Dongbyun Middle School
1. I have a boat. Apparently only rich people have boats here.
2. Sean is my younger brother. I guess I can understand this one. He's obviously much taller than me and he has a beard in the picture I showed them. Also, many of them have said he looks really strong.
3. I played rugby. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that. So I can't really blame the students for this one either.
4. I like Girls' Generation. Most of them assume I wouldn't know who they are. They are also surprised that Sunny is my favorite. Most people here really like Yoona.
5. I included a picture of Sean with a big northern and they're always fascinated by it and sometimes call it a shark.
In conclusion...I guess they're mostly just really interested in Sean. I should bring him in to meet them some day.
This is the picture of Sean's fish that I showed them.
This week, I've been a bit of a celebrity around the school (one student even said I look like Kristin Stewart...). I teach almost every student in the school once a week so they're constantly saying hi to me in the halls. It's actually kind of nice, we'll see if it gets annoying. One student says "nice to meet you" almost every day. I guess maybe that's one of the only things he knows how to say. Also, I live right by the school and I guess most of the students do, too. I can't really leave my apartment without seeing at least 3-5 students on the streets. I had the students make name tags for their desks so I can attempt to call them by name. I kind of wish I would have had them all choose English nicknames. I'm pretty good with names so I probably could have memorized most of them if I had done it that way. However, it's really hard to memorize over 300 names like Soo Yeon, Su Kyeong, Se Hwan, Hye Lim, etc. I might see if I can have them do that next week and just write the English name on the other side of the tag and turn it around.
I have five co-teachers and they all have pretty different styles, in terms of how they work with me. Two hardly say anything during my classes, two intervene for translation pretty frequently, and one gets involved mainly just for discipline (which is quite different in Korea than in the United States). Here, it's not unusual for a teacher to smack a student on the back or shoulder if they aren't paying attention. They also might do things like have them stand in the back of the room. Yesterday, one of my co-teachers put a green dot on a few students' faces with a marker. She was speaking Korean when she did it, so I'm still not really sure what that was about. Another big difference I've noticed is the time at which teachers arrive at the classroom. When I student taught, it was a big deal to be in the classroom and set up by the time the bell rang. Here, teachers usually get to the classroom 2-3 minutes after the bell rings and THEN set up. They thought I was weird when I started to head to the classroom two minutes before the bell rang.
The teachers are all extremely nice and helpful. Last night we all went out for shabu shabu and I was introduced to basically all the teachers.
Shabu shabu. Basically you cook the vegetables and meat in the broth in the middle and there are a bunch of different sauces you can eat it with.
Today has been the best day so far. Part of the reason is that I only have three classes. But also, it seems that they stuck all the best students on this day as well. I teach two classes of intermediate 3rd graders and one class of mixed level 2nd graders. (See explanation of grade levels at the end of this post). The 3rd graders have a pretty high English proficiency and good attitudes. Also, this particular group of second graders were very well behaved and friendly. After class in both levels, students came to talk to me. The second graders told me about how one of them saw Girls' Generation in concert, and a group of 3rd grade boys came to ask me about why I came to Korea. I'll have internet tonight, which means I'll be able to make better lessons. I use the internet a lot for Powerpoints and inspiration.
*Breakdown of Korean grade levels: Elementary School: Grades 1-6; Middle School: Grades 1-3; High School: Grades 1-3... basically instead of continuing to count, they start over when they enter another school. So using the US way to count grade levels, I teach grades 7-9.
I heard this playing outside a store last night and was way too excited :P.
Artist: Girls' Generation
Song: Hoot
Album: Hoot EP
Released: October 2010
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