Teach Your Children Well

My life has been fairly hectic still as I'm learning how to teach, trying to learn some Korean, and most importantly make new friends. I will do my best to try and regularly update the blog (at least once a week) but I've discovered the power of Skype and lately want to do that more than sit down and write this blog. Nonetheless, let me get started on this typically chilly Sunday morning. 

Teaching and my new school: Since I spend eight-nine hours a day Monday-Thursday and a couple hours on Friday teaching it is only natural that I tell everyone about my new teaching experiences. First off, teaching is extremely challenging! Anyone who says otherwise is either a) a liar b) a fool c) a bad teacher or d) all of the above. My week days start early. I wake up a 7 am in order to not miss my ride at 8. So far another teacher, Mr. Lee, has been picking me up on the way to school which sure beats taking the bus. The one day I took the bus as practice in the event Mr. Lee cannot pick me up I ended up getting lost or the bus just ended up going in the opposite direction of my school. That day my co-teacher had to pick me up and from then it was officially decided that I should get rides to school (for at least the first month or so). Of course, when I say co-teacher most of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about? Okay, in public schools all native English teachers (me) are in theory, supposed to be paired with a Korean English teacher, my co-teacher. Among their teaching tasks co-teachers are the main people responsible for my well being. In effect, they are like the the mommy's and daddies of native English teachers. Often times I feel sorry when I have to ask my co-teacher for a favor because a) co-teachers don't get paid for helping native English teachers (NET) out and b) she has her family, child to take care of and worry about. Despite all this my co-teacher, May (her English name- have no clue why she picked this one in particular?), is amazingly helpful and a blessing in this utterly confusing land. Within five minutes of meeting May (I feel kind of bad because I already forgot/can't even pronounce her Korean name), one of the first things she pointed out was that her English was not that good and she wasn't lying or being humble, it isn't. She knows enough English to get a rudimentary point across and have a basic conversation i.e. her favorite list of questions e.g. What did you do last night, weekend or what did you eat for breakfast/dinner? She loves to ask the last one because I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm starving and cannot go to the store for some reason because I don't know Korean. When I first moved into my apartment she came by to make sure I had all the basic necessities (again, she's like a parental figure) and she looked into my fridge only to shockingly discover that I only had a couple items. I explained to her that I am fully capable of going to the store, am not short on money, and just moved into my place. I still don't know if any of those reasons sunk in and she understood my situation but ever since then she has been preoccupied with me not eating. Another funny thing related to all this; She gives me food from the cafeteria to take home usually at the end of the week. I don't want to be impolite and be like, 'I eat the school lunch every day, why the fuck would I want to do so at home too lady'? So I acquiesce and because of it I have 3 pounds of rice, 1 pound of ultra spicy sauce (love this btw), half-a-pound of lettuce, and half-a-pound of Kimchi sitting in my fridge right now. Another thing I've learned not do while eating the school lunch. Do not comment if I like the food because each time I do that, they (the other teachers) either bring me more food as soon as I'm finished or they give me some to take home with me. While I'm on the food topic- school lunches invariably have white rice, soup, and of course, some sort of Kimchi with every meal. A frequent food served in the school lunches is octopus which I'm getting used to eating. During lunch time most of the teachers eat before the rush of students get to the dinning hall; all 7 or 8 of us gather around and here I am usually sitting right next to my broken English translator (Bless her heart). I usually listen in on the teachers conversations and try and pretend like I know what they're talking about (makes me feel better when I do this actually). After about ten minutes however, I'm back staring at my octopus or trying to guess what food I'm eating that day. Some of the teachers have some empathy for me so usually once or twice during the meal they explain what I'm eating in Korean or they compliment me on using chopsticks so well (this is a very common occurrence I've noticed- happens during every meal in which I eat with new people). Every time I get chopstick compliments I'm always amused- I wonder if they do not know how many Asian cuisines we have in the States, are their perceptions of Americans that out of touch with reality, can they think of nothing better to say, or am I really that good at using chopsticks (I admit, I am)? 

Lunch time is pretty indicative of another place, the teachers office. Our school, Dogo Middle School, only has 107 students. We have about 9 teachers I believe including me; as such, when I'm not in class teaching Engrish or trying to teach English, I'm in the teachers office. With so few students there are always a couple teachers in the office with me. Each teacher has their own desktop computer which is pretty cool. Like lunchtime I sit there while other teachers converse- not knowing what's going on but at least I have a computer in front of me so I can check the latest developments of Kim Jong-small's saber rattling and facebook for hours on end. May's desk is right next to mine but I try and not bother her asking trivial questions because she always seems tired and overworked (probably because she is). Sometimes I share some of interesting differences in our cultures. For example, last week I pulled out a 'normal' 8 x 11 sheet of paper that I happened to have in my folder from home. I elicited quite a reaction because they don't use our size paper in Korea (it's longer by a couple inches). She even showed another teacher our strange American style paper. It's little stuff like that I love to  show every now and then to the other teachers- it totally blows their mind and makes me a little closer to sanity knowing that I'm not completely losing my mind. 

I'm a rat in a cage: The teachers office has sliding glass doors surrounded by windows making the office a veritable human aquarium. This happens at least a couple times every day; While I'm facebooking or looking at some asinine youtube video at my desk I often look around only to see a couple students (girls more often then not) staring at me like I'm a visitor from the planet X. I smile back and give them a wave- they usually start giggling and run away in excitement or fear or maybe both. At my school I'm part rock-star, part alien, part ambassador, and all entertainment (kind of like home). When walking in the hall I usually get, hello, or hi (the two ubiquitous greetings every student regardless of how much English they know uses). I could go on and on about just my school but I'll save some more for a later time. 'Knowledge is the greatest good and ignorance is the greatest evil' -Socrates.