A Day in the Life...

First, Here's a picture of my street. I live to the right of here. It's literally ten steps from my the entrance of my apartment to this street. One block down is a huge main thoroughfare with a big 12 or 13 story department store that has a grocery store in it too. It is called Bauhaus.

I will attempt to recap a day in my life as an ESL Teacher. I arrive at school around 1:00 p.m. From 1:00 to 3:00 I have planning time to get my lesson plans ready. The school has an on site cook that prepares us lunch and dinner everyday which is awesome (one less thing I have to spend money on).

My first class I see every day of the week. They are the youngest group I teach and by far the hardest. These kids stick pencils up their noses, fight over each other's erasers and drive me nuts. Usually you reward kids with stamps in their stamp book for good behavior. These stamps turn into SLP (school) money that they can spend at the SLP Market. I give the whole class 5 stamps at the beginning of class and if one kid screws up the whole class loses a stamp. It's the only way to make them sit down and be quiet. I'm hoping as the time progresses they will get easier. One of the little girls in the class always touches my hair when I am grading her homework. I'm the only blond foreigner at the school.

My other classes I either see on Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday. MWF I teach six classes, two of which are the same class just at different times and TTR I teach five classes two of which are the same just at different times. The majority of the classes I teach are "Hi Kids" classes which are students who are at various levels of English and are assigned to a class accordingly. In these classes we do a lot of flashcards and "What is it?" "It is a train." My favorite story from these classes is we were practicing parts of the body and I pointed to a flashcard of a hand and asked them "What is it?" They responded, "It's a hand." I then pointed at the index finger on the hand and asked them, "What is one of these called?" This kid puts up his middle finger and yells, "In Korea, this means F*** You." It took everything I had not to bust out laughing. I just told him we can't say that I moved on.

My favorite class is the Aim High class. This is a class of 3 older kids who are the most advanced kids in the school. It is so nice to carry on a real conversation. I get to teach them Western History and read real novels with them! They also have to write essays and the topic I gave them was "Why do you want to go to college?" One kid wrote, "I want to go to college to learn about things I will need as an adult. Like how to get a girl friend, drink beer,..." and then he listed some stuff that is actually related to school. It cracked me up! He's only 14 and has is figured out.

My other classes are called Fly High which are classes for older kids with little to no experience with English. I have to draw (poorly) lots of pictures to explain what different words mean. They are fun though. They are always trying to come up with a way to get a party. Tonight, they asked me if we could have a "Welcome Christine Teacher to SLP Party." They wanted me to order pizza and have it delivered to the school. Nice try girls. It's not like I could even begin to figure out how the hell to order pizza in this country. I like these classes though because they are eager to learn.

So there you have it--a typical day in my life. I'm sure there will be many more funny stories to follow. I'll keep you updated.