in about a month, but at least some will remember as something more than a tyrant.
Life otherwise has been busy and relatively eventful. While I’ve seen many parts of the city of Cheonan, I mainly frequent the same bars. Kooma has been my local hangout (not Akuma, like the guy from Street Fighter) as the beer is cheap, the service is friendly and aside from the constant K-Pop, it’s a relaxed atmosphere. While I’d like to delve into my world outside of work, I need other things to talk about.
Shit. I was writing this and put it on hold in order to go to the bar for my friend’s birthday. At the bar, one of the bar maids, Ami (not Amy, pronounced “ah-me”), decided she didn’t like a photo of herself and deleted all of my photos at once. Granted, her grasp on English is limited, and didn’t understand what she was doing, but still, it was 925 photos all together. Granted, I’d uploaded all of them prior to my coming here, but it’s 925 photos gone. Hopefully my friend’s recovery software will work. Anyway, here are your lottery picks from…the future: Shanghai Chicken Sandwich.
Also, here’s a little K-Pop for you. I figured I’d start you off with something easy on the eyes. Here’s T-Ara with “Bo Peep”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8E8VVp1dRs