Category: The Wonders of Work

Caveat: Yo, Cat

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / My Drawings & Paintings / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

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I have these “Hello Kitty” index cards, which are pink. I got them for free somehow – I don’t recall when. But I use little index cards quite frequently (almost universally) in my speaking classes, when I allow students to make notes – I find the small format makes them think more about what information to put on their cards in preparation for speaking, and at least sometimes prevents them from writing out their speeches verbatim, because they can’t fit the full speech so well on such a small card.
Some of the students (boys, of course) complained about having pink, Hello Kitty index cards. I said deal with it. On a whim, I tried to create a less “girly” version of the Hello Kitty character. I called him/her “Yo, Cat.” Here is a bad-quality photo of a bad-quality sketch.
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I guess I conceptualized this character as a hiphop artist.

내가 지금 듣고있어요.

[UPDATE 20180328: Video embed updated due to link-rot.]
매드 클라운, “콩 (Hide And Seek),” (Feat. Jooyoung 주영)
가사.

하루의 시작 똑같은 생활의 반복
속에 끈질기게 나를 놓지 않길
난 세상이란 바구니 속 작은 콩
행복이란 게 내 청춘의
방구석 어디쯤 숨었다면
난 쓰레기통 탁자 밑 신발장
안까지 싹 다 뒤졌겠지
하지만 나 바랬던 것들
여기 없네 내게 행복은
소문만 무성할 뿐 목격된 적 없네
속쓰린 아침 다시 밥과 마주했고
이걸 벌기 위해 이걸
또 삼키고 난 나가야 돼
삶이란 건 어쩌면
아빠의 구둣발 같은건가 봐
끊임없이 바닥과 부딪혀
닳고 아픈건가 봐
행복이란 게 마치
숨바꼭질과 같은 거라면
난 모든 길 모퉁이 모든 골목
구석까지 미친 듯 뒤졌겠지
모두가 모르겠단 표정으로
날 비웃을 때 답을 찾았다거나
답이 보인 게 아냐 난 그냥 믿었네
2011년 11월 난 보자기에
씌워진 저 작은 콩
까만 비닐봉지에 싸인
저 위가 내 하늘일 리 없다
믿었고 반복된 일상
평범함은 죄 아니니까
난 웅크린 채 숫자를 세
아직은 한참 밤이니까
스물일곱의 그 밤
무작정 걸었던 그날 밤
가로등 아래 우두커니 서
난 어디로 갈지도 모른 채
스물일곱의 그 밤
내 모습이 초라해
눈을 뜨면 꼭 잡힐 것 같아
아득한 그 시절 그날 밤
해 뜨면 어제 같은 오늘을
또 한 번 나 살아가겠지
붐비는 지하철 똑같은
발걸음들 나 따라가겠지
술잔 앞 꿈에 대한 얘기 할 때면
사실 내 목소리 떳떳하지 못해서
누군가 눈치챌까 괜시리
목소릴 높였지 이 곳을
벗어나고 싶어 난 내가
나로서 살고 싶어
더 비겁해지기 전에
겁 먹기 전에 이젠 나 답고 싶어
작은 콩 몸 속에는
서러움과 눈물 몇 방울
그리고 그 빛나는 믿음을
끌어안고 견디는 중
이 수많은 밤을
나를 믿는 것 꿈을 견디는 것
지금의 내 초라함은
잠시 스쳐갈 뿐이라는 것과
언젠가 머릴 들이밀고
솟아날 콩처럼 까만 보자기 속
난 한없이 더 질겨지고 있지
스물일곱의 그 밤
무작정 걸었던 그날 밤
가로등 아래 우두커니 서
난 어디로 갈지도 모른 채
스물일곱의 그 밤
내 모습이 초라해
눈을 뜨면 꼭 잡힐 것 같아
아득한 그 시절 그날 밤
하루 견뎌 또 하루
세상에 바짝 약 오른 채로
용기를 내긴 힘들었고
포기란 말은 참 쉬웠던
난 숫자를 세지
꼭꼭 숨어라 머리카락 보일라
어디로 넌 숨었을까
어디에 있건 상관없다고
자 하나 둘 셋 넷
다시 다섯 넷 셋 둘
세상은 나를 술래라 해
난 그래서 눈 가렸을 뿐
한때는 헷갈린 적도 있지만
난 이제 갈 길 가네
열까지 숫자를 세고
내일이 되면 난 더 빛나네
나는 더 빛나네
스물일곱의 그 밤
무작정 걸었던 그날 밤
가로등 아래 우두커니 서
난 어디로 갈지도 모른 채
스물일곱의 그 밤
내 모습이 초라해
눈을 뜨면 꼭 잡힐 것 같아
아득한 그 시절 그 날 밤

picture[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: Chaewon’s Diary

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

I have a 1st grade (elementary) student named Chaewon. Her mother is making her do additional English homework that is not part of our curriculum – because it's never too early to overburden your kids with homework. She's making Chaewon write 2 English diary entries each week.

Here are Chaewon's first two extra-work diary entries. 

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My first reaction was just to recognize the heart-wrenching agony of being a 1st grader in such a demanding cultural milieu.

My second reaction was: how is it possible for a 1st grader to have written this, in English, when she's been at KarmaPlus less than a year and does not stand out as a remarkable student.

But my third reaction was to recall that Chaewon is not a regular student. I believe that before she came to KarmaPlus, she was in an English kindergarten in Dubai. Probably, that was an immersion environment. I was struck by her at the time she first came, that she was a bit like a very shy "native speaker" child of her age with some recent trauma in her past, who was very good at verbal communication with English, but only on her terms and when she was willing, but was also quite "behind" on literacy skills – she could barely spell her name when she came to us. Perhaps the recent trauma in her past was coming to Korea?

Korean hagwon-based English education is of course almost opposite in orientation from her strengths, then: it depreciates spoken ability in favor of a kind  of mute, passive, but grammatically precise literacy – even among young elementary students. Of course I  try to be a counterweight to that – but there's only so much I can  achieve, seeing kids one or two hours a week. But because she is so weak in areas that hagwon curricula emphasizes, she is perceived by her Korean teachers as being mediocre at best, and her strange alternation between shyness and aggressiveness makes her seem unmotivated if not rude.

And, still, with respect to Chaewon's diary, I wonder – did she write this without assistance? I'm not sure. The linguistics are quite strange – on the one hand, it seems very private and sincere and strikingly sad, too. But on the other hand, it seems that even if a native-speaking first grader were writing this, I'd have to wonder, because there's a strange self-aware craftedness to the prose that doesn't seem right for a child that age. For example, the almost literary-usage style of "but" in the sentence "My familiar voice is not the alarm but my brother's voice." That's in weird contrast to the mis-uses of the terms "used to" or "notice," both of which bespeak an over-reliance on literalist look-ups in dictionary or grammar text, which is the sort of error I more normally associate with middle school students of middle-to-high competence.

I'm curious now.  I may want to follow up.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Oinkography

Banalities & Journaling / My Drawings & Paintings / The Wonders of Work

Yesterday during the staff meeting I was grumpy, because … well, it was because of something that was ultimately my own fault, for having failed to validate some work someone else had done. Anyway, I will have to adapt my curriculum for my Sirius반… 

I took these notes during the meeting. They are quite detailed, but don't really make clear what I need to do.

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Later, my student Hansaem made some minor additions to the notes in red pen, including her name and the name of an imaginary friend.

[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: Karma People

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

From my boss – he writes a New Years note and sends an image of it via attachment to SMS. 

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I made a transcription so I could try to understand it better, although I got the general gist of it right away:

작년, 열심히 땀흘려 찍은 정들…
올, 2015년에 멋진길이 되어 우리 앞에 펼쳐질겁니다. Happy New Year! 카르마원장 올림.

I'm still uncertain of some of the words/structures (and I may have made mistakes in transcription due to unclear reading of his handwriting). Very roughly (not word-for-word):

Last year, we worked hard… for the coming [year], 2015 will wonderfully unfold before us. Happy New Year from Karma's Director. 

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: White men come and ruin Mesopotamia

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Last Friday, on a whim (and because I had a class in my schedule that I hadn't planned for), I gave some 2nd and 3rd grade elementary students some pseudo-TOEFL-style speaking questions. Yun (a 2nd grade prodigy of sorts) attempted to answer the question, "What is your favorite type of museum?" This is an actual TOEFL-style question which I normally use with advanced 5th and 6th graders or even mid-level middle schoolers, and I was quite surprised at how well Yun met the challenge. He took some notes and planned his idea, and patters on quite successfully for the allotted 45 seconds.

What he says near the end about Mesopotamians is rather funny in a sad, "wow that's still going on" way – hard to catch it, I know – here is a transcription based on my having had access to his notes.

But later, white men come and ruin Mesopotamia, So today Mesopotamia's museum is not stay their seat. 

His use of the term "white men" might seem odd, but in fact it's just a direct, naive, dictionary-driven translation of the Korean 백인 (literally white-man), which has a similar semantic scope. He means Europeans.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: I don’t got time for holy rollers

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

Another really long, exhausting day: I don't even remember having had a day off yesterday. I stayed at work past 11.

Anyway, December is almost over. The new schedules and cohort assignments and syllabuses will all fall into place soon and things will get more routine again.

What I'm listening to right now.

Spoon, "Inside Out."

Lyrics.

Time's gone inside out
Time gets distorted with
This intense gravity
I don't got time for holy rollers
But then they wash my feet
And I won't be their soldier

There's intense gravity
Yeah, there's intense gravity
I'm just your satellite
I'm just your satellite

Ooh, and I know that time's gone inside out
And now it's only like we told you
Hm, oh then they wash my feet
They do not make me complete

Break out a character for me
Time keeps on going when
We got nothing else to give
We got nothing else to give

Ooh, 'cause our time's gone inside out
I don't make time for holy rollers
Hm, there's only you I need
They do not make me complete

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: the winter will crave what is gone

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Last week at some point, while searching for some utterly unrelated pedagogy-related material, I ran across a PDF of a PhD dissertation by a Korean-American graduate student at Georgia State University. The title is "Korean Teachers' Beliefs about English Language Education and their Impacts upon the Ministry of Education-Initiated Reforms," and was written by Cheong Min Yook in 2010 (it is accessible online here). I was so intrigued by the premise of the dissertation that  I downloaded and read a significant portion of it, hoping to find some insight into the sometimes beffuddling beliefs my coworkers exhibit in the realms of pedagogy and TESL. The dissertation is pretty dry (of course), and frankly I didn't feel it was particularly revelatory, but there was something else that struck me most profoundly, and was quite dissappointing: there is an almost complete disregard for what is, in my mind, the primary locus of ESL in Korea: the hagwon industry. 

Aside from a few single-sentence, off-hand mentions of the fact that parents often resort to "commercial supplementary education," the author seems to view the existence of the hagwon industry irrelevant to ESL in Korea. This strikes me as naive to the point of seeming like an alternate reality. In fact, I think that the hagwon industry (and the Ministry of Education's preoccupation with it, in the negative sense) is likely the single most significant factor in why reform in Korean ESL is so necessary yet also at the same time so incredibly difficult (especially if researchers like this graduate student are pretending the hagwon industry is marginal and nigh irrelvevant). 

I have attempted, anyway, [broken link! FIXME] elsewhere, to go into the history and structure of the ESL industry in Korea, although I confess I probably need to get back to it and make changes as I no longer entirely agree with everything I wrote there. Without going into a lot of that, however, as I read Cheong (is that the surname? I'm not clear if US-name-order or Korean-name-order was used, but Cheong is a more common surname than Yook so I went with that as a guess) I got a lot of insight into the timeline of what was going on with respect to "reforms" and changes in the Ministry of Education's approach to public school ESL. I was struck with a kind of insight or brainstorm about how that must have had a direct and probably uninintended consequence in the hagwon industry. Here is a brief outline of that brainstorm.

The "boom" in the hagwon business which occurred in the early 2000s wasn't just demographic (which is always how I'd conceptualized it, before) – it was also a direct market response to the government's effort to emphasize a more modern pedagogy in the public school system. That is because the government failed to support their programmatic methodological changes meant for the classroom with sufficient reforms to the exam system (i.e. the 4-times-a-year 내신 in middle and high school, as well as the 수능 [Korean "SAT"]).

As a result, what ended up happening was that the reforms, oriented toward spoken English and CLT ["communicative language teaching"], which occurred in the public schools in the late 1990s and early 2000s, rendered English education – as it was being provided by the public schools – irrelevant to what parents wanted and needed. What parents want and need, always, is adequate preparation for exams. The exams remained focused on passive-skills – mostly grammar, vocabulary and reading, with the only, arguably fairly minor, reform being some increase in a listening component. (As an aside, it's worth mentioning that the intended nation-wide TOEFL-style [therefore CLT-based and with a speaking component!] English exam, NEAT, was an utter flop, although I'm not clear as to the reasons for that). Thus, to the extent that public school ESL focused on communicative competence and speaking skills, to the exact same extent it became irrelevant to the national exams. Parents essentially fled the public system (not by quitting, but by simply ignoring it and influencing their children to ignore it) and instead invested even more money and hours in private supplementary education (i.e. hagwon) in order to adequately to prep their kids for the exams.

That makes a lot of sense to me, when I reflect on it. I wonder, therefore, if the current drawback in the hagwon industry is therefore also not just demographic, but is rather also a consequence (intentional or otherwise) of further changes to pedagogy in the public schools. Certainly I think the effort to increase emphasis on speaking and CLT in the public schools has been scaled back substantially – abandoned in middle schools and reduced in elementary schools. Just look at the reduction in foreign native-speaking teachers being employed by public schools. One could argue that the government was disappointed by the results, but it seems just as likely that at some high, administrative level they realized their previous reforms were driving the hagwon industry to new heights (which they didn't want) and so they reversed direction. 

Actually, there is one other factor driving the current travails in the hagwon industry that I might as well mention, as long as I'm writing about it, which is that the cost of 과외 [private tutoring] has veritably plunged in recent years, driven, I suspect, by the increasing number of English-fluent Koreans in the country, mostly returned emmigres who abandoned the Anglosphere due to the economic hardships post-2008. Unlike me or other foreigners who must be here on business-sponsored visas (E2), these returnees can work however they want, as self-employed one-on-one tutors, and there is zero regulation. Given the choice of paying the same for one-on-one with a native speaker or time in a raucous classroom with a native speaker only half time if they're lucky, it's easy to see why parents would pull their kids out of hagwon and find a tutor for them.

By the way… uh, merry christmas? Frankly, it was a sucky Christmas. Bah humbug, then.

What I'm listening to right now.

Future Islands, "Seasons."

Lyrics

-Verse 1-

Seasons change
And I tried hard just to soften you
The seasons change
But I've grown tired of trying to change for you
Because I've been waiting on you
I've been waiting on you
Because I've been waiting on you
I've been weighing on you

-Chorus-
As it breaks, the summer will wake
But the winter will wash what's left of the taste
As it breaks, the summer will warm
But the winter will crave what is gone
Will crave what has all gone away

-Verse 2-
People change
But you know some people never do
You know when people change
They gain a piece but they lose one too
Because I've been hanging on you
I've been weighing on you
Because I've been waiting on you
I've been hanging on you

[daily log: what?]

Caveat: Still Teaching

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

I had a kind of terrible day. Probably, just being so tired from yesterday, I wasn’t at my peak. I had some issues with feeling adequate to managing my classrooms, and not fulfilling one function I think is important in the role of teacher-as-moderator: preventing kids from being unkind to each other.
Anyway, prior to those bad classes, I had a kind of good moment: a former student from 2008 stopped by. That was a time when I was working for Curt, and with Grace, at LinguaForum, in a location about a block away from where I work now. Juyeong was in 6th grade then. Now he’s starting university at Yonsei (which is, arguably, “Korea’s Harvard”). So I felt proud to see him.
Here’s a “reunion” picture from today, with Grace, Curt, Juyeong and me.
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Here’s a picture reposted from my blog from 2008 in which Juyeong plays the role of befuddled 6th grader, on the right, while I go psycho with a plastc alligator.
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picture[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Mean Teacher

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

13 hour day: Open house for parents, lunch with coworkers, a dozen speech corrections, six classes. The lunch is probalby the hardest part – I have to sit and try to figure out what the topics of conversation are, and I always feel exhausted after such intensive Korean listening undertakings, which are hardly successful most of the time. The classes were hard, too. When so many students don't do their homework, I have to be a "mean teacher" which is always more tiring than being a "nice teacher." 

Anyway. Good night.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Flight into a reality

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Not My Poetry / The Wonders of Work

We listened to a fairly long passage about the history of air transport, focusing on the role of Pan Am in the pre-WWII era. My middle school student Brian wrote a summary that begins:

The sky was limited. Pan Am is the first flight bring the passengers into a reality.

As a summary of the passage, it's utter nonsense and incoherent. As poetry, I admit I rather like it. 

[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: Just Another Day

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

After about a week of "special classes," which provide a kind of transition for middle-schoolers between the 내신 (exam prep time) and the post-exam regular schedule, I had my first full-schedule of regular classes today. I don't really like doing the special classes – mostly because the middle schoolers are all so depressed-seeming and desultory in the immediate aftermath of their exams, but also because the odd schedules mean that I get mixed bunches of motivated and unmotivated students who don't know each other well because they're not in their regular cohorts. It's often challenging to put together a successful one-up lesson plan. 

Anyway, today I got my regular middle-school classes. So that was good, I guess. But very tiring. I always feel compelled to be a little bit "scary / hard" with returnees, so they don't start off on the wrong the footing.

Meanwhile, though, with my elementary honors class we had fun. We were getting ready to do a debate, and the kids said they wanted to be different "characters." Once, when I was doing one of my schticks where I have the whole debate myself (meaning I argue back and forth with myself, taking both sides), I made it more interesting by giving each person in the debate I was playing different personalities or "characters": so there was a lazy debater, crazy debater, stupid debater, annoying debater, etc. They wanted to play characters. I let them. I'm not sure it was a very good debate, but they sure had fun. I like seeing the kids being creative that way. Sally did an excellent job being shy, Fay was so good a being a confused debater that I thought she was really confused and wanted to correct her – I said, "you're arguing the wrong side," she said, "I know. I'm confused," and gave her winning grin, shrugging. It was a good class.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Crunch December

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

The hardest period of the foreign hagwon-worker's calendar, in my opinion, is December and January. Schools are finishing up their school year, and after the hard crush of exam prep in November, which actually sees a lot of students skipping hagwon so they can just focus on studying, the hagwons have to ramp up activities for the winter break.

We have to "level-up" our students who need to change levels – elementary 6th graders up to middle school, middle school 9th graders up to high school, etc. This involves a lot of level-testing and parent-orientation sessions. We have to make any expected changes and tweaks to curriculum, as this is the expected time to do so. We have to offer "special" extra classes for the winter break – this ties in, partly, with the "day-care" aspect of the hagwon business that no one wants to admit – when the schools are closed, what are parents to do with their kids? Let them sit at home playing games on their phones?

So the easy days of naesin (easy for me, as a foreign teacher) are officially over as of yesterday. I worked an 11-hour day today. Although, to be honest, it was more long than difficult. There was a lot of waiting around. More such to come.

Between the morning orientation session held for parents and classes in the afternoon, we went to lunch – 회식 [hoesik]. Curt insisted I should order 청국장 – a kind of fermented soybean soup, allegedly healthy for me. It wasn't bad – very pungent smelling (which caused some of the other teachers to complain) but of course I have such a limited sense of taste, anymore, that it doesn't really matter if it has a strong taste. 

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km] 

Caveat: Peter & Wolves Redux

Banalities & Journaling / My Videos / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

This was an adaptation I made of a group of "kindergarten" songs into a kind of musical that I put together several years ago while working at 홍농초 (see [broken link! FIXME] post from that time).

I decided to try it again with the kids of my Vega class. Last Friday, we had our month-end roleplay "test" and they did well, with not much practice or "extras" (zero props, costumes, etc.)… and "a capella" too!

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: The End Result

Banalities & Journaling / Internet & Blogging / The Wonders of Work

… by which I mean, the end result of the interview with me last week. Below is a screen-cap of part of the interview posted on KarmaPlus’s “blog” – I use quote marks because “blog” in Korean internet context isn’t quite the same as “blog” in  the sense that this here blog thingy is a blog thingy. It’s a sort of “advertorial website” – some of the material is produced by the advertising agency that Curt hires to do publicity for our hagwon, and some of the material is things we have said. It’s all mixed together. If you click the picture it will take you to KarmaPlus’s website – it’s all in Korean, which makes perfect sense for an English hagwon, right? Nevertheless I urge you to visit it – it will give you a very different window on my world and life and work, I think. [Update 20200316: I guess the “blog” linked has disappeared. But the screenshot is preserved.]
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picture[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Once a year

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

I guess it’s thanksgiving week back in gringolandia. This is perhaps the only time of year when I feel vaguely homesick – thanksgiving means a lot to me.
I drew this on the board for my Honors 2T class.
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picture[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: 7 Years Late

Banalities & Journaling / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

I went to a provincial government-mandated "seminar" for foreign English teachers (e.g. E2 visa holders) who work at hagwon, as I do. Somehow, although I don't think it's a new law, I've always managed to avoid having to go for one reason or another (for example last year, I had cancer – heh). 

It wasn't as bad as it could have been, though I was plenty turned off by the stream of almost jingoistic Korean semi-revanchism of the cultural component of the "training." In fact, though, the part actually dedicated to teaching was pretty well done, mostly focusing broad based, inspirational aspects of "why we're teaching." The main speaker, a woman named Kim Jiyeong who has been a USC TESOL professor as well as a consultant to the Korean Education Ministry, had a substantial amount of charisma. 

The worst part of the whole program was the fact that it was in Ansan, which is in the far southwest suburbs of Seoul. Consequently, to attend a 3 and a half hour seminar I spent roughly 5 hours on the subway – 2 and half hours each way. And I had to wake up at 6 am in order to get there on time, which is hard given my normal work schedule. 

Anyway. I was tired when I got home, but didn't want to sleep, because it would mess me up. I forced myself to stay awake all afternoon and watched humorous videos on the internets.

[daily log: walking, 4 km]

Caveat: The Professor Loved His Father

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / The Wonders of Work

A "type 6" TOEFL speaking question requires the answerer to summerize some kind of classroom-style lecture on an academic topic. We listened to a fairly simplistic passage about global warming. There is a kind of shorthand in TOEFL answers where one refers to the lecturer as "the professor" – I don't really like this style but it is encouraged by the sample answers in our textbooks, so I go with the flow.

My student Tom had a kind of brain-freeze and was unable to answer very well. So he said something like this: 

The professor loved his father. His father died. Because of global warming. It was very sad. Something to do with hairspray. And carbon dioxide. Yeah. Carbon dioxide. So sad.

I had to laugh. That would get a very low score. But somehow I couldn't feel upset. It was funny.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Interview With The Foreign Teacher

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

Who is the foreign teacher? That's me.

I had to be "interviewed," this past week, for a "feature" on the a-birthing KarmaPlus website. I guess it will go online sometime next week. I received a list of questions – in Korean. I was able to figure them out, and I composed answers in English. My coworker translated them into Korean. I also gave a video answer to a few of the questions – in English. I don't know how those will be included. 

Here is my interview. Um… It's in Korean. I might add a translation later. For now, I guess it's just a place-holder.

Q1. 선생님 소개 간단히 부탁드립니다.
A1. 저는 미국에서 온 Jared Way입니다. California 에서 태어났지만 Minneapolis, Chicago, Mexico City, Chile, Philadelphia, Alaska, Los Angeles 등 여러 곳에서 살았습니다. 물론 지금은 한국에서 거주하고 있습니다.

Q2. 카르마플러스어학원에서 무엇을 가르치나요. 선생님의 교육 방침도 궁금합니다.
A2. 저는 원어민 영어 강사로서 스피킹 수업을 책임지고 있습니다. 초등학생들에게는 스피킹 수업을, 중학생들에겐 듣기 수업을 집중적으로 하고 있습니다. 위 수업은 TOEFL을 기반으로 한 수업들입니다.

Q3. 카르마플러스어학원의 장점은 무엇인가요. (답변 동영상 촬영)
A3. KarmaPlus 가 특별하다고 생각되는 점은 모든 선생님들과 직원분들이 진정으로 아이들이 영어를 잘 할 수 있도록 도와주는데 최선을 다하기 때문입니다. 학원이 아닌 하나의 community를 만들기 위해 전념을 합니다. 학생들은 그 community 안에서 더 잘 배울 수 있게 됩니다.

Q4. 카르마플러스어학원을 다니는 아이들 자랑 좀 해주세요.
A4. 미국인으로써 미국 학생들과 비교했을 때 한국 학생들의 공손함에 항상 놀라움을 느낍니다. 당연히 그렇지 않은 학생들도 있지만, 기본적으로 대부분의 학생들은 예의 바르답니다. KarmaPlus 의 학생들은 서로에게 친절하고 너그럽답니다. 그 모습이 너무 보기 좋습니다. 정말 열심히 하는 학생들도 있고 훌륭한 능력을 가진 학생들도 많답니다. 그렇지만 그 무엇보다도 저는 학생들이 서로 도와주는 것을 볼 때 가장 흡족합니다.

Q5. 한국에 언제 오셨나요. 한국에 살게 되신 계기가 있으신지요. 원래 전공은 무엇인가요.
A5. 제가 한국을 처음 온 것은 1990년 미군 복무 시절입니다. 그 당시 1년을 한국에서 보냈습니다. 그 때의 긍정적인 인상 때문에 2007년에 아이들을 가르치고 싶어서 다시 돌아온 것입니다. 대학 때 전공은 언어학, 스페인어, 그리고 컴퓨터 공학이며, 스페인 문학 석사학위를 가지고 있습니다. 그리고 컴퓨터 프로그래머로 오랜 시간 일을 했습니다.

Q6. 어린 시절 꿈은 무엇인가요.
A6. 어릴 때 제 꿈은 건축가였습니다. 고등학교 들어가서는 선생님으로 꿈이 바뀌었고요. 선생님이 되어서 몇 년을 가르치다가 컴퓨터관련 회사로 전향하게 되었습니다. 미국에서 선생님들은 저조한 월급을 받거든요.

Q7. 한국에 대한 첫 이상은 어땠나요.
A7. 기억해주세요. 제가 처음 한국에 왔을 때는 1990년이었어요. 그래서인지 제 첫 인상은 참 가난한 나라라는 것이었습니다. 그러나 제가 다시 돌아왔을 때 부유로워지고 성공한 한국의 모습이 너무 좋았습니다.

Q8. 가장 좋아하는 한국은식은 무엇인가요. 이유도 궁금합니다.
A8. 작년에 저는 큰 수술을 받았답니다. 그 결과로, 이제 먹는 것에 흥미를 잃고 힘겨워졌답니다. 맛의 감각을 잃었습니다. 하지만 수술 전에 저는 한국음식을 너무 좋아했고 특히 김치볶음밥과 같은 음식을 좋아했습니다. 요즘에는 국수 같은 간단한 음식을 먹고 있습니다.

Q9. 한국의 역사에 관심이 많다고 들렀습니다. 가장 기억에 남는 여행시나 문화 유적지가 있다면 어디 인가요. 그리고 가보고 싶은 한국의 여행지가 있나요?
A9. 가장 관심 있는 한국역사는 조선시대입니다. 사찰이나 유적지를 둘러보는 것을 좋아합니다. 관광명소로 잘 알려진 사찰들 보다는 오랜 역사가 있고 지금까지도 운영되고 있는 곳들을 선호하는 편입니다. 그리고 옛 한국이 보이는 도시에서 멀리 떨어진 시골을 좋아합니다.

Q10. 영어를 잘 할 수 있는 방법이 궁금합니다.
A10. 영어를 유창하게하기 위해서는 영어를 사용해야합니다. 저는 아이들이 관심 있어 하는 실질적인 주제로 실용적인 대화를 지속적으로 가집니다. 중학생들에게는 토론수업이 훌륭한 방법입니다. 광범위한 주제를 가지고 토론하며 아이들의 견해와 생각을 논의할 수 있습니다. 최근에 중학생수업에서 병역기피에 대한 엄청난 토론을 가졌답니다.

Q11. 아이들과 소통하기 위한 서생님의 방법 무럿인가요.
A11. 아이들에게 가장 중요한 것은 그들의 관심을 끄는 것입니다. 저는 학생들과 많은 이야기를 나눕니다. 저에 대한 이야기나 세상에 대한 이야기. 저는 아이들이 좋아하는 게임을 하는 것도 좋다고 생각합니다. 대신 그 게임은 언어의 연습을 요구하지요.

Q12. 앞으로 꿈이나 계획은 무엇인지요. (답변 동영상 촬영)
A12. 작년에 많이 아팠고 큰 수술을 했습니다. 그렇기에 지금 제 주 목표는 건강을 완전히 회복하는 것입니다. KarmaPlus에서 일하는 것을 좋아하는 이유 중 하나는 저를 위하고 돌봐주는 사람들이 모인 곳이기 때문입니다. 가까운 미래의 꿈은 KarmaPlus에서 계속 아이들을 가르치는 것입니다. 이제 일산은 제 2번째 고향입니다. 선생님으로서도 더욱 성장하고 싶습니다. 또한 TOEFL 커리를 가진 토론수업 교과서와 교재를 만들고 싶습니다.

 [daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: Unteaching

Banalities & Journaling / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Yesterday I had one of the best classes in my entire teaching career.

It was because I was too tired to teach. So when I found Soyeon (a third grader) sitting at my desk, and she announced that she was the teacher, I said, "OK, you're the teacher."

She looked surprised, and actually a little worried, when she saw I was serious. Her smile disappeared. I handed her my basket-o-markers-and-alligators and said, "You need this." She held it gingerly.

We went down to the classroom, and I showed her how to run the computer for the CC class, and then I sat down at the back of the class room and let her "teach" the class. The CC classes play a video and then the students work out what the characters are saying – it's essentially a structured, long-form listening exercise. I follow a very consistent pattern when I teach the class, and Soyeon was able to replicate that pattern quite accurately. She called on students, kept track of points, ran the video through starts and stops and replays as the students figured out what was being said, and in general conducted the class exactly as I might have. When the students argued over points, she said exactly what I sometimes said, "Oh, but that was too easy. So teacher says 'no point'." I had to laugh.

I participated by adopting a "role" – as a sort of recalcitrant student at the back. I deliberately "didn't know" the answers to questions when called on, sometimes. A few times I "broke character" to assist her with the technical aspects of running the video program, but other than that, it was completely Soyeon's class.

What's truly remarkable about this class is that it was the first class in a long time where no one broke into tears over the inevitably competitive nature of the Korean classroom. These are high-ability but quite young kids: second and third graders but in the top 10% in terms of ability in the whole hagwon (including middle school). They all want to be (and are accustomed to being) number one.

Soyeon, especially, has been a very problematic student. She has almost-native ability (I think she lived abroad for some time) but she is a bit naive about the world, immature for her age and is almost a bully as far as wanting to compete with her less-proficient peers. Putting her in a teacher role was a surprisingly and rewardingly brilliant move, because she was forced by the nature of the role "teacher" to be fair and level-headed. Besides, she got to be bossy to her heart's content.

My question is, if I put one of the other students in charge next Wednesday, how will Soyeon handle it? My suspicion – based on the experience yesterday – is that it might go well, because she will have empathy for her peer at the front of the room. I'm going to try it – I'll let you know how it goes.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Pizza Season

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

Naesin (내신 = exam-prep time) is starting again this week, the final of the four naesin periods Korean middle-schoolers undergo annually. I have a tradition (a habit?) of buying a pizza party for well-behaved classes of middle-schoolers during our last class before the prep-time starts, since during the prep-time I don't see them much. 

Curt asked me, "Why do you buy them pizza?"

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I explained, "I want them to miss me." 

When I went downstairs to have the front desk clerk orker me a pizza for one of my classes, Helen asked me,  "what is this, pizza season?" 

"Yes," I laughed. "Pizza season." 

[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: Lucidity on the cheap

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

My coworker brought up the topic of lucid dreaming. It turned out to be somewhat humorous.

She said she was dreaming that she was at work at Karma and the boss was giving out praise for work well done. She felt very happy and pleased in the dream. But then the boss handed her a bonus check. She looked down at it and it struck her instantly: this is not real; this is a dream.

The idea of getting a bonus was too unrealistic, and broke the spell of the dream's reality.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Zorro takes up hagwon work

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

We had “halloween party bis” today, with many more students than Thursday. Three shifts of children: trick-or-treat (to a classroom where I try to act scary – channelling my uncle), games, snacks, etc.
Here I am with 2 coworkers and kid-as-batman.
picture
[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Scary Teacher

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

We were having a halloween party for the elementary kids this evening. The Thursday group is quite small, these days. Two girls came running from the "movie room" back into our "store" – where we sold the kids food and snacks and stationary for their fake money as collected from various teachers. 

Razel, a teacher, asked the girls, "Is it a scary movie?"

Fay, a student, answered, "Nah. Scary teacher."

[daily log: walking, 7 km]

Caveat: Thinking with fingers

Banalities & Journaling / Quotable / The Wonders of Work

Still being sick, I had an exhausting day. I failed to post this in a timely fashion (meaning I failed to stick to my one-post-a-day schedule for the first time in a very long time), so I'm putting it up late, and back-dating it.

Chris, a sixth-grader, was doing a writing test. He was doing something weird with his fingers on his skull. It looked like a cross between a secret handshake and a massage. 

"What are you doing, Chris?" I asked, gesturing at his hands.

"I'm thinking with my fingers," he explained.

Unrelatedly, a quote:

"I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences." – Gertrude Stein.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

 

Caveat: heh. 파이팅

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / The Wonders of Work

My student Giung sent me a text message this morning:

teacher i foughtwith my parent until late yesterday so i couldn't do my homework i'm so sorry i'll do it until tomorrow i'll promise you

Keeping in mind that Giung rarely does his homework for me, it was hard not to want to make some snark. Finally, I just sent back:

heh. 파이팅. . 

In fact, this is a bit of a joke. The Korean I wrote is [paiting] which is, in fact, derived from the English "fighting" (via Japanese). But it is used to mean "work hard" or "keep trying." A student like Giung, however, with his high English comptency and ironic sense of humor, was likely to understand I was punning on the fact that he'd told me that he fought with his parents. In fact, he did – he was explaining what I wrote to the other students in class, today.

[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: Mysterious Man

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / My Photos / The Wonders of Work

My student Jack did a poor job at homework, once again. I was berating him, mildly, in the typical way expected of teachers in Korea: "Why are you like that, Jack? These other students do well."

He shook his head, as if with world-weary sadness. "I am a mysterious man," he answered, and paused, looking up at me earnestly. Then he added, "… to myself." The joke was impressive for its timing, but more so when keeping in mind he is non-native-speaking 12 year old.

Unrelatedly, the fall is most definitely here. The trees are changing in  the pedestrian plazas on the path to work.

picture

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: 중2병

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

My coworker taught me the term 중2병 [jung-i-byeong]. This might be most comfortably translated into colloquial American English as something like "8th-grader-itis" – meaning bad behavior in 8th graders due to their being eighth-graders. Literally, it's something like "2nd-year-middleschool-disease."

Given that this is something I was struggling with, recently, it seemed a useful term to know.

What I'm listening to right now.

The Rural Alberta Advantage, "On The Rocks."

 [daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: Non-Argument

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

My student Soyeon, a third-grader, was arguing about how I was allotting points in class. When a student gets a wrong answer, I go to the next, and if that next student gets the right answer, that student gets the point. The exception, however, is if the question is binary choice: true/false, or only two choices a/b. If the first student is wrong, then I just announce, no, it's the other one, and we move to the next question. Soyeon either didn't realize this was my procedure, or felt it was unfair in some way. She was arguing with me. It was one of those passionate kid-arguments over something seemingly trivial – she seemed on the verge of tears.

So I took the time to try to explain the procedure. I went back over the last few questions we'd done in the workbook, showing how for the true/false ones, we'd simply moved on. She seemed to be understanding, but she still was saying "It's not fair." Her English is remarkably good, actually.

Finally, I said, "I think you just like to argue."

She sat back. "No. I don't."

"Really, you like to argue."

"No! It's not true. I don't like to argue."

"You're arguing now."

"No I'm not."

She sat back, though, thinking this through. I knew that she knew and was comfortable with the word "argue" as she'd used it earlier, correctly, talking about the story we were reading.

There was no real resolution. We moved on. But at the end of class, she said very cheerfully, "Bye!" so I guess she got over it.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

Caveat: Things We Can Kick

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / The Wonders of Work

In the 1st/2nd/3rd grade elementary class, we were talking about sports. Simple sentences: "I like to play soccer." "I like to run." "I kick the ball." 

We were talking about things you can like to do in sports. 

"Elizabeth," I said. "What do you like to do?"

"I like to kick the ball." 

"Junseo, what do you like to do?"

"I like to kick the ball too."

Chloe jumped up, raising her hand. "I like to kick," she announced.

"What do you kick?" I asked, hoping she could complete it with an object, like "ball."

She obliged. "I like to kick my family."

[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: Killed by a Theory

Banalities & Journaling / Language & Linguistics / The Wonders of Work

We were talking about how the dinosaurs became extinct in my Honors class this evening. We read some paragraphs in our writing book, and filled in some blanks from a listening exercise about various theories of what killed the dinosaurs: giant volcanos, asteriods, or more gradual failure to adapt to climate change. We discussed some more, and then I had them write some summary of the different ideas. I said, summarize how the reading and the lecture disagree about how the dinosaurs died.
I picked up one student’s essay, and she had written, “Dinosaurs were killed by a theory.”
I don’t know why, but I found this quite amusing, and took far too long trying to imagine how this might have worked. Perhaps the dinosaurs were more sentient than we realize, and they developed some cultural trait that led to self-destructive behavior. For example, they had a theory that if they dug very deep holes, they could find true spiritual happiness. So they dug deeper and deeper holes, until finally they reached the earth’s magma, which erupted and destroyed them all.
This would be the sort of theory that killed the dinosaurs.
Meanwhile, I wonder… it may in fact be perfectly OK to say the Korean equivalent, because the relationships (agent, topic, actor, recipient-of-action, etc.) between the noun phrases in Korean sentences are clarified by the endings on those words, not by the inherent valences of the verbs, as in English (and largely, most other Indo-European languages, as I understand it). This is one of the linguistic differences that seems to cause so much confusion to Korean English learners, and why they are always saying things like “The dinosaurs died the asteroid,” when they mean “The asteroid killed the dinosaurs.” They know what they mean, they just don’t get that English verbs have these semantic valences that must be filled correctly.
That’s my theory, anyway. I’ll try not to let it kill me.
[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Caveat: 눈치게임 bis

Banalities & Journaling / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

It has been a long time since I played 눈치게임 with students in a class, but last night with my Honors kids (TOEFL-style elementary, our most advanced elementary kids) I was in a magnanimous mood and with 15 minutes left in class I told them we could play a game. After several proposals that I shot down as "boring" (they always suggest hangman, but that is just boring to me), I remembered overhearing some other student mention the 눈치game and so I suggested it.

I don't know why I don't play this more often as a reward for good classes – I have rarely seen kids have so much fun with such a ridiculously simple game. It's just a sort of psych-out exercise, but the kids really enjoy it (I wrote a [broken link! FIXME] detailed explanation of the game in 2012). When one student has gotten too far ahead, other kids will diliberately stand up simultaneously as the winning kid, to drag down that person's score. There are all kinds of implications regarding cooperation versus competition, I guess. I wonder how computers would do it? Would they do best being random, or is there some point where there is more advantage?

[daily log: walking, xx km]

 

Caveat: Eyes

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / The Wonders of Work

In class, this evening, we were practicing one-minute-long TOEFL-style speaking questions. We listened to a passage where a teacher was lecturing about how we should read novels. It was age-appropriately simplistic: it was just saying they demand to be read linearly (to keep the storyline) and contrasting it with the way we read the web or a newspaper, or else they don't make sense. The speaking task it to attempt to summarize the lecture in a dozen sentences. 

After talking about it some, and after two other students did passable efforts, I got to a girl named Hansaem. I repeated the textbook question: "Using examples from the lecture, how should we read a novel?" Hansaem must have not been paying attention, and she disregarded the first part of the question prompt, too. 

She looked at me, as if she couldn't believe such a stupid question. "How to read a novel?" she asked, confirming the topic. I nodded.

"Eyes." she said. She was clearly finished with her speech.

[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]

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