Embarrassment of student... Complete!

So... It's late and I DO have a lot to say, but I just wanted to tell you about something that happened today.

So... Once, a long, long time ago... Just kidding. Back when I gave my introduction (the second week of March) I had one student ask me a kind of random question about blue holes. He said he had heard about blue hole caves that "a lot of people died at". He thought it was in the US. I told him that I didn't think they were in the US, I suspected Central America but didn't know exactly, but I told him I would look it up and tell him later. I wrote it down and told myself to look it up and tell him about it later.

Well, I forgot. At least last week. It's sometimes hard to believe I haven't been teaching for very long. It feels like months! Anyway. I remembered this week and made a very short powerpoint about blue holes and blue hole caverns. I told him at the beginning of class that I had researched them, but he didn't seem to understand. So instead I showed the powerpoint to his class (and only his class) and asked if that answered his question. His face got really red. I actually felt bad that I essentially singled him out in class, but my coteacher said it was probably because, out of 500+ students that I have, he felt "touched" (her words) that I would remember. I hope that's what it was and not "I can't believe she's singling me out!" But it was a pretty cute moment. Now... to memorize all of their names so that when they say "Hi Jodi-teacher!" I can respond with "Hello <insert name here>!" We'll see how that goes though... So far... I think I have three students down... and that's only when they're sitting in the classroom. Who knows if I can remember OUTSIDE the classroom...

Korean Language Classes

So I've been here for a while and am starting to want to study Korean again. Except I've gone to a few of those language exchanges, but they end up being mostly English speaking exchanges. I think I need a bit more structure in order to really get better at Korean.

I've been looking online at evening classes and this is the breakdown:

Yonsei University
Where: Near Sinchon Subway Station (Line 2, green)
When: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30pm to 9:00pm
How much: KRW 788,000

Sogang University
Where: Near Sinchon Subway Station (Line 2, green)
When: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:50pm to 8:40pm
How much: KRW 640,000

Ewha Women's University
Where: Ewha Women's University Station (Line 2, green)
When: Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7:00pm to 9:10pm
How much: KRW 600,000

Seoul National University
Where: Seoul National University Station (Line 2, green)
When: Mondays and Thursdays from 6:30pm to 9:20pm
How much: KRW 580,000

Sookmyung Women's University
Where: Sookmyung Women's University Station (Line 4, light blue)
When: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 7:00pm to 9:00pm
How much: KRW 420,000

Yes, there are other universities in Seoul. Lots of them. Unfortunately, these were the only ones I've found so far that offer evening classes. Also unfortunately, most of these classes have already started. The next classes start in June and go until the end of August. However, I'm planning on going home in August...

Language learning might not happen until September...

Hug your (clothing) dryer today!

Things I miss about the US (besides the obvious family, friends and pets):

1. Clothing dryers! I think I mentioned this before, but Korea mostly air dries their clothes, not due to lack of technology (anything but!), but due to lack of space. I never knew how much I relied on dryers until now. I thought it wouldn't be such a big deal to me, but the clothes I've dried so far have been really stiff and had a bunch of lint on them... O_O  There's a 24 hour laundromat that is just like the ones in the states except they are all commercial size. So it costs more to do laundry there too. I just tried doing laundry there today and it costs W4,500 to do one load. Mega-expensive. Next time I'll do a MUCH bigger load.

2. My car. I don't mind walking everywhere, but I start to miss having my car when I need to buy groceries or anything else bulky. If I buy something of that nature (blankets, large bags of rice, pretty much any liquid), I have to carry it all the way home. Which, as you can imagine, gets tiring pretty quickly. I really do miss my car even besides that, and regret selling it, even if it was the most financially responsible decision. Oh well. I can always buy a new one *wink*

I don't miss dishwashers since I don't use that many dishes anyway and never minded handwashing dishes before either.

Things I wish the US had:

1. Street food. Glorious street food. 'nuff said.

2. Ondol floor heating. Works awesome. There's a reason Koreans slept on the floor for decades and still do. The ondol in my room doesn't work as great as it could though... I think it's because my room wasn't originally intended to be a bedroom. Why do I think this? There's an exit sign above my door. O_O

3. Old Culture. I only say this because I just spent almost all 21 classes explaining why Americans don't have "traditional outfits". Otherwise I wouldn't care.

I'm sure there's more for both categories, but that's all for tonight.

Hey. I just posted this message on Facebook, please let me know!!!

"Hey Friends! If you are or know a teacher who would be interested in the following, please let me know ASAP! I am looking for a teacher in America (any subject) that teaches elementary students (perferably) who would be interested in exchanging letters, photos and perhaps even Skyping someday with Korean students. If you know somewhere else I can also post to look for someone, that would be appreciated as well. Thanks for your help!"

Food Poisoned! AND I want YOUR opinion!

I've been poisoned by food... Urgh... On the upside, I'm on the mend. I've been able to go to work (school) without any problems, but just have to be careful about what I eat. Which unfortunately has made my coworkers really worried about me... O_o  Even though I've told them I got food poisoning, and they told me they know what it means, I don't think they do... They keep asking if I have taken medicine for it and/or they don't understand why I haven't been eating like I normally do and why I'm drinking a lot more. They also worry that because I'm not eating the school lunch with them, I don't like the school lunch... Which I think is funny since I've been eating it for a week and a half already. I think if I really didn't like it, I would have stopped eating it long ago...

Anyway.

I keep waiting for the kids to stop being cute... But it hasn't happened yet. But it's still the "honeymoon" period, so we'll see what happens when I start to actually want all of them to speak in English. I've taught all the grades (but only 1 class of 4th graders, the rest come tomorrow) so far, and all I've done with them is the introduction powerpoint I made. I was going to try and teach the 5th graders more than just about me except... once I asked if there were any questions... That was the end of that.

They still surprise me though. Beyond the favorite questions, the "normal questions" (age, marital status, blood type, height/weight/shoe size, do I like Korea), and the questions regarding my family, there are still many more yet to ask apparently... Are you afraid of the nuclear threats from North Korea? Do you like Obama? One particular boy who spoke and understood English well even asked me who I voted for in the last election... LOL. These kids are way more politically aware than I ever was (or still am for that matter...). One of the kids also asked if I liked Japan, to which I said I didn't have any feeling for or against, and when I asked if he liked Japan he shook his head violently. I know that Japan and Korea have had a rather bitter relationship, but because of how long ago it happened, I tend to overlook it unfortunately. Of course, even though these kids are much more well-rounded than I was at their age, they're still kids: "Have you ever seen a zombie?" "Are there zombies in America?" LOL

I knew the concept of adoption would be hard to explain, but I didn't think it would be this hard. I thought the hardest part would be their response to me. I thought that my picture showing myself with my family would say enough. Very clearly, it did not. One boy asked if I was Korean. Yes. Is your mother Korean? No. Is your father Korean? No. *very confused look* I showed him the picture of me as a baby with my family again and still the *confused look*. All foreigners? Yes. *confused* LOL. Although his classmate (who speaks English well), asked me after that (in English) if I am adopted. I hope he can explain the concept to his classmate. While most of the kids may not understand what adoption means, they do seem to understand that I don't speak Korean. I was slightly worried that they would fight me on that point, since the previous NET is also Korean and can speak Korean, but they haven't really. Although there is a persistent boy in the 5th grade who has asked me every time I see him to say "Annyeonghaseyo." I finally relented to him today (since this was the first official class) but I deliberately mispronounced it, saying "Annonghaseyo." He smiled and left. So I think he gets the idea. :D

So... Time for a POLL....

I've been realizing that sometimes what Koreans say to foreigners doesn't really mean what they want it to. For instance: my coT and I were talking about my lesson plan. After I explained it, she said "Good try." ... I asked what I should change and she said "It's okay." I have a funny feeling that at some point, someone told her that ANYTIME someone tries something the first time to say "Good try." I didn't want to push the point, especially since at the time I felt a little bit insulted... But I don't think she meant "Good try." Or maybe she did. But similar things happen a lot. Koreans say something that sounds a bit rude or cold-hearted, but I don't think it's because they mean it. I think it is because of what they have been taught...

Here's an example, and I would like everyone's opinion on it. Straight from the book I am supposed to be teaching from:

A: How's it going?

B: I'm great. How about you?

A: Not so good. I have a fever.

B: That's too bad. See you later.

A: Have a nice day!

 

Maybe it's just me, but that seems a bit... callous? Obviously, it's just a simple script for learning responses to "How's it going?" ... But I worry that the students will think it's okay to say "That's too bad" without saying anything else. Prior to knowing any of this, if I was talking to a Korean and told them that I was feeling sick, if their response was just "That's too bad. See you later." I would feel a little hurt/annoyed. I told her that maybe we should teach the kids to say "That's too bad. I hope you feel better." Of course, all of this could be just me. Maybe other people normally just say "That's too bad." But please let me know either way. :D

 

Much love from the ROK!

Day 1 of 365

I feel like I have a million and one things to tell you, but I'll try and be brief tonight. I still have to finish deciding what I'm doing for the 6th graders tomorrow. :D Well, since it's recent, let me start with today. I taught my "first" class today. Mondays I have 5 classes of 3rd graders :D  They are so cute and so... curious. I had a very ambitious lesson plan today, but my coT opened the class up to questions after my 20 minute introduction powerpoint (which included 2 cities I've lived in, and a couple of videos about the US, some pictures of my family, pets and a slide dedicated to animals in MT). The class is only 40 minutes long, so we had 20 minutes of questions! They are soooo curious. Most of the questions I expected: some questions about my family, how old I am, what blood type I am, if I like Korea. Some questions I DIDN'T expect: what my horoscope is, what my birthday is, how tall/how much do I weigh, why I came to Korea, if I like my dad or mom better, do I like flowers, what is my favorite food, favorite color, singer, actor, book, movie, fruit, flower... The kids that were asking about the favorite things asked the questions in English (hence the highly repetative nature of the questions), so pretty much any other noun they could think of, they asked... teehee.

The classes themselves were all different. For instance class 3-1 (that's how they number and know the different classes), were fairly quiet until we got to the slide with my pets. When we asked for questions, almost 75-85% of the questions were related to my pets. Do they fight, which one I like better, does my cat eat mice, how big they really are, etc. Class 3-2 was more confused about my family and a lot of questions had to do with what was going on with the pictures... They didn't understand the pictures and kept asking for my "Korean" name and one kid even asked me when I started learning English... Adoption is not really a concept these kids have ever had to deal with. In fact, one kid actually said that the fact that I don't speak Korean makes him a bit uncomfortable... I told him I'd learn some Korean and he'd learn some English so it would be okay. I hope that helped. Class 3-1 never even mentioned my family once. LOL. Class 3-3 was the class of favorites. Almost every question was about favorites. I can't tell how well the other kids spoke but at least 5 kids asked me in English "What is your favorite...?" So they're going to be the ones to watch. And the ones who might get bored... Did I mention that my school is well-known for our soccer team? Well, one of the kids (who was dressed in a soccer uniform, so I was pretty sure I knew what sport he liked) asked me what sport is my favorite... and of course... I'm not good at any sport and I don't really like any sport that well, so I should have just said soccer... But I was worried that the next question would be "Who's your favorite soccer player?" ... Which I don't know any soccer player's names... So I said basketball, which is true. I like basketball a bit more than other sports, but he looked a bit disappointed, so I felt bad... I should've just said soccer... LOL.

Class 3-4 was asking about my blood type, birthday, and zodiac sign. They also asked about my lunar year animal. They got all excited when I was the same sign as them (blood and zodiac sign). Class 3-5 also got excited about my pets, but also asked the typical questions. Almost every class asked me how old I was (standard for Korea) and questions about my pets. :D

There was also at least one student in every class who was very outgoing and asked a lot of questions. I tried to choose students who hadn't asked a question yet first, but the outgoing students asked at least 10 questions each. Probably more. LOL One kid asked why I chose their school out of all the other schools... And I think in class 3-2, there was even one boy who asked me what I wanted to know about them. :D Pretty clever.

Let's see... what else?

My coTs and I are getting along well. Some awkward moments and still the language barrier, but I like them and I don't mind not knowing exactly what's going on all the time. LOL. It gives me an excuse to zone out alot. :D  I think that it will even be better now that I've started to teach. I've decided to also go for badminton here. Apparently last year the school club was volleyball, but this year they've changed it to badminton and ping-pong. One of my coTs have requested yoga, but... I think I'll do badminton. The all staff dinner was nice. We had shabu shabu (which I think this is the first time I've had it, but it's so similar to bulgogi that I'm not sure) in which you cook the meat in boiling broth along with vegetables and other ... stuff. Like odeng... Bleh. Anyway, we sat at the table next to the principal's table. There was a couple of people talking at the beginning of the dinner, but mostly it was just a regular meal out with friends. Of course, the main difference is the language spoken this time around. O_O  LOL. At one point I heard someone say, "Jodi! Jodi!" and I looked over and guess who?... the VP! He said something in Korean, which all I got was "alcohol" and something about "drinking". I wasn't sure if he was asking if I was drinking alcohol or if I wanted some or if he was saying he liked it or what. Turns out he wanted to pour some for me. ... I asked for a little, since I don't drink but I didn't want to seem rude. So he poured me a little, then I turned my head to drink (Korean etiquette for drinking with seniors), but apparently he wanted a toast... LOL, so we toasted and I drank again... Then later... It happened again, this time with my principal. Amazingly, I forgot what had happened earlier and drank again before I was told I needed to toast again... *sigh* Someday I'll figure out this stuff.

I think that's enough for tonight. Now to tweak my 6th grade lesson plan. We'll see how I enjoy teaching after I've taught 6th grade... O_O

First day jitters...

So I'm actually officially on my second day of classes, but I just had a "moment"... Not sure what kind of "moment" it was, but it was entertaining. This week I don't have to teach classes. I'm just "shadowing" which I think my co-teacher thinks it means I just hang out and work on the computer. LOL. But I've been insisting on sitting in on their classes. So, back to my moment... I was working on an introduction powerpoint, my co-teacher stepped out for a moment, and suddenly... dun-du-dun!!! Students starting walking in and looking at me curiously. Not because I was sitting there, or that I'm technically a foreigner. I think it's because they weren't sure how I wanted them to sit (as in sitting arrangement). I asked them (in English) to sit (because I didn't know what else to do). So I had all these kids sitting in front of me, staring at me... and no idea what to do with them. Turns out they were in the wrong classroom. We (my coteacher and I) were waiting for 5th graders. But what showed up were 6th graders. LOL. I heard a loud protest from the students (Unni!!). LOL.

The actual first day was actually kind of fun. I wasn't sure in the beginning but it turned out well. I tried taking the bus, but the buses here are very odd. I can't figure them out, probably mostly because I can't read Korean. The signs aren't always accurate I've found though... Anyway, I arrived at school and made eye contact with the guard and told him "Good Morning." He looked very confused for a moment, and then realized who I was and responded with "Good morning." He seems very sweet.

Then I went to the English classroom, but the door was locked. Not sure what to do, since it was my first day after all, I went to the teachers room. They saw me and told me to sit down. No further instruction was given. So I sat there for about 15 minutes before my coteacher texted me asking if I had run into trouble and couldn't make it. Evidentally she had arrived 5 minutes after me.

 

So she came down and found me and took me back to "our classroom" where she did some stuff while I played on the computer. Now this computer is a school laptop designated for the NET. So, when I say "played on the computer" I really mean "played on the computer". Without being able to read any menus, programs or get on the internet, "playing" is the only word that can really describe what I had been doing. LOL

 

Eventually they called me down to give a self-introduction to the entire school by video broadcast. I had been told by the previous NET and my head coteacher that I would have to do this. They advised me to speak very simply, loudly, clearly as I could. So I thought of an introduction exactly like that. Then it was time to introduce myself to the entire school on broadcast. They had a professional broadcasting room and some of the students were operating it. I stood there awkwardly while they talked a bit in Korean, then a confused few seconds when I didn't know what to do and they motioned for a collective bow, so I bowed and left. The end. No speaking involved. LOL.

 

Then we left the school to update my visa address and set up a new bank account.

 

Turns out the self-introduction was at the weekly all-school teacher's meeting. LOL. There are probably between 30-40 teachers at my school. And no broadcasting system. Yay! Everything was in Korean... until I started talking. LOL. Right before they wanted me to speak (and yet again, I stood in the front awkwardly waiting until someone motioned me to do otherwise), they asked my coteacher to come down to translate. But because I had "prepared" such a simple introduction, she didn't bother translating it. LOL. I was really nervous, but when I said "Hello" at the very beginning, there was a couple of people to the side who shouted "HI!!!" and that made me feel so much better. I wish I knew who they were...

 

My coteacher just wrote on the board "Hello! Everyone!" LOL. She then asked me if it was right, but it was in front of the class... No way I would say it was wrong, especially since the 5th graders are NOT likely to know the punctuation was wrong.

 

Fast forward another day, since I didn't finish this (yesterday's) post. So today was Wednesday, my third day. I got to sit on the 3rd and 4th grade English teacher. The kids were good and she had some good ideas that I'm going to hijack. My original intention was to watch how they teach on their own and therefore perhaps discover how we were going to coteach together. Turns out that they want to handle the reading and writing portions of the classes (they see the kids 1 or 2 more days a week than me) and I will teach the listening and speaking portions. They'll be in the same classroom for backup, but not really any involved coteaching. Which will be fine, but I had just been hoping for some more interaction. This will probably be good for my lesson planning though.

 

Another thing that has been a little... um... irritating... bothering... well, those aren't the right words, but I'm not sure what I should say. It's just something that I find... interesting. It has to do with my face not matching my name nor my "culture". When I'm just walking around Korea, all people know is my face. So, they speak to me in Korean. They also expect me to behave as a Korean, like bowing for example. I've been here a while, so now I bow mostly out of habit. But NOW, because of my... unique circumstances... which means the fact that I'm a fake Korean teaching English without knowing Korean... My coteacher has told me not to speak any Korean and not to bow, since I am an American... Which is also exactly opposite which normal foreigners are told... I feel like I am being pulled in different directions... What am I supposed to do? I don't want to seem rude by not adjusting to the culture, but I also want everyone to know that I DON'T speak Korean and that I am really underneath, just an average American... It's also awkward when I'm eating lunch with all the other teachers. I really want them to speak to me, but I think most of them are very scared of talking to me... So I just sit there eat my meal silently... But I'm not supposed to speak Korean to them... So now what... I just want to get along with everyone! :(

Finally Getting Settled

So I'm finally at the "last" stage of my journey here! This part is going to be longest and probably most challenging part yet, but I should have a lot more time to chillax in between... As opposed to being constantly on the go as previously. :D

Oh, and BTW, I'm putting in a lot of "extra" detail in all of these posts, partially because I know I'll forget some of this later and will probably one day want to remember, and also partially because the next crew of EPIK teachers will be blog surfing for information like I did prior to arriving. Hopefully, they will find this somewhat helpful.

So... I think I told you about the medical exam last time... Well, after that we had the "Opening Ceremony" and then a "Welcoming Dinner" which was actually just extra food at the cafeteria, which was fine with me. I was kind of disappointed overall with the food at the cafeteria every day. Most days the only things on the menu that were truly Korean was the Kimchi and sometimes the soup. And unfortunately, for most teachers, this was their first time to Korea. I guess getting thrown into the deep end foodwise might be okay...

That was Thursday, the day after all of us "arrived" at the airport. It seemed that a lot of people arrived up to a week early to hang out and adjust though. Every day after that (excluding Sunday) we were busy from 7:30 in the morning until 8 at night. We had breakfast from 7:30am until 8:40am, then two classes from 9:00am (but had to be in the room to sign for attendence by 8:50am) until 12:20pm (with a twenty minute break in between classes and sometimes a break in the actual class as well). The lunch ran from 12:30pm until 1:40pm, and we had two more classes from 2:00pm (with signing for attendence 10 minutes early again) until 5:20pm. Dinner went from 5:30pm until 6:40pm. Excluding the day for the medical check and the last day we gave lesson demonstrations, we had four full days of classes and then one day dedicated to a field trip. Three of the four days of classes, we also had Korean language classes which ran from 6:50pm until 8:00pm. And somewhere in between all that we were asked to prepare our lesson with our co-teaching team of three people. LOL. But it was okay. It made for some long days, but I know our Korean team leaders worked even harder. All the classes had a pair of Korean team leaders who made sure we were all there, we knew what to do and when, prepared materials for us and were there to support us. One of our team leaders told me that he had stayed up the previous night until 2am preparing for our next day!

I really liked most, if not all, of the lectures, although it was a lot of information to process, LOL. Our field trip was on Sunday to Yongin Korean Folk Village, which I have been to previously in May 2012. I thought, for some reason, the name was Hanok Folk Village, but no... it was the exact same village. LOL. It was fun though, and we got to make some pottery. I kind of would have rather walked around, but making pottery was nice too. I don't remember what time we had to be on the buses, but the schedule says 8:40, although I'm sure it was earlier. Anyway, the trip was from around then, until around 5pmish when we got back to campus. Then we had dinner and some of us went out and some of us worked on our presentations. We presented on Wednesday, Feb 27th. My team was last to go (Lesson 9 - Comparatives) and surprisingly our class voted our team the best lesson demo! We got little bookmarks with the EPIK logo.

 

After the demos we had a closing ceremony, during which a very cute video with pictures and videos of all of us that were taken during the entire orientation was shown. I tried to capture the video on my camera... but I ran out of memory! :*( 

I had thought about it previously, but I forgot since I was busily preparing the lesson plan, but during the orientation I decided we needed to get a thank you gift or something for our Korean team leaders... But I didn't know what until halfway through the closing ceremony. I had a firm idea, but I was cutting it really close since after the closing ceremony our class would go our separate ways. I asked Jack if he had a class roster so we could find everyone... Nope. So Jack, Vanessa, and I rushed out to the in-building convenience store and found some materials (two small notebooks, colored markers, and post-its) to make a thank you notebook for each of our leaders. Everyone had gone to dinner by the time we got done, so we sought out all our classmates in the crowded cafeteria and got everyone to sign a post-it: yellow stars for justin and pink apples for Kei. Except we had so many student/teachers in our class (52) that we ran out of post-its, that people just started writing in the book. Justin posted this to his facebook. I'm assuming the left hand side is the thank yous from the EPIK staff.

Isn't he cute? :D

We finished it up quickly in the cafeteria since Kei and Justin said they might not see us in the morning... It was pretty humorous since we were trying to keep it a secret from them, but the table that we ended up signing it at was right next to theirs.... LOL. Every once in a while Justin seemed a bit curious as to what we were doing, but one of us always distracted him. There were many pictures taken that night. :D  We also took a video of us presenting the notebooks to them. It was PRICELESS. Justin (SO ADORABLE) started tearing up a bit. Neither one could read the notebook while we were there. But I'm just glad that they liked it.

I need to get going. More to come on the move, co-teacher, school and other moving stuff.

Much love from the ROK!