Category: Life in Korea

I really am glad to be teaching.  Do I sound like I'm trying to convince myself?  Maybe I'm at that stage where I'm asking myself, what have I gotten myself into?  Really, it's cool to be teaching again, but currently feeling a bit overwhelmed – I really do want to do a good job.

So Tuesday was Gary's last day – he is/was my predecessor.  Several of us teachers, along with Gary and the two directors/owners of the hagwon (academy) went out for food and drinks after work – since this is an afternoon academy, that means we were out from around 11 pm through 3 am.  But Korea is definitely a night-owl culture, and many bars and restaurants and such are open very late.  Social drinking is, of course, extremely pervasive, but I resisted the suggestions of soju (korean native vodka-type stuff) or beer and stuck with saida ("cider" = really this is 7-up or something like that).

But there's nothing like seeing your coworkers get drunk for getting to know them.  Ha.  So, Gary was the raison d'etre of the party, and life of the party too – the life of any party, such an expansive and energetic personality.  Grace is a korean-canadian, fully bilingual, and has been with the school since it's founding, 4-5 years ago.  Marly, a maori new zealander who's been around for about a year, and seems quite competent at teaching and is quite friendly.  Lastly, Danny and his wife Diane are the owners/founders of the academy, a korean couple who lived in south africa for some years.  So they're my "bosses."  I really think Gary was right, I've landed in a good spot -they seem very conscientious and dedicated to providing a quality product to their students.  I met an "alum" of the school Tuesday afternoon, who was visiting but was now enrolled at the University of Chicago – that speaks pretty well for the skills and competency imbued, given the high standards and reputation of that school.

So we stayed out till about 3 am, but since work starts at 2 pm, this is not really a problem.  I feel for the students, who essentially go to school from 7 am to 11 pm (with food breaks, I guess) – public school in the morning, hagwon in the afternoon.  And this practice is universal.  No wonder Korea kicks U.S. ass in educational statistics, right? 

Yesterday Danny and I drove to an immigration office, where I had to surrender my passport in order to get an "alien card" -  I've always wanted to have my alienation confirmed bureaucratically.  I feel naked without the passport, but I have a little piece of paper that I use as an ID, meanwhile, and I should get the card in 2 weeks, and this will allow me to do things like get my own cell phone, bank account, DSL connection, etc – all the accouterments of modern life.

I am, by far, the "old man" here, but I felt comfortable with these people and I'm feeling optimistic.

I have approximately 13 classes, most of which meet twice a week and several meet three times a week.  I'll tell more about my schedule and students later, as I get to know things – for now I'm just going to go "by the book" and follow Gary's lead (to the extent I can make sense of his notes – heh) and Danny and Diane's curricula. 

Given the quantities of free food on offer at work, and the fact that my rent is paid for, I can already tell that I'm going to be hard put to spend my earnings here – but that's good, I guess.

One piece of disappointing news:  my vacation schedule is such that I probably won't be able to take any long excursions out of Korea – the 2 weeks are distributed across the calendar and there's not a lot of flexibility.  So I guess people will have to come visit me, instead.  I will have weekends free, regardless, and South Korea is small enough that you can see most any part of it in a weekend.    But the slow boat to China, traipsing off to Darwin and points south, and other adventures will have to wait, it seems.

Location:  Ilsan-gu

Soundtrack:  crickets, and morning city noise

The teacher whom I'm replacing is named Gary.  He's a very energetic, dynamic guy from Yorkshire.  I get to spend the next two days watching and working with him before he leaves, so there's an overlap to provide some transition for the students and for me.  There are two cohorts of students – a Monday/Wednesday/Friday group and a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday group, each subdivided into classes based on age and relative mastery of English – so two days of overlap provides at least one day of time with both teachers for each of the classes I'll be doing.

Abilities range from lower level "elementary" students to quite advanced "middle school" students.  I put the quotes as I think the terms aren't quite applicable as we would conceive them in the U.S. – the "elementary" are what I would think of a "middle school" – age 10 to 13 roughly, while "middle school" are more like high schoolers – age 13-16.  The oldest student is 17 I think.  The whole thing is compounded by the fact that Koreans are all 1 year "older," because they count the day of one's birth as the "first" birthday, and when they report their age to you, you never know whether they're subtracting that extra year because they know that we calculate from zero, or if they've forgotten and are doing a straight translation.

The advanced students are quite advanced – perfectly capable of having complex conversations on just about any topic, and toward the end of the evening Gary and I found ourselves enmeshed in a "discussion" (with the "T2" group) of Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" that would do a group of American college freshmen credit.   I put "discussion" in quotes as the whole classroom structure is, nevertheless, much more teacher-centered than I'm used to from the states – more "question and answer" than discussion.  And no doubt some of this I'll just have to adapt to, but other aspects I may begin to try to change as I get settled into the academy.

Gary and I walked down to a Dunkin Donuts (yes, they have those) on break and got some coffee.  He told me I had been very lucky, as I had landed in the best hagwon ("after-school academy") in Ilsan (and there are apparently 100's, many of which he's taught in over the last 6 years.  6 years!  Anyway, of course I asked "so why are you leaving?" and he explained that he and his wife are moving to southern Seoul (she's soon having a baby) and that the commute out to Ilsan would just be too much.  It's pretty clear that he's on great terms with the other staff members of the school and he said Danny (the director) is quite professional.

Most notably (in my opinion) he's on amazing terms with the students.  After we finished that last class of the evening we walked out into the hall and all the more advanced students were lining the hall to say "goodbye."  Many of them had cut out fat "tear drops" of blue paper and glued them to their cheeks ("see, we're crying because you're leaving" they explained), and they presented Gary with these large posters which everyone had signed with little paragraphs or anecdotes written with them, sort of the way kids sign yearbooks for each other in the U.S.  None of the staff were aware the students had prepared this "farewell party" for Gary.  I was touched and impressed by their degree of devotion to this guy.

He will be a tough act to follow.

The picture above shows my building, Urim Bobo County I.   Within blocks there is a McDonalds, a Burger King across the street from the McDonalds, a Starbucks, a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf franchise across the street from the Starbucks, a Homever (this is, roughly, a Carrefour store – and Carrefour is just French for Wal-Mart).  All amazingly high density.  But so far, I haven't even eaten in a restaurant (at 3 days, probably already some kind of record for me, at least when being abroad) – I've bought food (yogurt, ramyeon, fruit) and eaten in my little apartment, and there's also apparently a lot of free food flying around the school, too – last night I had some cold Bibimbap for dinner (my favorite Korean staple).  I have gone to the Homever store to get some houseold supplies and to be able to shop for food without overstretching my almost non-existent vocabulary.

Ok, well… day 3 begins now.  More later.