new school year update

This week the students have midterms so I have a lot of free time at school.  I like it.  I try to do something productive while I am here.  I usually study Korean, and this week I started editing my photos from my trip to Japan in February. 

Tomorrow I'll go to Taiwan till May 6th.  About 2 weeks ago I found out I would have May 1st-6th off, so I decided I should go some place.  If I was in the US and had 6 days off I probably wouldn't go anywhere.  But while I'm in Korea it's so easy to travel to another country I want to travel every opportunity I have. 

The school year is going fine so far.  And since we are using the same books as last year lesson planning is much easier because I am mostly able to use the lesson plans from last year.

This is supposed to be my last year in Korea and it's really making me feel pressured.  I mostly feel pressure to improve my Korean as much as possible.  I have been here four years and I am really disappointed in my speaking ability.  I'm also feeling pressure to learn CAD better and make a good portfolio.  I have made a lot of designs with CAD, but I'm not confident that I am making good ones.

School year is over

Yesterday was the last day of classes.  I still had to come to school today, but I didn't have to do any work.  Tomorrow I will go to school then go to the hospital for my medical check, which I need every year for my visa.  Saturday I will go to Japan. 

Summer camp

I'm almost finished with my first week of summer camp.  They call it "camp" but it's really just a class.  This week I have the 1st grade class (middle school 1st grade = 7th grade in the US) which I am teaching alone.  So far this is the best camp I have ever had.  It starts at 1:30 pm, rather than in the morning, which is nice.  I also have a good group of students.  The 1st graders are mostly well behaved, and the ones in this summer class have above average English. The best thing about this camp was my co teacher told me how he wanted it to be.  He told me exactly how much time he wanted me to spend on games, activities and studying, so it was easy for me to plan. 

Next week is 2nd grade which I will teach with my co teacher. The day after it ends I will go to Japan. 

New city, new job

March 6th I moved to a new apartment in Yongin and started working at a middle school the next day.  So far I like middle school much better than elementary school.  I'm teaching 1st and 2nd grades of middle school, which correspond to 7th and 8th grades in the US.  Classes here are pretty big, around 36-39 students per class.  There are 11 1st grade and 11 2nd grade classes that I see once a week, so I teach a total of at least 792 different students each week.  I also have a 90 minute after school class I teach on Mondays.

Yongin is a pretty large city, but I'm living in the more rural southern end of it.  Still it's only about an hour to get to Seoul by bus.  

Below are pics of my school, apartment and neighborhood:

Desk at school:

 

English classroom.  I teach all of my classes here.  

 

English classroom:

 P.E. class.  The weather is getting nice:

School:

 On the way to school.  It's about a 15 minute walk.

   

Foggy morning:

 

 

 Going home:

My home:

Dunjeon Station on the Yongin Everline.  It's just a few minutes from my place, but not a very fast way to get to Seoul.  The bus is faster.   It's better for getting to other places in Yongin, Suwon, or Seongnam.

 

 Little trains on the Everline:

 

Random stuff near my home:

this year, last year and this blog

My time in Korea goes by so quickly.  I'm already 4 months into my 3rd year here.  My original plan was to stay here 1 year, maybe 2.  I didn't think I would like it so much.

My year in Pyeongtaek was great.  I was pretty busy.  I usually hate being busy, but I was busy doing things I wanted to do, so that was ok, except sometimes I was really tired.  My school was good and I liked most of the students well enough.  I couldn't stay a second year because they didn't have money for a foreign teacher.

I'm teaching at an elementary school in Hanam now.  Hanam is much better than the previous two cities I lived in.  The city isn't that different, but it's much closer to Seoul and has buses running to and from Seoul till late.

Teaching elementary school is very different from teaching high school.  In some ways it's better, in some ways it's worse.

I'm busier at school this year than I was last year because I teach more classes and I have to do more lesson planning each week.  It has affected my Korean study and my jewelry design.  I don't have much free time at work like I did at my last two jobs and in the evening I am usually tired.

I'm disappointed in myself for not keeping this blog updated.  But it's just not something I feel much like doing.  It's easy to keep posting things if I both have something to say and a lot of free time.  But like I said earlier, I have been busy.  I also don't have much to say, at least nothing interesting.  I am generally happy with my life here, I just don't have much I want to say about it here.

last day of school

Today is my last day of school. I'm just cleaning out my desk and trying to get a few last things straightened out.

Friday was my last day teaching. After school I went out to dinner with the other English teachers. I spent the weekend packing my stuff. When I came here I brought the maximum allowed by the airline. Since I have been here a year and accumulated more stuff I don't have room for it all now. So I will go over the 50lb weight limit with my bags and pay the overweight baggage fee. I also threw out a lot of stuff, gave some things to my friend to hold till I come back to Korea, and will mail a box or two home.

fights

I had to break up a fight between two girls at the start of second period today. When I came in the classroom the boys told me there was a fight. I couldn't see it cause the girls were all huddled in the corner around the two that were fighting. I'm not sure how long it had been going on. After I got through some of the spectators I couldn't even tell what was going on since it was just a mess of black hair. It seemed the two fighters and the one or two people trying to separate them were all pulling each others hair. Both fighters left crying.

This was the second fight I have broken up since I came here. The first one was between two boys, I came in the classroom and stopped them just as it was getting started. They had just started pushing each other and one punch was thrown before I yelled at them and they stopped.

Another time I interrupted either the start of a fight or bullying. I came in the room and heard a slap, but didn't see what happened. One boy was staring aggressively towards another boy who seemed to want to leave. Everyone just kind of acted like nothing was happening when I came in the room.

I am surprised I haven't seem more fights here. I wouldn't mind seeing more fights, but I suppose I must stop them instead of watching.

quetions my students have asked during the first class

During my first class I show a Powerpoint presentation to introduce myself. I tell them things like my name, hometown, hobbies, age, favorite food, and previous career. At first I felt very awkward standing in front of the class making them listen to me talk about myself, but they are actually very interested. After that I ask the students if they have any questions for me. A lot of them are not able to ask their questions in English so the Korean teacher will help them or sometimes let them ask in Korean and translate.

These are the common questions and my answers, nothing unusual:
Are you married? (this and the next one are always asked right away.) -No
Do you have a gf? -No
Where do you live? -Geumchon, near Daeha Mart
How tall are you? -173cm
How much do you weigh? -A lot
How long have you been in korea? -Since April 2010
Do you like korean music? / Who is your favorite Korean singer? -I don't listen to it. I don't like pop music and it seems that's the only Korean music I hear.
What kind of music do you like? -Rock n roll and heavy metal.
What tv shows do you like? -I watch The Simpsons a lot.
Do you watch Korean tv shows? -No. Why not? -I cannot understand Korean, so it's boring.
Where have you been in korea? -Cheongju, Busan, Daegu.
Why did you want to leave the US? (Sounded like the kid thought I wouldn't be returning) -I Wanted to try living in a foreign country for a while.
Why did you choose Korea? I have known a lot of Koreans in the US and I have visited Korea twice before and liked it.
Do you speak Korean? -Only a little.
They want to hear me speak Korean. -I say 안녕하세요. 저는 존 라이언 입니다. 만나서반갑습니다. They laugh and act impressed.

Less common/odd questions:
Who takes care of your parents? -My parents are not so old that they need someone to take care of them.
What kind of things do you buy? I didn't know what he meant, so I said I like to buy electronics and digital cameras.
Do you smoke? (surprised I have not heard this more) -No. I hate smoking.
Do you like soju? (surprised I have not heard this one more too) -Yes, sometimes.
Do you want to marry a korean girl? -I don't know. Maybe.
Who looks the smartest in the class? I picked 3 that looked smart.
Who is the most handsome guy? I picked a guy.
Is north face popular in the US? -Yes.
Can teenagers buy guns in the US? -No, You have to be 21 in most states to buy guns.
Do you own any guns? -Yes, five. Four handguns and one shotgun.
Are you rich? -What do you think?
Do you have a six pack? -What does it look like?
Do you know dokdo? -Yes. (I don't give any opinion of it)
Do you know capoeira? ("Know" as in, can I do it? Or as in, am I aware of it?) I said I know what it is.

Some other questions I would get asked when I first started at my school were like, my co teacher would tell me one of the students saw me walking the other day... he wants to know where you were going. Or a student saw me at the grocery store, he wants to know what I was buying. Usually with those questions I cannot even remember where I was going or what I was buying.

Most of my students don't care about my class or about learning English, but they are curious about me.

sports day

Last Friday (10/29) was sports day at my school. There were no classes, all the homeroom classes just competed with each other at various sports. There were a lot of things going on, I didn't photograph everything.


Running:



Korean wrestling:









This was some kind of race where people kneeled down and someone had to run on their backs:



Tug of war:



More running:





My co-teacher and I took pictures all day:



Random melee on the sidelines:



...still going during the closing ceremony:



Finished:


The rest of my photos from sports day are in this set on Flickr.

open class

Every foreign teacher has to teach a class to be observed by other people, (principal, vice principal, other teachers, maybe parents) at least once a year, it's called an "open class". Yesterday I had my open class. I was really nervous about it, but it wasn't bad at all. The day before my co-teacher and I taught the same lesson to the same class to practice. So the students had an idea of what we were doing in the class, and they behave better with other people watching them.

I only had a few observers in my class, and the principal and vice principal weren't there. We had a critique of the class afterward that was mostly positive. As far as I know this will be my only open class this year.

this semester

Wednesday was my birthday. I went out with some co-workers for dinner. Each year I feel worse about getting older.

This semester I am busier that last semester. I teach 20 classes per week. They can give me up to 22 classes per week. Last semester I was scheduled for 19, but I only had 14 real classes. Four of those classes were classes for the teachers who wanted to take them, but only about 6 teachers wanted to go to the class, and only two of those scheduled classes had teachers showing up regularly. One of my classes was just a weekly meeting with the English teachers if they wanted to talk to me about something. Usually I only talked with one guy about lesson plans for 10-20 minutes.

So I had a lot of free time to sit at my desk and do what I wanted. It was nice. The only good thing about teaching more classes is the days go by faster.

end of the semester

Tuesday next week is the last day of the semester. I'll teach a short summer class July 28th - Aug 3rd. The fall semester starts August 20th.

I still have to come to school during the summer, but I will probably use some of my vacation time. I will go to Busan for a couple days, but I don't really have any plans for what I will do there. .

trying to control my class pt. 2

All the teachers have something like a small stick (12" - 18") that they use to hit the students or hit on the desk or table to get the students attention during class.

The students seem to think that since I am speaking to them in English that they can ignore me and keep talking even when I tell them to be quiet. I don't have a little stick, so I brought in the chasing hammer I made last year to hammer on the desks to get their attention. It's really loud. I brought it in last week, but I don't want to leave it at school cause I am worried about it disapearing or something. So maybe I will find something else to use.

trying to control my class pt. 1

The English classes are divided up according to ability. The lowest level classes have no interest in learning English. So most of the students in the low level classes would rather sleep, or talk to each other during class. Even a lot of the ones who are awake and paying attention still don't want to participate in class.

Last week one of my low level classes would not participate at all. I was trying to get them to repeat what I was saying. They understand "repeat after me," but they wouldn't do it. The Korean teacher told them to repeat, but only a few did. When I told them again, they didn't do anything. I had the Korean teacher ask them if they understand "repeat after me." They did. After a few more tries I made them all get on the floor and do push ups. They hate push ups. After making them do some I asked if they wanted to do more push ups or participate in class. They said they wanted to do class. They were a little better after that. That was the second time I have made a class do push ups cause they would not listen. I kind of enjoy making them do push ups.

a centipede

I found this centipede while walking around my school. It seemed half dead, otherwise I probably wouldn't have held it. I gave it to one of my students.

first two weeks and my first day teaching

It's been two weeks since I got here. I haven't done much so far. There hasn't been much to write about and I haven't felt much like writing cause I am kind of stressed from this new environment and new job.

My first week here I did some things with my co teacher to get settled, like getting a cell phone, getting internet hooked up at my apt, and getting a drug and health check for my job. Then I went to a 3 day orientation in Anseong.

The next week I didn't teach. I was supposed to make lesson plans and get ready to teach. I did some more stuff like applying for my alien registration card.

Today was my first day teaching. The first class I taught was really difficult. They have the lowest English level in the school and no interest in learning. The next two classes I taught were much better. The students had better English and much more interest in the class.

There's no school Wednesday because it's Children's Day. I also have the next Wednesday off because its the anniversary of the founding of the school. The week after that I have Friday off for Buddha's Birthday. I like being eased into the new job with all these 4 day weeks.