So today happened to be White Day in Korea (more on that later). That doesn't make a difference in my teaching, but here's a typical day at my Thursday (Elementary) school.
8:00am - Catch the bus to school. Surprisingly, no Korean decided to chat me up today.
8:30am - Arrive at school.
9:00am - Realize I prepared the wrong chapter to teach, and log onto www.waygook.org for a quick lesson plan matching the CORRECT chapter.
9:20am - first class starts (Grade 3): These are little kids (9 years old - but in Korea, they look more like 6 year olds). Review the alphabet and counting. Play a counting game, then watch a youtube clip of a "Going to the Zoo" song (next week we learn about animals).
10:00am - Grade 4 class starts. Go to class, no students. See them in the library with the teacher, so head back to the teachers room to play on the internet.
10:20am - Grade 4 teacher comes in, tells me that the class is ready (and apologizes for being late). Once in class, the kid who only knows English words that deal with poop (poop, dung, poo poo, etc) gives me candy for White Day. The smart girl in class (tries to teach me a new Korean word each class) tells me she will find me a "couple" since I am "solo". Yeah, good luck lil girl. She also gave herself the English name Juliet. She must love romantic tragedies.
10:40am - Whew, teaching wears me out. Time for a 30minute break to play on the internet again (said Hi to Poppa Dukes and wished a high school buddy Happy Birthday - he told me he'd be a millionaire one day, still waiting for that announcement, Gerard!)
11:10am - Oh, class again. This time it's Grade 5. Do some book/CD work. The chapter is "My favorite subject is English" At the end of the lesson, only 1 student actually said English was her favorite language (stupid PE class swept ALL the other classes). But, good sucking up, Lora. That's the closest to an English name I have in that class. The rest of the names are: Ghost, Galaxy, Ladybug (yes, this is a boy), Korea, MP3, and my favorite: God. Yup, Mexicans might name their kids Jesus, but Korean kids pick God as their English nickname. I'm always afraid to call on him in class: "What's your favorite animal, God? Where do you live, God?" One day I am going to throw out "What's the meaning of life, God?" and record his answer. Should be pretty epic. I will be the only one that gets the joke.
11:50am - Last (and smallest) class of the day. It's Boss' (yes, he picked that name) birthday, so of course we sing to him. 5 minutes of class...completed. Then it's on to book and CD work. Today we learned "Where do you live?" After practicing, I asked it to each student at the end of class as as a wrap-up. Best answers go to Tolstoy for his answer of "Space" and Lezzi's answer of "April's house". I HOPE I don't go home to find a new roommate (Lezzi). But if I do, maybe my dishes will get washed more frequently.
12:30pm - LUNCHTIME! Today I was feeling adventurous, or maybe I drank too much coffee, so I sat with the 1st graders. The 1st graders do NOT have a native teacher, and I am the ONLY "wagkook" they see in their tiny town. They kids were mesmerized by me. I knew however, that they knew I was an English teacher (no, not because I knew they could see I have white skin), but because I heard them say "young-o songsangnim" which means English teacher. Woo hoo, I can understand a 1st grader! Then the little boy in front of me started saying any English words he knew: banana (while I was eating an apple), yellow, and so on. Then I looked at him, took a bite of my seafood-type dish and said "mashisoyo" (delicious) to him. HE GEEKED OUT!!! His eyes went HUGE, he mouth broke into a HUGE toothless (he only had a few teeth in there) and laughed so hard I thought he was going to choke. Then he started repeating to his buddies what I think translates to "the crazy white woman said that the spicy squid tentacle was delicious!" Yeah, pretty epic. The rest of the kids sitting with me just started at me, and when I would look at them I would say a random Korean word "Hello" "Water" "Teacher" and boy did THEY freak! This was causing such a commotion that the kindergartners decided to come over and see the fuss. So I gave a Korean hello and they scattered back, so excited! On my way out, Juliet (grade 4) grabbed me and pointed to her apple and told me "apple is april's friend". Hmm..I sure am hoping that the Apple isn't the "couple" she is finding for me.
1:00pm - And I'm done with work. Time to play on the internet and get some lesson planning done (hhahaahha).
And that's what a normal day in the life of Apes is like. In case you were wondering.
Ghamsamnidah,
Apes:)
8:00am - Catch the bus to school. Surprisingly, no Korean decided to chat me up today.
8:30am - Arrive at school.
9:00am - Realize I prepared the wrong chapter to teach, and log onto www.waygook.org for a quick lesson plan matching the CORRECT chapter.
9:20am - first class starts (Grade 3): These are little kids (9 years old - but in Korea, they look more like 6 year olds). Review the alphabet and counting. Play a counting game, then watch a youtube clip of a "Going to the Zoo" song (next week we learn about animals).
10:00am - Grade 4 class starts. Go to class, no students. See them in the library with the teacher, so head back to the teachers room to play on the internet.
10:20am - Grade 4 teacher comes in, tells me that the class is ready (and apologizes for being late). Once in class, the kid who only knows English words that deal with poop (poop, dung, poo poo, etc) gives me candy for White Day. The smart girl in class (tries to teach me a new Korean word each class) tells me she will find me a "couple" since I am "solo". Yeah, good luck lil girl. She also gave herself the English name Juliet. She must love romantic tragedies.
10:40am - Whew, teaching wears me out. Time for a 30minute break to play on the internet again (said Hi to Poppa Dukes and wished a high school buddy Happy Birthday - he told me he'd be a millionaire one day, still waiting for that announcement, Gerard!)
11:10am - Oh, class again. This time it's Grade 5. Do some book/CD work. The chapter is "My favorite subject is English" At the end of the lesson, only 1 student actually said English was her favorite language (stupid PE class swept ALL the other classes). But, good sucking up, Lora. That's the closest to an English name I have in that class. The rest of the names are: Ghost, Galaxy, Ladybug (yes, this is a boy), Korea, MP3, and my favorite: God. Yup, Mexicans might name their kids Jesus, but Korean kids pick God as their English nickname. I'm always afraid to call on him in class: "What's your favorite animal, God? Where do you live, God?" One day I am going to throw out "What's the meaning of life, God?" and record his answer. Should be pretty epic. I will be the only one that gets the joke.
11:50am - Last (and smallest) class of the day. It's Boss' (yes, he picked that name) birthday, so of course we sing to him. 5 minutes of class...completed. Then it's on to book and CD work. Today we learned "Where do you live?" After practicing, I asked it to each student at the end of class as as a wrap-up. Best answers go to Tolstoy for his answer of "Space" and Lezzi's answer of "April's house". I HOPE I don't go home to find a new roommate (Lezzi). But if I do, maybe my dishes will get washed more frequently.
12:30pm - LUNCHTIME! Today I was feeling adventurous, or maybe I drank too much coffee, so I sat with the 1st graders. The 1st graders do NOT have a native teacher, and I am the ONLY "wagkook" they see in their tiny town. They kids were mesmerized by me. I knew however, that they knew I was an English teacher (no, not because I knew they could see I have white skin), but because I heard them say "young-o songsangnim" which means English teacher. Woo hoo, I can understand a 1st grader! Then the little boy in front of me started saying any English words he knew: banana (while I was eating an apple), yellow, and so on. Then I looked at him, took a bite of my seafood-type dish and said "mashisoyo" (delicious) to him. HE GEEKED OUT!!! His eyes went HUGE, he mouth broke into a HUGE toothless (he only had a few teeth in there) and laughed so hard I thought he was going to choke. Then he started repeating to his buddies what I think translates to "the crazy white woman said that the spicy squid tentacle was delicious!" Yeah, pretty epic. The rest of the kids sitting with me just started at me, and when I would look at them I would say a random Korean word "Hello" "Water" "Teacher" and boy did THEY freak! This was causing such a commotion that the kindergartners decided to come over and see the fuss. So I gave a Korean hello and they scattered back, so excited! On my way out, Juliet (grade 4) grabbed me and pointed to her apple and told me "apple is april's friend". Hmm..I sure am hoping that the Apple isn't the "couple" she is finding for me.
1:00pm - And I'm done with work. Time to play on the internet and get some lesson planning done (hhahaahha).
And that's what a normal day in the life of Apes is like. In case you were wondering.
Ghamsamnidah,
Apes:)
No comments:
Post a Comment