It was mid-afternoon on January 1st here when most of you celebrated the New Year... The time difference is still weird to me.
In America, we spend Christmas with family and New Year's Day with friends and significant others. It's exactly the reverse in Korea: they spend Christmas with friends and significant others and New Year's with family. So a lot of people weren't in the dorms today. So, the four washing machines we have here weren't seeing much use... Which means... Laundry day for me!
Other than that, I've been busy trying to work out my lesson plans for this week. Yesterday (Monday), I went to one of my facilities and worked with the kids. Because it was New Year's eve, a lot of kids were absent/left early to go home.
Just so you know, my normal week should work like this:
- Monday:
- 9am-1pm Korean Class
- TRANSIT... annoying
- 2:30pm-4:00pm Facility #1, 3 classes, 30 min each. 1 class of 7 year olds, and 2 classes of 6 year olds
- Tuesday:
- 9am-1pm Korean Class
- More TRANSIT
- 2:30pm-3:40pm Facility #2, 3 classes, 2x 30 min and 1x 20 min, fairly young... I've only seen them once, so I forget the exact age
- Wednesday:
- 9am-1pm Korean Class
- More TRANSIT
- 2:30pm-4:00pm Facility #1 again, same as before
- Thursday:
- 9am-1pm Korean Class
- AND MORE TRANSIT
- 3pm-4pm Facility #3, 2 classes, 30 min each
- Friday:
- 9am-1pm Korean Class
- FREEDOM!!!!
The second week I was here, I went to Facility #2 and #3... I didn't visit Facility #1 because Monday I was moving into the dorm and Wednesday (December 19th) was Election Day, a national holiday, so everyone had it off (except retailers of course).
Then last week, I didn't go on Monday because something else was going on that day. Tuesday was Christmas, and so again everyone had it off. Today (Tuesday, New Year's Day) is another holiday so everyone has it off too. So next Tuesday will be the second time I meet the kids at Facility #2.
So all that is to say that I've only ever seen the kids, at most, twice. The first class of each group was a self-introduction as well as a Christmas lesson using my laptop (although Facility #2 was impromptu since I didn't have my laptop). The second class was more of a "test" to see where the kids were. I couldn't believe it. The 6 and 7 year olds knew SOOOO much. What am I supposed to teach them? LOL.
The kids at Facility #1 and 3 knew lots of animals (they really liked the fact that Montana has bears... LOL), colors, shapes, foods, simple verbs, and basic greetings. I am so surprised. Not really sure where to go from here though now. Although I did try and get the kids to make proper sentences. Usually I ask, "What is this?" and they shout "DOG!!!"... "No... What is this...?" Blank stares... "It's a ... Repeat after me... It's a..." "IT'S A..." "Good. What is this?" "IT'S A DOG!!!" "Yay!" LOL. By the end they were doing that for everything. I think the last teacher they had, was telling them to say "There is..." because sometimes they started saying "THERE CAT!" LOL.
I bought a bunch of books from Kyobo bookstore (HUGE bookstore with lots and lots of people) to get me started, but I'm still at a loss with what to do. LOL. I'm really hopeless, but I am happy that the kids are getting a good English education and are so well taken care of.
Actually, I think I know what I want to do from here... except... I want to make copies for the kids to color and draw and write in English on... Only... I... don't... have... a... copier... argh. Supposedly there's one in the General Lecture Hall here, but I haven't been able to find it, and the only directions are that it's in the building... LOL. Oh well. I can always try and ask the school if they would be willing to make copies for me.
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