What we are

One day at Tokyo Narita International I had a chat with a friend who is smarter than me and she really nailed the expirence in Korea for me personally and for her from the way she was speaking. Basically she said that us, as the Native English Teacher, are pretty easily the least integrated into affairs of anyone at school with regards to everyday life. Many of us don't have the Korean language ability to slide right in and things to be peachy.

On the flip side, some of us when we come over don't exactly land in spots where there are a bunch of other teachers around, also we spend 40 hours at school and at many schools the we don't know about other teachers who can speak English there until some freak occurrence. Like I know my VP can speak English but there are probably 10-15 other teachers at my school who are Home Room teachers with really solid English skills. At the same time these people who we cannot or don't talk to are part of this very important net that we have. We want to be a part of the community, personally thats what I crave, the kids are great but you know I would like to chat with some co-workers. So we have no connection but need and want all the connection that we can get. Anyway I think it's interesting, the relationship between Native English Teachers and our Korean counterparts should be studued by someone. Not me I'm busy trying to learn Korean

I'm back (but not really)

Hello Four months later. I'm sitting in my bedroom in my Moms house in grandold Charlotte, NC no my vacation. I've been home since this past Tuesday after a remarkable da of travel and I will be here until the 27th when I get on a plane to return and do Summer Camp.

So what happens when I return? More Summer Camp as I said and then my contract is up, that's pretty much it. Also I'm renewing for another at the same school with the same great kids and co-teachers. Also I've got exciting news. I work harder, teach way more and better I think (and according to my coteachers if they aren't just flattering me) and things are just better. Funner a little easier. I really think that I've fought through tough times had a really great conversation about who we are and what we are trying to accomplish in Narita in Tokyo with a friend during a layover and I want to keep going cause I think that this year I can make a serious push towards a more stable future. You can catch all the excitement with at least 3 posts a week and with more pictures maybe. We'll see. bye-bye!

Changes

Toady was the first day of the Spring semester. Classes didn't start today (for me) and probably won't start for another day or two. But the changes are already obvious including things I knew and things I didn't know.

1. Since I was given the chance to choose my own destiny basically and pick schools I choose Samyang. I like the kids and I like my co-workers that I actually work with here. My Co-teacher at Jukhyang was at the end of her time there and is moved to a different school, the Principal at Jukhyang retired. Combine that with the fact that I haev already told my Co-teacher at Samyang that I would like to stay and the Principal here is as awesome as the known quantity at Jukhyang was AND he's staying and it's easy.

2. Since I have only one school now I get to teach more grades. This comes at the price of potentially loosing some of my students from Winter Camp because they opened a new school close to mine and split the student population. I don't get to teach those kids because the Office of Education got 4 new teachers. 3 of which are in newly created position replacing no one.

3. The teacher for 5th grade has changed. This was a little surprising. I didn't know Mrs. Kim had to change schools and had assumed that she was staying with the other 2 teachers. I also figured that I would be teaching 3rd, 4th and 6th grade ENglish now because we have a TALK scholar who was teaching the 5th grade with Mrs. Kim. But nope she is gone so now the face at the desk across from me is a.different and b. actually at the desk. Mrs. Kim liked to spend most of her time in the classroom and it's possible that the new teacher will do the same. I should probably learn her name and start talking to her since we'll be teaching a class together now. Also I should ask about my schedule.

4. Half the kids are at a differen't school. Also the main Teachers office that I sit and work in is different. THere are new people in new places and some people gone and moved into what I can only assume is their own permanent classrooms. Bully to them! Every teacher should have their own classroom.

Anyway these are just some of the obvious changes that I notice at the moment. I still haven't actually met any of the new Teachers though I think I saw one on the street yesterday after I got back into town and was walking to the bank to pay rent. Also they moved desks and are currently standing over me and choosing new furniture for the newly open space behind where I sit. They did not pick an exciting color. This is slightly dissapointnig.

There they go...

It's done. My 6th graders are now no longer 6th graders. Starting next month they are 1st grade middle school. I got to go to their graduation today. So I wrote 5 notes. 4 were to some kids that came to English Camp so I got to know them much better plus their English is great.



The other note was to the little girl in Pink here.

Why her? Because before I set foot in the classroom she gave me a note and was an absolute angel. She isn't the best speaker but she is apparently great at dictation(she got high marks on the exams) but like I said she was really nice to from the get go. Shes also smaller than most of the kids but like I said very nice.

I also got some news from my co-teacher about the next semester. Let me give you a little info about Korea. They like to build up. You see these high rise apartments. Thats basically a subdivision or neighborhood back home. There aren't any of that stuff like we think of it.



I live in a tiny town. There are 3 or 4 buildings overthere and the school is right there, in Daejeon the city next to us one friend I have lives next to 3 schools, literally 2 Middle Schools and an Elementary School. We were driving in her car once and I asked about one of the schools, she said it was a middle school, then I asked is that the one your daughter goes to? Nope! The school was a 5 minute walk from their apartment. There is a middle school that is closer!!!!!!!!!!! That is INSANITY!!!!! They might be building schools on top of schools at this point. My point is there is another school that is opening near my main school. As far as I know I'm the only teacher at the school on that side of town. This mean that according to my co-teacher I may move from my rural school to this one. Also this school will split the population of my school. I am torn about all of this to say the least.

Surprise!!!

I got to go on my first Korean Field Trip or Picnic as they called it in English this past Friday. I don't have any pictures because I didn't take my camera because I thought I wasn't going to go as soon as 30 minutes before they left and I was walking to school. But as I got to the school there they were, 4 buses to take the 4 sixth grade classes to Yong-in, and the Korean Folk Village. That's it's name. Seriously, wikipedia that it's there. I didn't believe it but it is what it is The Korean Folk Village. I got tot ride on the second bus with class 2 and at the beginning I was worried cause my Co-teacher, the one who you know teaches English with me at this school wasn't going on the trip. So I get on this bus with the class and they may not have been the best English speaking class but they probably had the best English speaking 6th grade teacher. Funny thing about talking to Korean and probably anyone else in a second language (self included) is that you're never really sure how much of what you've just said they've understood. I mean sometimes I'm at a store or trying to figure out something and I'll ask a Korean and they start speaking in Korean and not using gestures and I just decide to shut it down and shake my head "Yes".

Anyway she seemed to be able to keep up and explain things to me correctly, I know cause I was reading the English on the signs before she could translate the Korean, and it was fun talking in English to a Korean and having it not be just about school. Just about everyone commutes to town to work and she was no exception as she said she drives 40 minutes from Daejeon to get to school, she studies English and one day wants to take over as the Korean English Teacher at a school. It kind of makes you wonder what the difference in pay rate is for regular homeroom teacher and specialty English teacher is since they are so big on learning the language. But she was talking about how on the ride to work she listens to English Education Radio in the car and tries to learn more and then as soon as she steps out of the car she forgets it. Normal for everyone I guess.

We were walking down the "Yellow Road" and a group of 11 girls caught up to up and we ended up walking with them for the rest of the trip around the village. We went into a Haunted House and that was fun because who doesn't like 11 thirteen year-old girls pushing them into a dark hallway to lead the way. That was especially memorable because as we got to the exit they all come piling out behind me except for one girl and the teacher. We had to wait for like 5 minutes for them to come out and listining to their screams was hilarious. I tried to ask why they were so far behind but I don't think she understood. We crossed a narrow footbridge and she almost peed her pants she looked so scared. Good times had by all. Anyway at the end at (one of) the gift shop(s) I bought a fan which is what I do now. I don't just want fans though I want them to have awesome stuff on them. Also I want them to be huge, I could have gotten a huge one but it was like 35000won and for that kind of coin I would have like it to be bigger. Oh well lesson learned, "Always bring your camera."

Winter Camp is coming

We have Winter Camp starting December 21st. That is more info to try and pound that into my head. December 21st. December 21st. 12/21. Most people have to do some Camp when school is not normally in session. But for some unknow reason to me Samyang Elementary does it big. 4 weeks long. Yesterday my co-teacher told me I get to teach the highest level of students *fist pump*. Also the kids will take a level test *double fist pump*. I will have the most awesomest kids in my school. Of course now that means we have to do some orienteering or however you would say it. We have orientation Saturday, damnit! I was planning to go and see people in Incheon which is next to Seoul, so it could have ended up being a night or 2 in Seoul. But now it might be an evening at a friends place in a small town a couple hours away via bus. Not really sure but I am excited about doing my Advanced class lesson. It's on Russia. I know nothing about the Motherland other than what I learned from HS social studies. I looked at the wikipedia page but that was no help. Too much info, history I couldn't do it justice to a bunch of 12 and 13 year old girls that don't really understand what I'm saying. So instead I'm showing a bunch of pictures of Red Square, some marching St. Basil's Cathedral, and some dancing Russian military. Should be fun. Also after 5 days of thinking I finally came up with/found one on the internet. Also one last note, I am going to put my Korean skills to use by translating the kids coming to the camps names. I am going to apoligize to the kids in advance for forever screwing them in the future on their romanized names. My bad kiddies

Hmmm

Hey!

Almost a week later, sorry I promise I'll start writing more regularly to whomever read this. So this week has been pretty standard, although I did start teaching multicultural lessons to 6th grade classes. It's no so much a multi cultural lesson as much as it's supposed to be about me but I think that would also be boring for the kids so I tried to have the 2 classes do surveys. I don't want to bore them but I have to say I gotta kinda write these lessons and the kids off because after December and English camps I will probably never see any of these kids again. 6th grade is the end of the Elementary school line and I don't really see them poping in to visit cause I've only seen 3 middle schoolers in the school at anytime afterwards anyway, I don't want to sound cold cause there are really good kids there but I'd like to make it really interesting for the kids who start 6th grade after the winter break.

P.S. Winter Break in Korea is like 4-7 weeks

Big day today

Today was AWESOME!!!!! I got to talk to the other two Korean English Teachers a ton today and they are hilarious. The 3rd and 4th grade teacher I talked to the most we had a demo class that people could come and sit in on and we got together and practiced for a hour before hand. After our walk through we just talked, she probably isn't the best English of the bunch I have but she expresses herself the most. We talked about Korean culture and how much she doesn't enjoy some of it. She has to cook... alot, and she doesn't really enjoy it cause ya know, she has a full time job. She told me about ceremonies for dead ancestors on her Husbands side only, and how because he is the oldest son she has to do the cooking for the events. Her mother-in-law chips in a ton though but she had funa and was asking my opinion on alot of it. She also talked about how men don't cook here. Asked me how it is in America and marveled at the fact that some men do cook and some actually do all the cooking, that's pretty much unheard of here.

After class we went to the gym where there was a ceremony for our big day. 3 classes of kids did dances, one Thai, one Philippine and one Korean. All I'm gonna say is they were like 3rd or 4th graders and they broke out the smoke and bubble machines for it. Then we heard speaches. I've never laughed so hard on the inside and stayed so still on the outside. The other teacher is the 5th grade teacher and her and the 3/4 teacher were just like "uhhh why won't this end". They hated every moment of every speech and often would turn to me and say "aren't you bored?" to which I would reply "I can't understand so I cannot be bored" Which is true for me. I just sat there tried to spell some stuff in Korean and listened. Then at the end the Superintendent of Chungbuk-do, which is the province that I'm in that is a "State" to those of you in the States. He apparently said that I did a good job for the class that I did, he went as far to say my name, my full name. I laughed out loud, not very loud but it was audible. Good times.

After all this we went to a dinner my first dinner with the or either school. This is what I read about although it was still like only an hour I enjoyed every minute of today.

The Week

Today was the Principals birthday. I was sitting at the computer when my co-teacher asked if I wanted to do something with them later in the afternoon and I said "sure" because I'm literally dying to do some things with the co-workers. So she said pizza, I was fine with that, sounds fun. So Koreans are big into puzzle and games and we do this thing with a maze and numbers and at the bottom exposed to you are numbers. An amount you will pay. 10000, 5000, 2000. A couple of "free" spaces and maybe even a 1000 spot or 2. I picked number 7 cause it only went to 9 and at my other school my number is 7 as in Teacher: "I to 7"; Students: "Bernard!"

So I think "finally" cause my school is so big that 1.) Too many teachers to get together, 2.) Many of the teachers live in Daejeon which is about a 20 minute ride to the east and closest side of the city and it's a pretty big city. 3.) Many of the teachers are older, married and may have kids. Like there are probably 55-80 staff and teachers I would say 90 percent of them have families. I can really only positively identify one person other than myself. I only know about her cause a week after I paid my gas bill for the first time, she had to pay her gas bill for the first time and asked my co-teacher for help. My coteacher turned to me and said "Bernard how long did it take you to pay your bill?" "5 minutes" Then she looked back at her and was just like walk to the bank it's easy. (edit: everything with banking is easy here, you know how I pay rent, I take my bank book or ATM card put it in the machine and there is a "transfer" option. Hit that select the bank put in the persons account number and the amount confirm and take a receipt. Unbelievable)

Anyway I find out that this is actually for cake and pizza for the Principal. I like the guy don't get me wrong but you know tell me what we are doing. 1) I can keep a secret, 2) I don't speak Korean and he doesn't really speak a lot of English so I couldn't tell him if I tried. Anyway, I only taught 6 classes this week at Samyang because it was big time test week. The kids took test in Math, Korean, English, Music and some other thing that my favorite student counldn't remember the English name for. She said she did good in everything except the one she couldn't remember otherwise she said it was good. I think I'm going to leave it at that because it ends with a student who gave me a thumbs up and a smile before she left.

Weapons Grade Cute

Today was an important day. I finally went to Daejeon and applied for my Alien Registration Card(ARC), once I get this I will be able to get internet and tv in my home and leave the country. Not that I'm in any particular hurry to leave Korea, quite the contrary. I'm loving every moment in Okcheon, my adopted hometown of 55,000 souls. I love the look on little kids faces when they see me. It's either sheer joy or sheer terror. Then I say "Hi" and they either run away or respond in kind. Also since I went into town today I got off of work early. I was walking down the street with groceries and some high school kids actually said "Hi" as opposed to just staring or avoiding eye contact. In this town of 55,000 there are about 8 government contracted teachers here, who knows how many privates and who cares really. Anyway there are 8 of us who stick out like thumbs, 3 of us stick out like sore thumbs thanks to being black. I wouldn't want to be anyplace else on the face of the earth right now, I'm learning something about myself and everything around me everyday. The kids are tough but the job is rewarding.

I'm planning on going to Seoul for the first time with some people I met at orientation. Right now we have the 26th set as the date but it's still tentative to me cause we are supposed to get out first paycheck on the 25th. Normal Korean teachers here get paid the 17th so hopefully the worse case scenario for me is they accidentally pay me a week in advance then just say sit on it cause it too much work to take it back and then give it back one week later. So I may meet some people
on the train or in Seoul either way it'll be fun

I cannot stress this enough, most of the children here have been uncontrollably cute. Everyone of my 6th & 5th graders are are older then my oldest niece and she has nothing on them in cuteness right now(sorry Maddie). They are secret walking cute factories, producing weapons grade cute and then testing it on the undesirables in the northern provinces of Iraq while the United States silently nods because this is a fight against extremist. They are that cute.

School is Awesome

I don't mean to shit on everyone else's EPIK experience but so far I have to say that I'm the luckiest kid in Korea right now. When they told me I was teaching in Elementary school I was a little apprehensive but I paid for the plane ticket and new the rules of the game.

When I finally got to school everyone was nice, the kids while they stared didn't lose their shit and jump me. I got some handshakes some short English conversations and many "hello's" in Korean. The teachers have been really nice, even though I'm only going to teach 6th graders at this school, I've had a chance to talk to the 3rd & 4th grade English teacher and the 5th grade English teacher, I'm going to do some after school classes with her so I'll get to see them.

On the first day after school was done and most everyone was gone or leaving I was standing on the stairs on the breezeway between the buildings and an older lady stopped and we talked for probably 10 minutes, she kept trying to tell me her English is no good but I was like "well we're having a pretty substantial conversation so you must know something". She's a 2nd grade teacher so I probably won't get to teach her kids or see her again until teacher meetings on Tuesdays.

Speaking of meetings this Tuesday, I have to introduce myself and give a short speech, which my co-teacher asked my to write so she could translate it to those who don't speak English. Then on Monday off to teach the first class of 6th graders. While I was sitting doing my eternal nothing yesterday a girl came in and stood between my co-teacher and I(we sit next to each other turned towards the center) she said something to my co-teacher and then turns to me and hands me a piece of paper all folded up. It was a note "To Teacher" I asked if she was in 6th grade, cause she's kinda small, but I should have known from how good her handwriting was and also how well put together the note was, grammatically speaking. Then I got to the end of the actual note, which was like 4-6 questions and a statement and saw that she had just written "love" over and over again. I think they may need to be taught how exactly the word works but that's for another day and I can do that with "Handsome" and "Beautiful", cause every foreigner apparently gets called those depending on the sex of the teacher they're talking to, so they use the partially correctly.

Off to the Okcheon street vendors to buy stuff!!