5. Happy New Year

I am now at the end of the third day of a glorious 4 day weekend. It's Chinese New Year, so we've gotten a little time off. Unfortunately, this weekend has come before I've been paid and right in the middle of one of my annual bouts of bronchitis. Fortunately, one of the best things you can do for bronchitis is to rest and sleep, and so that's pretty much what I've spent this weekend doing. That and taking the antibiotics that I finally managed to get from the doctor. I was on some sort of medication for 5 days that I had thought was antibiotics and couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting better. When I went back to the doctor for the third time on Friday (after spending the day with difficulty and feeling pain when breathing) she said "Well, I'm going to change your medication and put you on antibiotics." To which I responded "What on earth have I been taking all this time?" Turns out I had been taking (and paying for) cold symptom medication... which frustrates me because I had brought some stuff with me from Canada and really can't yet afford to be spending money on stuff I already have. Anyway, I'm trying to not be angry about it anymore... it's not really anyone's fault. The doctor's English is pretty good, but my Korean is pretty much non-existent, and I simply hadn't understood her when she had told me what she was prescribing.

In other news, I had a complete computer meltdown about a week ago, which I managed to fix all by myself... a fact that I am rather proud of! I almost lost all my data, files... everything. The general consensus of what probably happened is that I got hacked... Apparently that's a huge problem over here, so I have since put in a firewall and other stuff on my computer and it's been working fine since then. It was pretty frustrating though.

Last weekend I went to Seoul to get together with Clara and her parents... had a great time! We went to an amazing show called Nanta, which is kind of like Stomp, but with a story line about cooking or something. It was loads of fun, and I took lots of pictures, including pictures of the cast... and then proceeded to leave my camera in the taxi I took home. I realized I'd left it seconds after I got out of the taxi, but it was already gone. VERY frustrating. I called the taxi company, but again... my non-existent Korean didn't help me very much. Fortunately I brought 2 cameras with me. I'm just sad that I lost those pictures.

My second camera came in really handy when I showed up at school on Friday almost all the kids had come to school in traditional Korean clothing... absolutely beautiful stuff! They spent two periods learning how to bow properly (something not taught by us foreign teacher's obviously, so we got a weird 2 hour break in the morning) for New Years. I went home, grabbed my camera and took loads of pictures of them, so here you go.
Here is Kiersten in her outfit... adorable!

Little Ashley, who I have since discovered I seriously misjudged. The Monday after I wrote that blog entry about her ignoring me, she ran and greeted me with a huge hug. It turns out she's just way too little to be in school -- at least that's my assessment. She falls out of her chair about 5 times a day. Not because she's leaning back or something, she's just too little to be sitting in a chair for an extended period of time. And when she raises her hand, she does it with such enthusiasm that it lifts her right of her chair (and usually dumps her on the ground) -- it's the cutest thing I've ever seen. I think I'll set up a camera one day just to catch that moment.

Sally... spends most of the day with her arms around Shawn, whom she calls her 'baby'.

Mathew, Justin, Grace and Kiersten, sitting in the gym for their bowing lessons.

The Cookie Monster girls up on stage.

This is Mathew with his... uh, what I'm going simply call his toy. They all made these. They are coins wrapped in some sort of tissue paper.

Kiersten with her toy.

Justin with his toy.

This is the Tweety class playing with the toys on stage. The objective is to try and kick it in the air more than once... kind of like hackey sack.

This is one of the other teachers, David, wearing clothing that the school provided. He looked quite dashing in his pink pants! Actually, over the weekend I've seen several Korean men walking around in pink pants, so it's probably traditional... but no one has bothered to explain it to us. David and I have bonded over our love of the new Battlestar Galactica. He actually grew up with one of the actresses from that show, which is kind of neat. I like all of the foreign staff, actually, which is really nice. The newest girl (Anita) and I bonded in the car on the way to get our "Alien registration cards". Then there's Martin, who is one of the sweetest men to ever walk the earth and spends most of his time telling horrific puns. Really, really terrible! But he's just super nice, so I try to ignore it. And finally there is Suzanne, who I haven't really spoken to very much yet, but she seems very nice. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of anyone but David (well, you can sort of see Anita in the background here so, there's one down).
This is Cookie Monster (my class) getting ready to give me a New Year's Bow.

And here it is, my New Year's Bow. I think it's rather ironic that the only one not bowing to me is Justin (my problem child)!

I also remembered to take some pictures of my afternoon class (4:30-6:00)
This is the best picture I could get of Angela... who is intensely camera shy. Not shy in any other way though.

Terry -- affectionately known as Teddy Bear... an absolutely hilarious kid.

And finally Robert -- a kid who I, for some reason, want to hug all the time... especially after his psychotic "episode" in my class the other day. Terry had, unbeknownst to me, hidden one of Robert's homework books, and when Robert couldn't find it, he just lost it. He started punching Terry, really punching him. He takes martial arts lessons and I could tell the punches he was landing were really hurting Terry. He was also screaming in Korean and drooling all over the place (which later on allowed me to teach the class the words spit and saliva). It lasted all of about 6 seconds (the time it took me to get in between them), but it was really freaky. Robert then sat down, and I just continued the class as normal (I didn't know what else to do), or semi normal. It's normally a really fun class (my favourite time of day actually) and we laugh a lot, but at this point in time things were deadly serious. When Robert was ready (which was about 5 minutes later) he just joined in and was completely normal. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it. I know these kids are under extraordinary pressure. Robert, I know, also goes to Chinese school and of course, his martial arts lessons... but I would bet good money that he takes other classes as well, outside of his regular school. Education here is more competitive than anything I've ever seen, even at the kindergarten level. And it gets worse the older they get. Mr. Lee, the director of my school, has said that he plans to move to Canada or the US when his kids are in their teens because he doesn't want them to go through it.

Anyway, I think that's it for news. One more day of rest! Yay! I'm feeling much better than I have in a while, and the rest tomorrow can only help.

Love to you all!

4. Week 1 Down

I have now been here for 8 days... and honestly, it feels like I've been here forever. And I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean that... well, I don't feel like I've just arrived. I guess jumping in the deep end has its advantages.

Events this week? Well, the fraternal twins in my class had their birthday this week, which was nice. It was also the first day I actually saw a difference between Korean kids and Canadian kids. We made cards in class for the birthday boys (they didn't tell me it was their birthday or that there was a party at school until about half an hour before the party began), and all of the kids took an enormous amount of time on their cards -- more than I had planned on... and I couldn't get them to go any faster, despite the fact that the Korean staff wouldn't start the party until they were all done. The food (chicken, pizza, and other assorted treats) just waited outside the classroom while my class of 4 and 5 year olds drew detailed pictures of the X-Men, or Batman or whatever. And they didn't care. Also, the party came complete with a cake, which none of the kids touched. They blew out the candles and then just ignored the cake. The staff ended up eating it (or, well, half of it), and Suzanne informed me that the kids never eat the cakes. Strange!

Oh, also I've began teaching an afternoon class (well, an after 2:45 class)... I have 3 students in that class -- Terry, Robert and Angela. They're 12 (Canadian 10), and very nice. It's a fun class, I have to say. They are very much beginner English speakers. They speak like they took English classes once a week about 5 years ago. But we have fun, they can make themselves understood, and they have actually improved in the last... well, 2 classes. The only thing is, the parents want me to give them lots of homework, and I'm not sure how to do that. I managed to think of something on Friday, but their vocabulary is so low that I'm not entirely sure what to assign them. I'll have to wing it, I suppose.

I've only been watched once (watched on the TV screens), and that was for the afternoon class, but that is going to change drastically this coming week. Last Wednesday, a group of mothers decened upon LCI and watched a bunch of the Winter Intensive English Classes (none of which I was teaching) and complained about the one Korean (but English speaking) teacher, so I am taking over her class starting tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it. The moms said that they would come every Wednesday and watch, which is a little nerve wracking, especially since I heard their list of demands from last Wednesday. Ugh. Oh well, the Winter Intensive classes are only for 2 more weeks, so I'll get through it.

Mr. Lee, the director, sat in on one of my classes (again, though, only the afternoon class), and he didn't have much to say -- his only suggestion was that I get them to speak louder and faster, which wasn't bad. I keep having to remind myself that I've only been here for a week, because none of the things that I've been warned about have happened. Parents haven't complained about me, and Mr. Lee hasn't given me a list of complaints... but I just have to remember that none of those things have happened yet. If after a month I'm still complaint free, then I'll relax, but I think it's a bit early. I don't want to get blindsided.

In other news... food: Well, I've decided on a policy of "eat first, ask questions later" which seems to be serving me well. I ate dried, sliced squid this week and loved it! I wouldn't have touched it if I had asked before I ate it. I also enjoyed a fried, fish and egg paste thing on a stick when I got together with Silvain on Friday. Some of you may remember Silvain from OCF, he's been living here for about 2 and a half years now, and he's actually living in Ilsan, which is pretty cool. Anyway, he suggested the fish/egg paste thing, and as gross as it sounded, it actually didn't taste bad.

Oh and I went to church this morning. One of the teachers found me a church in town that has English translation, a Presbyterian church. I had thought that there would be other English speakers there, but I was the only one (well, aside from the translator, who was quite nice). The service was nice, and their choir was amazing! But I couldn't help but wonder if they were singing the same words as I know to the tunes that I know... I mean, how can they make the same thoughts rhyme in different languages? They gave me a Korean/English hymn book and that's all I could think about as I was singing, how we probably weren't singing even remotely the same thing.

Anyway next weekend... well, next weekend I'll probably be in Seoul with Clara, but the weekend after that I think I'll try the Seventh Day Adventist Church. I've heard that they have services in English (not just a translator) so that would mean that there would have to be other English speakers there.

Oh, I took my camera to school on Friday so I have some pictures of the school and of my kids.


This is the display board with work from each of the 5 classes. Mine, as I have mentioned before, is the Cookie Monster Class... although by the end of the week I will have taught all 5 classes at different times (not just Storytelling, we share other things too).

Now, let me introduce the little Cookie Monsters.

This is Justin, who I believe I have already mentioned is my little trouble maker.

Annie, the little darling. She always wants to sit next to me... so close that I have to be careful not to hit her in the head, because I talk with my hands a lot... and even moreso as I'm teaching ESL!

This is Ashley. Now, maybe I've just had bad experiences with Ashley's in the past, but she so suits her English name to me. She completely ignores me unless she wants something. She doesn't disturb the rest of the class like Justin, she just pretends I'm not there. It's very disconcerting.

This is Brian, one of the birthday boys. I haven't spent enough time with him to be sure, but I suspect a learning disablity here... although it could just be a family trait, because I suspect the same thing with his twin brother...

...his fraternal twin brother Mathew (yes, spelt only with one T). But Mathew is more willing to engage, whereas Brian seems lost in himself all the time. Mathew is behind, but he tries, Brian would happily just sit there and stare all day if I let him.

Brian Song... oh man, what to say about Brian Song... he asks me about 10 times a day to go downstairs and speak to Mrs. Lee (the owner of the school), and when I ask him why it's usually because he's mad at Ashley. He cracks me up though... I find him so funny... and I can't stop thinking that he looks like a member of a boy band... but maybe that's just me.



Well, this is Grace, and... uh... well, Grace after school. I just think those face mask things are so cute on the kids, and given the pollution levels, they are probably quite practical. There isn't really much to say about Grace. She's very bright, probably one of the best English speakers in the class.

Kiersten -- super affectionate girl. Always hugging me and cuddling... but also always hugging and cuddling other students. It can be a bit of a distraction. But she's very sweet.

Sally... another one that Brian Song fights with. I'm never sure what it's about because it all happens in Korean (which they are not supposed to speak in class, but so far I haven't been able to stop that). She has told me a few times that she loves me very much, but it's usually right after I've told her to stop fighting or something, so I doubt it's very sincere.

Shawn... an absolute sweetheart. Again, I'm not sure what to say about him. He is probably one of the best behaved boys... and better behaved than some of the girls. He's very bright, and his work is very neat. But more than that, he's just plain sweet.

Anyway, that's it... those are the Cookie Monsters. I begin week 2 tomorrow.

3. Day 2

I don't know if I can adequately convey how much better the second day of teaching was. I was stern, much more stern than I normally am... but I felt like a teacher, not a babysitter. But I couldn't help thinking that any if the kids I've taught or looked after before would have been scared out of there wits to see me like that. Once I get them in line I'm hoping I can gradually loosen the reigns a bit. And then, joy of joys, I will be able to use my normal teaching strategy -- a reward system. It's just that reward system kind of has to be explained, and I can't explain anything to these kids that isn't "I am wearing blue pants" or "My favourite colour is green". I think if I were just to implement it, it would seem like I was being kind of random to them.

Anyway, they sat (or stood, or sang as instructed) and listened and participated. It was wonderful. I used a song that Julie Crabb had taught me (Punchanello), and they loved it.

Onto other things... the food. They give me breakfast at the school, which consists of a fruit salad sandwich (at least, I think that's what it is). It's fruitmayonnaisese... and onions. And I love it! It's a combination I would never have thought of, but it's just delicious. I also ate lunch at the school yesterday and it was pretty good too -- well, except for the kimchee (sp?). That wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, but there are many variations of kimchee, so I might have just had a particularly mild one. Of course, after I had eaten it, Martin (another teacher, he's from New Zealand) told me that kimchee was "grown in human excrement"... which I hadn't heard before at all, and I'm not sure I believe it. But I can tell you that I probably won't be eating any more kimchee just in case.

Anyway, I'd better be off, I'm writing this in the morning before Day 3, so I have to head to work.

Love to all of you!

2. Barbola?

Do any of you know what that is? I'm going to make a prediction -- the only one of all of you that I send this to who may know what "Barbola" is probably going to be Dan Kaiser. And even then, I doubt it.

I had to teach "Barbola" today (my first day!) to a group of Korean ESL kids. Strange.

I bet you're wondering what "barbola" means... well, I'll tell you... or at least I'll tell you what the book I was given says it means.

"Barbola" is the meaning of 'Pressed Flower'. We make barbola to keep petals in beautiful and natural state."

That was from my science lesson today. The science Teacher's Guide is kind of hilarious to read, the English is just so bad.

All of the teachers have a 'special activity' class that they teach to all the classes in the school -- like Physical Education or Music. I had originally been told that mine would be science and I was kind of bummed because not only is science kind of boring to me, but one of the other 'special activity' options that was still open was "Storytelling", and as anyone who has ever observed me with children will know, this is a huge strength of mine (if you don't mind my bragging). I love telling kids stories, I love reading to kids, and so I was kind of sad. But God obviously knows all of this because I was told at the end of the day that I wouldn't be teaching any more science, in fact I would be the 'storytelling' teacher. So that is absolutely fantastic.

Of course, as I say this before I have actually tried to read stories to ESL students, I could be totally wrong, and it could turn out to be horrible. But I'm excited. The idea of teaching things like "barbola" for a year was just depressing.

My main class is the "Cookie Monster" class, and they are... well... I know that David had said that the "Snoopy" class was the worst, and I haven't had them yet so he may be right, but Cookie Monster is pretty bad. There are 9 kids in Cookie Monster, and 6 of them wouldn't stay still for more than 4 seconds at a time, and the other 2 (one girl was away today) were glued to their seats with their lips sealed shut. Disciplining kids is not something I enjoy, but I'm afraid I will have to be quite stern for a while. I normally like to start with some sort of reward system, but that is almost impossible because there is no way to explain it to them. Punishment is fairly self-explanatory. Hopefully I can get them in line fairly quickly and then the rewards can start to flow.

The thing that was really frustrating was that I was afraid to be strict with them due to something that I'm sure was unintended. Mr. Lee (the director of the school) gave me a big folder full of things like routine questions to start the day, etc... but on top of all the papers was a letter written by the former teacher apologizing for "yelling at the children" and scaring them. It's not that I'm a fan of yelling at children, I'm really not, but sometimes it's just necessary... and that letter had me thinking that I wasn't allowed to yell at all. Towards the end of the day I finally had a chance to mention that to one of the other Canadian teachers (a girl named Suzanne) and she said that the other teacher (whose name was Ronnie) actually lost control and went ballistic on the children. Not quite the same thing as raising your voice to keep control of an unruly class. I spent most of the morning employing those wonderfully idealistic classroom control strategies that they teach you in Teachers' College -- like lowering your voice to lower the volume of the kids, or standing near the problem students. Those strategies work with a reasonably well behaved class -- or even a slightly unruly class -- but with a class who has basically had the run of things for their entire school career, you need to come down harder. Well, now I know. Tomorrow will be different.

I got to teach two other classes today -- Peter Pan and Tweety. It's kind of neat to get to move around, and now that I have storytelling I'll be teaching every class at some point.

I seem to be starting off with the bad things... that's not good. The kids are precious! They really are. I've already had a few of them tell me that they "love Jenny Teacher", and had a few hugs. And they are remarkably advanced for their age... writing full sentences in a language that is not their own.

Oh, on the age thing... I've unlocked that mystery. I had been told I would be teaching kindergarten, but that kindergarten meant 7 years old. Well, 7 years old in Korea means something different than it does in Canada. In Canadian terms that can mean anything from 4 to 6. When you are born in Korea, you are considered 1 year old, and then the first Lunar New Year (which is in February) you hit you turn 2... so technically you can be 2 years old in Korea before you would be 1 years old in Canada.

Oh, I should tell you my kids names (at least the names of my main class). Justin, Matthew, Annie, Ashley, Brian, Kiersten, Shawn, Brian-Song (yeah, I know, but that's his English name) and Grace (who wasn't there today). Justin is my main handful, and the class follows his lead. He starts to misbehave, then Matthew follows, and once Matthew has gone off then Brian-Song, then Brian, and... well you get the idea.

In other news it's cold. Really cold. Well, probably not really cold, it's just damp. The classrooms are nicely heated, but the staff room (where I spent most of today actually... I don't have a full class load yet) is freezing. I looked down at my hands at one point and my fingers were blue! Literally. I've never seen that before, and I lived in Winnipeg for 7 years.

Mr. Lee just came by and he's coming back in a few minutes to bring me a stove so I'd better sign off for now.

1. Here I am!

Well, I have arrived. I'm still can't entirely believe that I'm here. I'm safe, I'm sound... and I start work tomorrow. Insane.

I had a bit of an inauspicious beginning here in the Land of Morning Calm. The 14 hour flight over was murder. I slept in fits and starts, and was eager to get to bed when I arrived... a half hour early. So it really sucked that the guy who was supposed to pick me up (Stephen) was over an hour late -- meaning that I was waiting in the airport for almost 2 hours. Stephen had gotten caught in traffic due to a rather major accident. But I was home by 7:30 yesterday morning.

Where is "home"? Well, I'm in Ilsan, a suburb of Seoul -- about half an hours drive out of the city, at least that's what Stephen said. I was way too tired to pay that much attention to how far we drove. But I have since talked to one of the Canadian teachers at the school I will be working at and he says that we're pretty close, so that's good.

First impressions? Well, so far it just looks like any other city, except with signs I can't read... at least not all of them. It's insane how many signs are in English. I went grocery shopping today and passed by about 6 churches -- at least I think they were churches based on the large crosses... so finding a church shouldn't be a problem. I just have to figure out how to find out when they start.

I'm nervous about tomorrow, I must say. The "2-6 day training period" I was promised seems to actually mean "a couple of minutes of orientation in the morning before you start teaching". And David (one of the other Canadian teachers... the one who showed me where the grocery store (and more) was) felt the need to warn me about some of what I can expect... I can expect the parents to complain about me for a little while -- it apparently happens to all the teachers at first. English education is so competitive -- there are schools everywhere, so parents have a lot of choice, and therefore a lot of power. They will watch me as I teach... via video! They have televisions in the lobby of the school that show us teaching, which seems crazy to me, but is not as bad as some of the schools which have it set up so the parents can watch from home via the internet!

He also warned me that the parents will be 'confused' by me... because I'm Canadian but not white. Apparently Mr. Lee (the director of the school) looked at my picture a thousand times and kept asking David if I was "really from Canada". Stephen (the recruiter) also brought it up in the car -- the "you are black people" issue. I was warned about this before I even started applying for jobs in Korea, but I admit that it still shocks me a bit. In Canada I have to put up with people asking me if I'm "really black" all the time because I'm light skinned... Here... well, things are different. They're quite certain I'm black.

Onto good things. One of my main concerns (petty as it may be) was that I wasn't going to be able to pronounce the names of the children... well, that won't be a problem as they have all been assigned English names. I am of two minds about this... it seems so wrong somehow, but I'm also incredibly relieved. I'm going to have either the second youngest class (known as Cookie Monster) or the third youngest (known as Snoopy). At first David was saying that I will have the Snoopy class, which he went on to explain was the worst behaved class in the school. I couldn't help but laugh at this, because that's what happened to me when I went to teach in Belize -- they gave me the worst class too. But after a little bit, David came to the conclusion that I would probably have Cookie Monster. Either way, I think I'll be okay... I'm good with kids. Of course, I'm good with North American kids, but they can't be that different over here, can they? I suppose I'll find out.

They told me that I'd be within walking distance of the school, and they weren't kidding... I'm about a 1-2 minute walk from school. It's insane.

Anyway, I suppose I'll show you some pictures now.
This is the building that I live in. I have yet to meet any of my neighbours. I had actually thought that there would be other English teachers living here, but all the voices I've heard so far are Korean.

The street I live on (I still don't know the name, actually... I don't know who to ask to find out my address, I'll just ask around at school tomorrow) looks kind of like a back street to me, but it isn't... it's actually a 2 lane street, but I would hate to drive down it myself. It looks a lot wider in the pictures than it does when I'm standing on it.












I'm sure you all want to see pictures of my school... so, here you go.












It's on the 4th and 5th floors of the building.











The school itself is on a fairly busy street.

















David also showed me the local 'mall', which is more like an outdoor market, except it's not. Um... I'm not sure what to call it, so 'mall' will do. It's known as "La Festa", and it's where I went today to do my grocery shopping. I imagine I'll be there a lot.

And now, what you've all been waiting for. My home. It's about the size of the Curles' living room (for those of you who have been there).

The bathroom is interesting, I must say. If you look at this picture closely you may notice that there is no shower curtain, just a shower head hooked up to the sink. This is fairly standard. I haven't quite figured out how to turn on the hot water yet -- there's a series of buttons labeled in Korean (don't worry, Jen, they aren't in the bathroom! I won't get electrocuted), I just have to figure out the right one.

Anyway, that's it for now. Much love to all of you!