Every time I ask the students if they are glad it’s Friday, one student in the room will yell “Fire Friday!” It’s the Korean version of TGIF, though I still don’t quite understand the origin of the phrase. But anyway, it’s Friday and I’m happy about it. I’m exhausted today, but then, so are most of my students. On Fridays I have four classes, which isn’t that bad, but I spend about 1/3 of every class rousing the students from their slumber. I’m serious. Except for the 7th graders, who somehow manage to hold out until the week’s end, unlike their jaded (and more sleep-deprived) older peers. Here’s a sample of how I incorporated “wake up!” into my lesson: during lesson on advice: “So, if you ask for my advice about learning English, I would tell you DON’T SLEEP IN CLASS.” Or, while discussing the word “excited”: “What does excited mean? Well, right now you are all not excited. Because you are ASLEEP.” And my favorite moment, when describing the phrase “I have good news”: “I have good news! You can all take a nap today!” Students: “Really teacher?” Me: “No, I have bad news. I’m lying. Wake up!” I usually make them stand up for one minute if they fall asleep in class, so at one point I had about 6 kids standing at the same time today. Sigh. But, that’s part of the battle. Today was just a little worse than usual (maybe because it’s Friday?). Naturally it didn’t help that I was so exhausted today that I just wanted to sit down and take a nap with them. Maybe I’ll try that strategy one of these days, it might actually work. I have learned that making it sort of a funny thing is better than getting upset about it. One major piece of advice for new teachers coming here: don’t take it personal. Some of my friendliest students are the ones that promptly put their heads down on the desks and try to sleep. They don’t hate me, they just really want a nap more than English class. Sure, sometimes I want to walk over and shake the living daylights out of them, but I find it works better if I walk up to the sleeping kids and find a way to wake them up and then laugh about it a bit. Sure takes a lot of time, though.
Today’s teaching highlights:
- I taught the students the comeback to the idiom “The early bird gets the worm.” Now, hopefully, a handful of Korean students will cockily reply “Yeah, but the late worm doesn’t get eaten.”
- This conversation:
Student: Hello darling.
Me: What?
Student: Teacher, you are my darling.
and this one (as I’m leaving for the day)
Student: Goodbye teacher! She is very beautiful.
Me: Who?
Another student: You.
First Student: But… other teacher is beautiful too.
Co-Teacher: He’s in a sort of punishment right now.
Me: Ah, so we’re all looking pretty beautiful then, huh?
- Biggest highlight: a student came in today and gave me the solution to the brain teaser I posted on the wall. I post one every week, but usually the kids aren’t interested. I’m pretty pumped that he took the time to decipher the puzzle, especially since all the instructions were in English.
I’m always completely useless on Friday afternoons, so even after my classes were done and I had an hour of prep time left, I just surfed the web for a while and tried to look busy. And then I got a strange email. Apparently I’m signed up for a teacher’s workshop (two days, overnight) for next week. I have no idea what this is about, and at least one of my co-teachers had no idea what was going on when I asked her. The workshop is one of the regional trainings conducted by the Office of Education for NETs, so it should be a helpful exercise, but it’s a little odd to not have been asked about it. I messaged my official “handler” (my co-teachers share the job depending on the term), but haven’t heard back yet. So, time will tell whether I’ll be teaching a full week next week or taking a prolonged business trip. I’m sort of hoping for the latter. I love my kids, but it’s nice to get away for a few days and brainstorm with some teachers as well. Although, in general, most workshops I’ve attended in life aren’t extraordinarily helpful, I usually come away with a tip or two (and this time I’d love to get my hands on some new game ideas).
After school I headed straight home, curled up in bed and took a nap. Sorry folks, but that’s about as exciting as my Friday nights usually get. Oh, and I also made myself some oatmeal. It was delicious.
1) What’s your favorite part of Korean culture/society?
I love that meals are such a shared experience. In Korea, eating out involves mutually deciding on food, because you don’t order individually, but as a group. Side dishes and main dishes alike are put in front of the entire group and everyone just digs in. It’s not the individual plate culture that I’m used to and I love that about it. There’s something quite lovely about eating the same thing as everyone around you. This may also be because I always get jealous of what other people order at restaurants, so it’s nice to know that everyone is getting the same thing as me. It also takes way less time to order. After all, once you walk in a restaurant, you pretty much know what you’ll be eating.
2) Have you been able or wanted to keep up on current events in the US – new movies, your favorite TV shows, news, etc.? Also, how do those things differ in Korea? What topics are covered in the news? Are people there as interested in TV/movies?
Newspaper websites are my friends. I feel more connected when I’m up to date on what’s going on back home. In fact, that hasn’t changed much at all. I read the same newspapers, watch the same TV shows, and go see English movies when I want (in the local cinema about 45 minutes away). It’s all pretty accessible online, especially with the help of a few browser extensions to unlock some country restrictions (i.e. so I can watch netflix), I’ve never had much of a hassle with it. I don’t watch local TV here. I had a TV, but I could never get the remote to work and there was no channel button, so… Actually, my co-teacher and I moved the TV to the school so that I don’t have to pay the TV tax (which is about $2 a month), since I don’t watch it. I do, however, watch the Korean dramas (TV mini-series of sorts), but I wait until they are posted online with English subtitles. Koreans are very plugged in with TV and movies, and on the subways, you’ll always find people watching TV or movies on their smartphones (and quite often I’ll spot an American show or two). Most of the Koreans I speak with are fans of at least one American TV show, though many are equally interested in Korean shows and movies. I really don’t find that component of the culture here that foreign, excepting the language difference of course. Although, if possible, movie theaters are even more couple-oriented that the ones back home.
The Other Badger Blogs. Check them out!
Vicky
Drew
Ashley
Abby
TheTravelingFlamingo 
Pingback: Badger Blogging Blitz – Day 5 | ...meanwhile in Korea...