my students

Some people have said they want to hear about my students. Well they are all little monsters. Nah just kidding, they are alright. Honestly my kids are a lot like any elementary kids back in Canada whether you know them from teaching or remember being a kid yourself. I have some kids whose hands go up for every question and I have some who never want to answer and go beet red if you call on them. I am fortunate to have Moon Hae Jin, my co-teacher, teach every class with me. There are always two teachers and she already knows the kids from last semester. They gave a lot of information out during orientation about the differences between Western and Korean kids. That they would make personal comments like you’re fat, you’re pretty, you’re handsome etc. and that they are more respectful since teachers are more respected in general over here and that you might be treated like a celebrity since you’re the only foreigner they know. So far none of that has been true for me although I have heard it occasionally from the other English teachers I hang around with. I do get a lot of “Hello teacher!” in the hallways.

I think the biggest difference is the way they do ages over here. Everybody is born 1 and then everybody turns a year older at the same time on new years. So if you were born late in the year, say December, it is possible to be 2 years before your actually 2 months old. They stick to that and so you can see some really young kids in your classes. This might be a slight benefit in learning English however, as the younger you are the easier you absorb it and the more likely you are too participate. My grade 3 class will dance and sing all the time well it is impossible for the more shy grade 6’s to do the same. They get more nervous in front of their peers as they get older.

I’ll post good student stories as I live through them.

Greg

The foreigner community

The foreigner community in Mokpo is pretty large. It is hard to tell exact numbers but the facebook group has 313 members and around 100 or so were listed as coming to the last big party and that seems about right. All of the people I’ve talked to have been English teachers of some sort, private or public. This group is fairly active and pretty friendly. On the new arrivals first weekend in Mokpo the people who had already been here hosted a dinner for us. They introduced themselves, listed some hobbies and offered advice. Korea can be a difficult place sometimes so it is great to have people you can ask about stuff like where to buy a bike, or the best place to find a western food item or just what to do on the weekend.

Also set up were the sports leagues that I play in, soccer and ball hockey, they have all the equipment (hockey sticks are hard to find in Korea) and manage to find a place to play. They were eager for new players to replace the teachers we replaced here in Korea. So that is great and a good way to make new friends as well.

The community also has a few leaders that are awesome at creating parties and running annual events such as the “show your colours waygook party” and the annual Halloween party. Laura and I attended the former last Saturday and had a blast. It was a dress up as your country idea to show that not all the foreigners (waygook in Korean) are from the same place. Canadians are in the majority but there are plenty of Americans and I have met a few people from the U.K., South Africa, Australia and even a German.

The foreigners here have also become involved in the community, in particular setting up an organization that helps the orphanage here in Mokpo. They organize people to teach English to the orphans and also run fundraisers such as the Halloween party. Laura and I have joined and teach English for one hour on Mondays. We have heard it is almost as much for the sisters (It is a Catholic orphanage) than for the students as they badly need a break as you can well imagine. I’ll talk more about the orphans another time.

finally a post

Hello everybody,


Sorry for the lack of updates but we have been extremely busy here in Korea. Not only are we getting used to a whole new country and working five days a week but we are also busy almost every night. This week I volunteered at an orphanage Monday night, Tuesday night I played soccer, then Wednesday is volleyball night with the school, Thursday is ball hockey and then Friday my co-teacher, Moon, and her boyfriend are coming over for dinner. Oh and don’t forget lesson planning and hours of power points. Laura has a similar (but less sport filled) schedule. So you will have to forgive us.

There is a lot to update you about. The field trip to Danang folk village and a bamboo forest, our night out in Gwangju, the new schools, the foreigner community here in Mokpo, Mokpo itself, our apartment, the new pet rabbit, our first teacher dinners. Really so much to write about and so little time.

How about my school first? I teach elementary at Mokpo Nam (South Mokpo) with my co-teacher Moon Hae Jin. I call her Moon because it’s easy to pronounce and cool. My school is very small, around 210 kids in comparison Laura’s school has about 1200 kids. I teach grades 3 to 6 and they are split up into groups of around 20 kids each. The students and I are very fortunate to have such small class sizes. In all I teach 9 groups of kids, 4 classes on Tues, Thurs, Fri and 3 classes on Mon. and Wed. I come to school at 8:40 and leave at 5. The times I am not teaching I hang with Moon in the classroom planning but sometimes just desk warming. Desk warming is the term foreign teachers use when you are required to be at school but you aren’t teaching. Right now I don’t do a lot of it but there will be times when my contract requires me to be here but there aren’t any students or even other teachers around. I eat lunch in the cafeteria with all the other teachers and students. The food here is pretty decent; there is always kimchi, a vegetable, plain white rice, a meat and soup. Since it is cafeteria there can be misses. The other day the meat was fish with veggies but the whole thing was full of tiny bones. Koreans are very adept at avoiding fish bones but for me it simply wasn’t worth it. I find the weirdest thing about meals is that there is nothing to drink, after you finish and put away your tray and chopsticks everybody grabs a glass, washes it and fills it with water for a quick drink before putting it back for another person. One glass of water at the end of the meal. I guess a lot of people drink the soup broth. So that is my school, maybe Laura will post about hers next or maybe I’ll describe the class to you.

Greg