School

So now to start a couple of blogs which should have been done at the beginning of my time in Korea, not near the end. Still better later than never. . . .. . first up is school.

I've nearly finished my first year contract at my school. I'm not extending my contract so I will be working for another academy for my final 3 months here. So as I approach the twilight phase of my G n B English academy career I thought it an apt time to write about some of the aspects of my year here.

I feel I've learnt SO much in my time here. It being my first ever teaching job and having zero training or guidance when I got here, I've just had to learn for myself along the way. This is not exceptional, this is the nature of the academy teacher's work here. It seems to be as long as the kids are happy and the money keeps rolling in, everything else is peripheral. So you are kind of left to your own devices and to work out the best way of fulfilling these 2 basic needs that your director has. That being said though I have friends in larger, more corporate chains who have a much tougher time of things than me and their performances are scrutinised much harder. It really is pot luck what you are going to get when you come out here. Sarah and I got lucky. I've been treated well, my work is valued and I've genuinely enjoyed teaching here. That being said I'm under no illusions that the job I perform here is anything like a 'proper' teaching job. As alluded to before, the students learning is definitely secondary to their happiness and of paramount importance is that the parents keep paying, NOT their education. But it's still been a useful experience in classroom control and I feel I've began to grasp some of the other basic skills you need to be a teacher. And it just happened to be a lot of fun too.

So let's talk about the kids. A common stereotype of Asian schoolchildren entertained by a lot of Britain is that they are mild-mannered, respectful and eager to learn. This may be true in some parts of Asia (particularly it seems where Buddhism is the over-arching religion and indeed culture), but this is most definitely not an accurate portrayal of Korean children. I really should have researched this more thoroughly before I came here and not just bought into such a narrow-minded generalisation about the largest continent on Earth! Korean children, particularly boys, are a proper handful. I have one new student who doesn't respond to punishment or reward and is constantly trying to fight me. He only comes up to my waist and I'm in perpetual fear that one time he's going to clock me one right in the bollocks. Still, it could be worse I've got one teacher friend who endures kids trying to poke him in the areshole when he turns around. Very bizarre. Obviously little boys are going to boisterous wherever you go but what makes it even more difficult as discipline isn't instilled in these kids from the word go like in the West, it actually starts later when they reach the age of 8. This means kids are still getting used to the idea that you can't run around the room or shout over other people or indeed have a fight with the person sat next to them. By the time they start to grow out of it, they hit the self-conscious teenage years so even though they aren't so unruly, it's still a challenge trying to get more than a monosyllabic response from some students, so you can't win either way. But for all the difficult classes and the boisterous students there are many great students who are keen to learn. Okay, these have almost exclusively been produced by the Y chromosome but that's fine by me, as long as some students are listening. Sarah and I have often discussed stealing a Korean child, but most definitely NOT a boy. Some of my girl students are so sweet and so much cuter than their British equivalents. I'm pretty sure we've got room in our backpack once we chuck out some winter clothes in preparation for South-East Asia.

For all my earlier bitching, I do actually love the majority of my classes. I feel like I've built up a pretty strong bond with most of my students (there are still one or two who seem immune to my charm but what can you do?) and I will genuinely miss some of them when I leave in 5 weeks time. Some of my classes are so smooth now, that they pretty much teach themselves and the ones which don't keep me on my toes. Every academy teacher I know has heard some memorable things (mainly insults) The kids here really don't hold back on and you really develop some thick skin whilst working here. Some classics include "Matt-chu teacher is short, Paul teacher tall" (when comparing me to my predecessor), "Teacher, nose is very big", "Teacher, dark circles (around my eyes), Teacher, you are grandfather (in reference to the fine lines on my forehead), "Teacher, dirty" (when I don't shave). they say kids can be cruel and I certainly believe it now! Sarah had the best one though: Student: "Teacher, you are fat." Sarah: "That's not very nice. Student: (contemplates this for a couple of seconds) Teacher, you are circle-shaped!" Occasionally they might say something nice to you. For example, Student: Teacher, did you go to Harvard? Me: No, why? Student: Because you look very intelligent. Aww, thanks. It's also cute when a couple of students see you outside of school and follow you about like a little fan club. I now teach kindergarten too and they take the whole cuteness level up a couple of notches.

Korean kids are given an English name to be used in English academy. Most of them are unoriginally called Tom or Sally and I've no idea how many Kevins I've got right now. However, some of them have hilarious names, some of their kindergarten English teachers must have had such a laugh creating them. I've mainly just got kids with old person names, for example, Harold or Albert (it's pretty amusing addressing a 10 year old Korean child with one normally reserved for your Great-Uncle). Sarah's got some funnier ones though. She's got one called UFO (apparently he had the choice between this and Santa Claus -seriously) and another called Brain. Not Brian, Brain. She's actually managed to convince some the kids to change their names and she renamed one little fella Giggs, after the legendary United number 11. Classic. Our friends have one called Mr Park, who insists on being called by his full title and I even heard of one student named "disabled number 7." No kidding, I've no idea how that one was allowed to stand. Actually I do have one new student called "Luncky Seven." That's not a typo by the way, one of my Korean teachers thinks that's how you spell "lucky", so that's now his name. I should probably tell them to change it. This happens frequently where a child's name is often spelt incorrectly. I had one particularly naughty boy called "Justine." I only recently informed his teacher of the error, I thought it was funny that the cocky little bugger had a girl's name.

So that pretty much concludes school time up to now. Next up, food. . . . .. . .