Teaching Update

I did it!
I finally popped my new teacher cherry!
Yes I made my first kid cry! Hurray! This little girl is always pratting around in my lessons, so after threatening her a few times over a couple of days with having to sit at the front next to Teacher, I did it, and moved her to the front, where she sat, head down, and started sobbing . . . then proper uncontrollable weeping, as if her whole world had just fallen apart. It was heart-breaking! (She's 7) Well kind of, but I think I proved my point. She's been good ever since, so I'm counting it as a win. Boom! In your face little girl!
I've also nailed my 'teacher voice' and have almost perfected my 'teacher look.' By which I don't mean my cardigans (which is a good look), but my disapproving look that I give kids who are messing around. Its pretty good, but needs more practice.

I also got handed my first tooth recently! There’s no bins in the classrooms, and the little kids freak out for some reason if they have a tiny scrap of paper or something, so they’re constantly handing you trash. So this kid was like “Teacher! Teacher!!” And handed me this little thing, and I looked at it, and was like “Hmmmm . . . this doesn’t look like a little piece of paper?” Then I noticed his mouth was bleeding, and there was a gap in his smile, where previously there had not been a gap. Fun times!

I also prove to be a source of constant hilarity for the Korean teachers. I go into their kindergarten classes to do reading time with the little kids, and I sit down on their little chairs and read a story to them. 'Little' being the key word there. This chair that I have to sit on is maybe 6 inches off the floor. And I'm 6'3". It is a long way down. And with my largely non-functioning knees, I don't exactly ease myself gracefully down into the chair. I basically check that its somewhere beneath me, a tiny dot in the distance from way up here, then just fall down, hoping that I'll land on the chair. The Korean Teacher keeps laughing, and saying "Sorry Teacher, tomorrow, big chair." And then the next day comes, and there's a tiny little chair waiting for me again. And she laughs again. Thanks for playing 'Lets Laugh at the Foreign Giant!'

But the kids are generally super cute, one of them beckoned me down to her level the other day, and whispered "Teacher, I love you." And made a little heart shape with her hands. She's 5 and just adorable! I've also taken over a more advanced class, who have to keep a journal once a week. One of the kids wrote in her journal "I like David Teacher. He is honest and tall and handsome." Well, I'll take two out of three there right?!

So you might be wondering about how I teach, so here’s a sample lesson plan;

-          Say ‘Hello’ in a variety of funny voices, while pulling funny faces (5 mins)

-          Ask class ‘How are you?’ To which they reply ‘Happy’ or if they’re particularly smart, ‘Amazing’ or ‘Awesome.’ Then act out my ‘happy face,’ ‘sad face,’ ‘angry face,’ and ‘sleepy face.’ (5 mins)

-          Sing songs. I quite like ‘7 days’ (Not the Craig David version, just a list of the days of the week), ‘January to December’ (Again, just a list of the months), and ‘Counting to 30’

      I am yet to introduce any Bon Jovi. (10 mins)

-          Read story (5 mins)

-          Do a little dance (3 mins)

-          Sing ‘Goodbye song’ (2 mins)

The End. Consider yourself well learned!

Thats a 30 minute lesson, I do that about ten times a day. I'm half entertainer, half educator. I'm an edutainer! And a damn good one . . . .

New Teacher Fever

So another week has flown by, and I've succumbed to 'new teacher fever.' The problem with having 50 kids climbing all over you every day, is that they are diseased little bast***s, and they inevitably pass their diseases on to you, so I've been feeling pretty rough, but I'm just about over it now. In time for the weekend!

So last weekend I went to see the mighty Suwon Samsung Bluewings play at their Big Bird Stadium (a World Cup 2002 ground). They battered Gongwan FC 1-0, in a good comedy game. I particularly liked some of the Korean rituals that I've never seen before. Before the game, first the ball boys stand in the centre circle, and bow to the fans, then the officials come out and bow, then both sets of teams. And at the end of the game too, both teams first go to the away fans, bow to them, then their own fans, and bow again. Very polite! The Bluewings fans also all had blue plastic bags, which they shook over their heads when the team scored, which was quite a sight! 

On the Sunday, I walked round Hwaseong Fortress, which is the walled fortress at the heart of Suwon and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its about a 6km walk round the whole thing, and you can actually walk along the walls, and look out over the battlements, which is pretty cool. Then there's a couple of places where you can have a go at archery, ring a massive old bell, or watch the changing of the guard or some other performance. I saw a display of 24 martial arts. Now I'm not sure what all the different martial art styles were, but they all seemed to involve hacking up some big sticks of bamboo. So if any pandas were thinking of visiting, well these guys can cut up your food for you. Which is nice.

I also started night classes to learn Korean this week, and was able to say to the taxi driver who took me home after class "I'm studying to speak Korean." (I said it in Korean obviously.) Which was foolish, as he then proceeded to rattle away in Korean for the rest of the journey, and as its pretty much all I can say, I just had to sit there and smile and nod along. Still, its a start!

The plan for this weekend is to meet up with some friends and play a little baseball. I'm hoping to play in the Seoul Baseball League which starts up next month, and I'm playing in the draft game in a couple of weeks in the hope I get picked up by a team. Now I have never ever played, or even seen, a game of baseball before. But like all British people, I did play rounders a couple of times at school, and I am a cricketing superstar. I mean, its just hitting a bat with a ball (and/or vice versa), how hard can it be? I'm about to find out . . . . .

Angry, Upset and Confused

I was left angry, upset and confused by a trip to the supermarket in Suwon this week. I was trying to find that most basic and important of commodities; tea. I found the aisle with all the usual brands of coffee you see in the UK; every type of Nescafe, Maxwell House, etc, and all the usual brands of Hot Chocolate, and then found the tea section, and it was a big section.  There was barley tea, corn tea, ginger tea, soybean tea, blackbean tea, silk tea, dong suh tea, grain tea, green tea, yellow tea, purple tea, pink tea, mint tea, plum tea, apple tea, strawberry tea, honey tea, lemon tea, vanilla tea, garden tea, nut tea, but no flipping Yorkshire Tea (the only real tea!) Dark times! 

Not being able to read Korean makes food shopping something of a lottery, as some products might have an English word on to give you a hint, like 'soup' or 'tea' but as far as a product description or whats in it, or how to cook it, no chance! So the tea I bought, turned out to be not what I would class as tea at all, and after speaking with more experienced westerners over here, it seems its impossible to buy proper tea. So friends and family, please send me tea!

On a happier note, I've finished my first week of teaching, and its been crazy hectic! My timetable has already changed at least ten times, the Vice-Principal that hired me has already left, and some of the kids have even decided to change their names! (So Korean kids all have their Korean names, and then they also have random 'English' names that their parents or their kindegarten teachers or someone will have chosen for them, or maybe they chose them themselves. So I've got kids with some pretty cool names like Aurora and Hera, but mostly normal names like Tony and Vicky and things like that.)

The little kids are all super cute, and all I'm really doing with them is telling stories, singing songs, and playing games. They work through different units, where the songs and stories will have a theme for them to learn, but their Korean teachers do all the grammar and rules and homework and stuff like that, I'm just they're for entertainment value and my delightful English accent! The kids pretty much just want to climb on me, hold my hand, hug my leg, and yell "Teacher! Teacher!" at me and then smile when I look at them. They've also all been taught to answer the question "How are you?" with the answer "Happy!" Which I've never heard a westerner say, but I like it!

Anyway the plan for my first weekend here is to go see the local football team and Asian Champians League winners the Samsung Bluewings in their first home game of the season at their World Cup 2002 ground, The Big Bird Stadium. Naturally I'm hoping to see some of my favourite Sesame Street characters there too. And if I can find somewhere to get a decent cup of tea aswell, that would be a bonus . . . . .

Teacher Dave

So it was my first day on the job today, no training, no settling in period, straight into the classroom, Boom! I am now called 'Teacher Dave,' a bit like some sort of wandering kung-fu guru, I quite like it!

So the start of March is kind of the start of a new term, so I only had elementary kids in the afternoon, two classes, the first were aged 8, the second were propably about 10. The first group mostly stared at me and giggled, as if I was some sort of giant freak, which I guess I kind of am! But the second group were more advanced and we could talk pretty well, and they were much more loud and entertaining.

From Thursday, all the kindergarten kids are back, so I'll be teaching straight through from 09:00 until 17:00, with just a 30 minute break for lunch, so that will be a bit hectic. There are four westerners at the school, and about 8 Korean teachers. Pretty much all the westerners do with the kids is sing songs, read stories, and generally teach them how to say words. We don't do any grammar or anything like that, so its not too demanding in terms of prep work, as the course material is all pretty good.

Also, the four FTs  (thats Foreign Teachers, i.e. me) get given a subject area each for the kindergarten kids, and we pick a topic, eg stars, and we each teach in our own subject area on that topic. So Matt is the reading teacher, so he'll be reading stories about stars, Heather is the art teacher, so she'll be making pictures of stars, Greg is the music teacher, so he'll be singing songs about stars, and I am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the science teacher! So I'm going to be teaching these tiny little Korean kids about the science of stars? We'll see what eventuates . . . .

The Journey Begins

March 1st 2013

So I've arrived in Suwon, South Korea to start my new life as a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). The aim of this blog is twofold;
1 - To allow my friends and family back home to keep up with what I'm doing.
2 - To help anyone else who might be thinking about moving to Korea to teach.

So first up, there's not much to say, as I've only been here a day and haven't started work yet. My apartment (provided by the school) is very small, but its warm and clean and has internet access. Though there is no kettle, so I can't have a cup of tea, which is tragic.

I will write more detailed blogs in the near future, but thats it for now.