My First Week

I've finished my first week in South Korea...what an experience. They said from day one they really want to get me involved. So my first day in the office, after the meet and greet, I'm told that i'll be in the classroom teaching tomorrow afternoon with my co-teacher Jun. Right...errrr OK...immediately i've got that stomach churning feeling of "holy crap...what am I doing here again?" 

To "ease me in" there is a summer camp going on at the moment, September is when school starts again. So I'm not on my normal schedule yet so I've been helping in a few different areas. 

Anyway, so here's what I'll be doing whilst I'm in Korea. My school is called Gyeongsan English Town, and is actually joined to but not really part of another school called Imdang School. I'll have three main roles....Firstly and my main bread and butter is to be a part of the English Town lessons. Rooms are split into a number of different sections; the Bank, the coffee shop, department store etc....Each day a different school brings a number of students to the school. They get sorted into varying levels of English speaking ability, and then they have a certain amount of time in each section of the "English Town" where we teach them conversational English. This lasts until lunch, then they have a "mission game" set for them where they have to use the English that they've learnt from the day to use in the different sections. Then there's a closing ceremony, certificates are handed out and there are prizes for the best performers. I'll be doing this every day. The pro's of this is that you get to meet different students everyday and they are mostly excited about being out of their regular programme. I'll get to work with students of varying levels from 'great' to me trying to learn Spanish....The cons I guess are that it might get pretty monotonous. All the teachers here though say that with every class comes something new. we'll see I guess. 

I'm also involved in the schools "gifted programme"...students go through interviews and a number of tests to get into the programme. From September I'll be seeing them for twice a week. For this I can pretty much make up my own lesson plans, I don't need to follow any curriculum. At the moment I have a co-teacher with me but that might change...freedom to mould the minds of young Korean children. First Geoyongsan next the World!!!!

The kids are cute and pretty well behaved, but they're still getting used to me. I've joined mid-year so they had another teacher for the last 6 months. This is what I'm interested in most and is going to be the best insight into actual teaching. 

Lastly I'm involved with the Teacher Training programme. I'll be working with Korean English teachers who want to try and improve their English. I've been working on a one to one basis with teacher Jun and at the moment we go through Newspaper articles and discuss vocabulary, pronunciation and discuss the content to make sure it's all understood. 

And that's what i'll be doing for the next year....

So outside of school I've been scoping my local area and trying to get to grips with the cultural differences. You know the funniest thing about Korea??? It's the little differences. They still got the same shit over here as they have over there, it's just a little different.

Actually it's very different....I imagine Korea to be more like how Japan and China (two places I haven't been) are, culturally speaking, rather than Thailand and Indonesia (places I have been). 
There are a lot of rules like you have to use two hands when you give or receive anything to someone your own age or older, or it's considered rude; the older you are the more authority you have, even if you are in a lower position at work....and loads more. I just don't want to offend anyone without even realising it.

My main problem is not knowing what i'm buying at the market. It looks like soy sauce right??? Nope...it's some crazy thing i've never heard of. Dictionary...should have brought one. I've got "hello" and "thank you" figured out at the moment and as long as I smile, point and nod my head I'll get by for a while.

Tattoos are a bit of a no no. Well big tattoos. Apparently Korean skin isn't your own, it's passed onto you from your ancestors. So by getting tattoos you are insulting your ancestry. Well I must have a lot of ancestry because I have more skin than I'd like at the moment, and I guess my ancestors must be pretty mad at me. So I have to cover up the fish at work. 

I had one woman stop me and touch me and jibber-jabbered at me about whether or not I could wash it off. Needless to say that she was a little shocked when I told her it was real. 

Money being a little tight as it is, my first weekend really hasn't gone off with a bang! It was great to get some free time.I needed to unpack and get the flat in some kind of order. Get some good sleep,  finally get the internet sorted in my flat, and to do some housework because this place is pretty filthy....needs a good clean. Rock and Roll!!! 
It's a long weekend next week with Monday being Liberation Day so I'm sure there'll be things going on.


Although I've been rambling on there is still so much to say, but I'm sure you've read enough and I'm sure I've written enough. 


Be in touch soon, take care peeps.