Year 1 - Teaching and Partying

Hi

What a week.

I started teaching Thursday, after 3 days of observing classes. The observation days were a big help. I learned some of what to do, as well as what not to do. Even then, observing really doesn't prepare you for teaching the class. Except for my M-W-F 5PM class it is all adults. The 5PM class is kids, probably 12-14 years old.

I have to admit, I was nervous going into my first class. It was small, which was good. Luckily, I had no problems leading the class, and teaching. Probably because I am full of myself and like to talk. This gives me a captive audience.

The classes themself are fun. Probably because the folks taking them want to learn. Not like being at public school at home. Or like my kids class, their parents force them to go. Everyone has a reason for wanting to learn English. Everything from wanting to know another language for travel, to needing it for work, to just wanting to do something different and learning a language seemed like fun.

The kids in my 5 PM class are there because their parents force them to be. Some like it, some hate it. Those who hate it sometimes disrupt the class. Their last teacher let them get away with stuff, he stopped trying because it seemed futile. So, I laid down the law yesterday. I let them know that if they acted up I wouldn't tolerate it, and that if they did it 3 times they would be out the door. When the first 2 acted up they got separated. Then one of them thought it would be fun to draw on the desk. After he finished cleaning it, he got to sit in the corner for the rest of the class, in front of the class. For some reason they decided I wasn't bluffing and decided that it would be best to start listening and doing their work. (Which is good because I tend not to bluff. Especially with kids. If you tell them that an action will lead to a punishment and don't follow through they tend not to ever believe you will in the future. They lose respect for your authority.) In the end, my kids class was great. All of my classes have been good.

Living in an apartment takes some getting used to. I have lived all of my life in a house. Once, in a town house in Ontario, but that is as close as I ever came to an apartment. Until now. My first apartment here was fairly quiet. With the windows closed you couldn't hear a lot from the street. The neighbors were VERY quiet. You only knew they were around when you heard the jangle of their keys when they opened their door. In my new apartment, I am right off of the busy street, across an alley from a soju bar/restaurant. It is a toss up whether I am going to kill my neighbours or some loud drunk. I do miss living in a house.

Last night was a send off party for one of the teachers. Dave has been here for 2 years. He is taking a month off to lay on the beach in Thailand. Then he will be back in Korea for a month before heading off to teach in Prague. There were a LOT of people at the party. We pretty much took over the bar. I had my first taste of Soju and liked it. Which surprised both the Koreans and Westerners. I guess any other Westerner who drank it had to chase it with water, or beer. I didn't. I also had about 10 shots of it and wasn't feeling it. In the end I had about 2-2.5 bottles of it. (18-23 shots) plus some beer. One of the local beers, Cass, is ok. I am SO glad I don't get hangovers.

The food. Mmmmmmm...the food. My table was mainly Korean. Some of the girls from work, and their friends. When it came time to order they weren't sure if I would want Korean or not. They were a little surprised when I said order Korea, surprise me, just make it spicy. They asked if I liked Kimchi Chigae, and I do. So we had seaweed soup, some pickled vegetables, quail eggs, rice, and a HUGE dish of a type of kimchi chigae. It was like the Sun Du Bu Chigae I described in an earlier post. The girls decided to get something a little different in it to surprise me. On top of the regular ingredients it had fish eggs, attached to the flesh. Korean men like it because it is supposed to enhance their virility. I loved the soup. The party didn't end until around 2AM when the last of us, myself and 2 others, went home.

Anyway, that was my week in a nutshell.

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Oops this was actually an earlier letter.

It gets annoying when Koreans keep going on and on about how this food or that food is good for your health. And the way they (usually the men) go on about how it is good for your "stamina".