Day 15, 16 - Interpersonal Relationships and Teaching

No pictures for this post because I'm dumb and haven't taken any in a few days.

I didn't write anything yesterday because I didn't think anything of note happened. Then KEY Club called at 10:30pm letting us know that they were drinking downtown, so another ETA and I changed out of our pajamas and headed out.

Although we didn't drink, it was really interesting to watch the interpersonal relationships play out. The graduated alumni had come back to spend time with the students and watching their social interaction was fascinating. Korea is very much a hierarchical society. Here it's normal to ask somebody their birthday because there are specific titles you must use if somebody is older than you. For example, amongst the club, the most popular titles are hyung/oppa (a boy's/girl's big brother respectively), noona/onni (a boy's/girl's big sister respectively), and sunbae (upperclassman). If somebody is older than you, every time you say their name, you have to attach the appropriate title; it's disrespectful to say just their name without a title.

My favorite interaction has got to be the hyung/little brother interaction. The hyungs are so physical with them, pulling their hair, pinching their cheeks, punching their arms, making fun of them and trying to hook them up with girls. It's just like how blood brothers would interact. Definitely my favorite hierarchy to observe because it's absolutely hilarious.


Today, Day 16, I taught my first class. It went as well as I could expect for a first lesson. My biggest downfall was underestimating their English ability, so my material (idioms) was too easy for them. I'm completely rewriting my second lesson plan to be much more challenging with some specific vocabulary. Because the camp theme is holidays, I decided on doing a murder mystery where some mythical holiday character has killed the Easter Bunny. Each kid will have a role as a character and they'll have to figure out which one amongst them is the murderer, having them use English to first gather information from one another and then, if there's extra time, host a short trial to figure out the details. I KNOW SO COOL RIGHT?

I also held office hours today and got to interact with the students under more one-on-one terms. Gracious, they're so cute. I'll try to get pictures sometime later this week or next, when I don't look too much like a weird stalker snapping my camera in their faces.