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2009/04/13

What I'm Most Excited About

...is the people.

The other ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) that I've met through Facebook all seem like motivated, curious, intelligent people. They're as different in every way as possible--all different majors, all different ethnicities, all different backgrounds, and all different reasons for going. The "counselor" for the orientation camp (a previous ETA) seems like she is genuinely enthusiastic about helping a new batch of ETAs nestle themselves into the South Korean countryside.

I'm excited about the people that will make up my homestay. I'm anxious to meet them and try to integrate myself into a Korean family. Learning how to cook, working on my language skills, picking up on the little things that make up a "typical day". I want to join some physical activity--yoga class or a gym--and get involved in some type of volunteerism so that I'm not just "the white girl" or "the foreigner" amongst the community members. I'll at least be "that white girl" or "the nice foreigner". Upgrade!

And maybe most of all, I'm almost IMPATIENT to meet my students! I'll have anywhere from 500-900 students, middle or high school age. I'm really hoping that I'm able to make a positive impact on them and that the lessons I teach them are memorable. At the very least, it'd be nice to be remembered as something more than an Entertaining Teacher from America, as most Korean students call their ETAs.

2 comments:

Kurry said...

wow! i havta comment cuz i jus realised that i alredi hav a blogspot account since i use gmail. this has nth to do w/ ur post, but, i wuld like to add that u shuld learn tae kwon do since it's from korea as well as plz hold back ur pedophilia urge while u'r there. hahaha.

Anonymous said...

(aka Sarah B)

lol, the 'nice foreigner.' Sounds like fun. When I'm in Japan I intend to take their internship class to go work in a company once a week, so I guess it's sort of the same thing. Definitely try to get involved as much as you can, and have fun as well!