Day 326 - Tickets Home and Forward Thinking

TICKETS HOME
Yesterday I got an email from my program with the information for my plane tickets home to America this July. Since I'm extending my grant for another year, I'll only be home for a month. In just 51 days, I'll be on my way home. I've already got a list of food I want to eat and things I need to stock up on before coming back to Korea in August!


FORWARD THINKING
I applied to stay at this same school -- yes, the school I am constantly complaining about. I talked to the other English teachers this week, explaining that things can't continue like this. What I mean is the disrespect and complete lack of manners. It's to the point now that I realize they're probably not going to be enthusiastic about what we do, but they still enjoy seeing me because it means they're not memorizing standardized test prep.

Last semester didn't seem so bad. Maybe because this semester I resolved to actually *teach* them something. Next semester I'm going to go back to just giving them a period to be high school students. They enjoy playing games, they enjoy the contest with the other classes, so I'll focus more those than trying to salvage their English skills in the waning years of their educational careers (again, probably not going to college, so they're done in 3 years, tops).

In other news, North Korean refugee classes are coming to a close -- just two more and a field trip with the kids to the Seoul zoo. While that volunteer opportunity is wrapping up, Doyup has approached me, asking if I would be available for his military English class. A handful of the soldiers at his base are studying English for a military scholarship to go to the States and one of the big things they're studying is "English for daily life", or conversational English. They're excited to meet a real, live native speaker to use these skills on, so that would be a fun opportunity to take advantage of living in Nonsan.



In ooooother news, I'm planning a jungle safari in Malaysia with my college friend during my long weekend in June. How many people can say *that* for their job?! She's doing an English teaching grant with the same program as me, but in Indonesia instead of Korea. She mentioned last year wanting to travel more before going to grad school, so I suggest she check out my program. Now we're both out in Asia, soon to be trudging through the rain forest in search of elephants and orangutans. Small world.

Day 312 -- Examples of Student Reading vs Writing

What my students can read or translate:

"There were some places of worship in the city, and the deep notes of their bells echoed over the town from morning until night. The sun was shining brightly and cheerily, and the air was warm. The streams were flowing with bubbling water and the tender songs of birds came floating in from the fields beyond the city. The trees were already awake and embraced by the blue sky. Everything around the neighborhood, the trees, the sky, and the sun looked so young and intimate that they were reluctant to break the spell which might last forever."


What my students can write or speak:

"hello~
My name is Jong Woo Nam.
I'm hobby is computer games.
but have to study.
because I'm go is good a university.
So I'm jest a minute my hobby computer game perform
So me sad.
University success it's me hobby to one's content joy."

Day 310 - More Teaching Woes and a Cute Student Encounter

Despite drastically dumbing down my lesson (the 2-3 kids in my class who have any kind of English skill to speak of complained that it was elementary level) the majority of the students still said it was too hard. Since I'm drawing dialogue, grammar, and vocabulary directly from the book at this point, I don't know how much simpler I can make things. The co-teachers are starting to get pissed at me; I get frustrated that the students can't handle even the most basic English, and maybe the co-teachers think that I blame *them* for the students' amazingly terrible English skill. Which I don't at all -- I know how impossible it is to teach them, so I can totally empathize with their situation!


Anyway, yesterday I was clearly upset after struggling through one of my worst classes. A little, mousy girl -- always quiet in class, but clearly tries her best and hangs on every word I say even though she doesn't understand 80% of them -- lingered in the classroom. I went about cleaning up after the students, collecting papers and erasing the white boards. She came up to me, unable to make eye contact, and softly stumbled through an attempt at an apology in English.

I was really touched that this girl -- a girl who never misbehaves in my class and always tries her hardest -- took it upon herself to apologize for her classmates' terrible disrespect. She was clearly at a loss with her English, so she switched to Korean, apologizing that they were loud and bad. I hugged her back and told her she shouldn't worry, that she's a kind student, that she should keep studying hard. Tearing up, she reached into her pocket and handed me the cookies she had probably brought to school as an afternoon snack, told me she loved me, and rushed out of the room.


For all the rotten, frustrating students there are, every class as at least one of her. Maybe they won't grow up to be international CEOs or translators or whatever, but I like to tell myself that I'm significant in their lives for *some* reason, even if it's not English.

Day 308 -- Taiwan and Teaching Breakdowns

Okay! So, about a week ago I had a big post typed up about teaching in Korea and how to do so, but I guess the proxy ate it because it never got posted. Shame.

During the quarterly exam period, I went on a trip to Taipei, Taiwan with another girl in my program, Shannon. It was just the right amount of time for it and I definitely recommend it for a layover or weekend trip. Any less than the 3 days we were there and we wouldn't have felt like we "saw everything", but any more time and I think we might've gotten bored (if we just stayed in the city). One country off the list! Others include:

Japan
China
Vietnam
Indonesia
Malaysia
Thailand (when things settle down)
Phillipines
Cambodia
and the cities like Hong Kong and Singapore.

I've still got a few more vacation periods so I want to knock off as many as possible for I go home for my month break in July!


Travel and recreational life is great. Teaching is not so much. The students are so poorly behaved and they're so resistant to learning English. Without motivation they'll never become skilled, without being skilled they'll never be confident, without confidence they'll never have motivation, and the circle continues. I'm not sure how to break the cycle -- I'm not teaching them anything that's not in their textbooks (I'm not even teaching conversational English anymore! I'm only teaching-from-a-text!) but they're still unresponsive.

Before, I thought maybe my lessons were too hard, that what I was teaching was beyond their abilities. So I changed my teaching style and concentrated on just practicing the vocabulary, grammar, and dialogue that they learn in their regular English class. They're still completely unresponsive just like before -- so if it's not me, then what am I supposed to do?

Frustration.

After today's class (Monday, which is my WORST day in terms of student attitudes) I just broke down. I told the co-teacher that if the students were going to be rude, disrespectful, and not attentive, that they needn't come to my classroom in the first place. I swore that if they continued behaving like they did today, I would not teach them -- I'd put a movie in and they can do without their native-speaker lessons.

The teachers empathized, apparently concerned that I was worried the students hated me. I could care less if they hated me or loved me -- so long as they're respectful and polite in the classroom. But I can't help them if they don't help me help them. Right?

I understand these students are not the best and brightest that Korea -- or even Nonsan -- has to offer. I'm not asking for smart students who can converse with me. Or even string together a sentence. I'm just asking for some effort. I do nothing in my class that I couldn't do in Korean because it's important to know how to explain things in Korean for these students. I am only expecting them to memorize two line dialogue: "Are you interested in (books, movies, animals, etc)?" "Yes/No, I am (not) interested in ___."


The teachers don't discipline them beyond slapping them with their whipping rods. So ridiculous and ineffective. Students are shocked when I kick them out or make them move seats in the classroom. Any kind of punishment that's not corporal, really.

ahhhhh what am I supposed to do with these kidsssss! I'm still convinced that if I just figure out what drives them, I'll be able to effectively teach them English. But until then! AHHHRGGGHFHDJKSLALV

Day 288 - NKR Classes

This past Saturday I realized it's my favorite class of the week. The students there are so motivated, so attentive, so eager to learn. It's wildly different from my regular teaching gig, where I have to make my lessons more like entertainment with a few grains of English in them and my students are apathetic to say the least. With my regular students, I deal with that apathy and behavior issues. With the NKR classes, I can choose any topic and they'll be so enthusiastic about learning it that they're impatient. I'm so glad I have the opportunity to work with them because they a part of Korea that not a lot of people get to interact with. I feel really lucky to be one of the few that gets to help them out.

Day 276 - Jeju Spring Conference, Homestay, Goals

FIRST

First. Hello, fellow F'brighters. I'm still not sure how to feel about you all reading the blog intended for my family and friends back home in the States, but right now it's a mixture of Wow Dude That's Creepy and My Life Isn't That Interesting, so, um, next time you do a guest reading of my entries, I guess you can open with that?


JEJU

Over the weekend, I went to a teaching conference held on Jeju island for my program. It was fantastic, especially fantastic because it was free. Most of the time was set aside so that we could relax and enjoy the scenery, which was like an entirely different country compared to mainland Korea. Blue water, green palm trees, bright flowers, volcanic rock beaches -- it was definitely a welcome change from the gray and dull brown that I see in Nonsan. We did a little sightseeing as a group but there's so much more to do there that I plan on going back on my own time, maybe with Hallie and some of the other Nonsan foreigners who were thinking about making a weekend trip.

It was especially nice to be around 90 familiar faces for Easter. A group of us went to services on Sunday, followed by a kimbab picnic and a trip to one of the waterfalls. It wasn't a particularly traditional Easter holiday, but it was definitely made a lot better by being surrounded by friends!

Again, no pictures because I'm writing behind a proxy. sooooorrrrryyyyyyy


HOMESTAY

My new homestay. Things are Not So Bad there. The mother is so enthusiastic about learning English. She's a straight-up housewife. I don't think she really ever leaves the house, so she has this shelf full of English study books and I think she just memorizes words in her free time. She also wants me to be more like a member of the family than the last homestay. By that, I mean she treats me as her own child, not a guest. I had a few pieces of laundry in my laundry bag when I left for Jeju, but when I returned, they were all washed and folded in the dresser. Including my underwear.

(In Korea, our program has heavily stressed that you are never to give your underwear to your host mother, even if she offers to do your laundry for you. It's highly offensive, I guess, so I was shocked to come home from Jeju and discover that she not only did Surprise Laundry but also my underwear. Which was not only in my laundry bag but in a separate lingerie bag WITHIN that laundry bag.)

The cats are okay, I guess. White Cat puked under my bed and crapped in the bathtub. That makes me feel not fantastic. Gray Cat is pretty chill and just likes sleeping on my bed and mreowing at me a lot.

The kids are nice, the younger twins. The other day one of them was eagerly showing me how he got his six pack after I mentioned to host mom that I wanted to join a nearby gym so I could continue exercising. I'm not even sure sixth graders should have six packs. Disturbing.


GOALS

One of my Big Plans when I came to Korea was to travel and see as much as I could while I was living here, both Korea and the surrounding Asian countries. However, I'm kind of a timid person and I have trouble seizing opportunities even when there's an open door so I haven't really done anything like that yet. Yet. I'm planning a weekend trip to Taiwan with another F'brighter during our midterm testing period. My school also has a school trip for the students to Jeju, so while they're gone I hope to get down to Indonesia for a week to see my college friend who is also on an English teaching grant with F'bright there. This weekend, I'm finally going to start knocking things off the "To Do In Korea" list by sight-seeing Seoul with DY -- we made a deal where he'll show me the palace, Insadong, and the history museum, then in return I'll go with him to his friend's wedding. Quid pro quo.

I've also been inspired by Amy (http://livingontheflipside.blogspot.com). I've never even met her, but I found her blog about two years ago when I decided I wanted to come to Korea and started searching for ways to do so. She's been able to start a great language-exchange group up in Cheonan. Now, when I first came to Korea, my Statement of Purpose talked about improving relations between US military and ROK citizens, because the media had made it seem as though that was a bad relationship. In reality, it's an old relationship -- these days, it's more that the ROK citizens view the native English speakers as the "bad foreigner" in Korea.

Being a native English teacher in a rural area, this hits close to home.

So when I realized this, my Statement of Purpose changed and I want to improve relations between native English speakers and ROK citizens. I think the best way to do this is through Korean language/culture classes. My program is great in the sense that it prepares its teachers the most for life in Korea -- some programs don't offer language and culture classes.

Too long, don't read; long story short, I want to start a language exchange club in Nonsan where the foreigners can learn Korean and Koreans can practice their English. I think this would do good things for both parties and it fits well with my Statement of Purpose.

Now I just need to actually do it, instead of think about what a great idea it is.

Day 269 -- New Homestay

Despite being ridiculously sick, my co-teacher came by yesterday to help me move my things to the new homestay. I'm living with another TOEFL class student, Hyeon Soo. His mom's a housewife, I don't know what his dad does, he's got twin 6th grade brothers and two cats. Hurray kitties! My room is a bit smaller than my last one and there's no closet, so I'm kind of concerned where I'll be able to put all my stuff. The apartment is in a good part of Nonsan -- there's a lot of restaurants, banks, and a few bakeries, one of which has a little cafe where I can study. There's also a gym nearby that I'll check out, although DY says it's smaller and older than the gym I used to go to. He adds that he's good friends with the trainer there, though, so maybe he won't get so peeved now when I ask for weight lifting help.

I have no pictures of the new homestay yet because I am once again writing behind a proxy, but maybe after the Jeju conference I'll put some up.

Speaking of Jeju conference, I just want to vent about how frustrated I am about this. I told my co-teacher FAR before the school year even started that I needed tickets to Jeju. She didn't get them early enough (she waited about a month, actually) so now I'm forced to fly out of Incheon. I live like 5 hours by public transportation from Incheon. And I'm leaving wicked early in the morning, so these two factors combined means I have to leave today, find a cheap hotel, and spend the night alone in Incheon so I can catch a flight early tomorrow morning because my co-teacher procrastinated getting tickets.

FRUSTRATION