Bait and Switch

He said an easy ride. A flat ride. A ride along the river. No mention of caves, hiking up mountains, riding across fallen trees, and going to places not seen by westerners since General MacArthur.

News of my Interest

Some links to articles I find interesting related to South Korean culture, economy, education, etc.

Lots of corruption, or allegations of corruption in public service. Here is Seoul's ex-chief of education being questioned for bribes.

Male dominated Korea.

Short article on increasing benefits for FDI.

Claiming to break stereotypes.

Pressure of SAT. Cheating as a business. Teacher abducted and beaten up for leaving his cram school.

5 principals taking bribes.

Cambodia bans marriages to Korean Nationals.

School expels student for pregnancy based on breaking code of moral conduct, any student who disrupts the moral code of the school with an “unwholesome relationship” is subject to expulsion. " However, Rights Commission rules in student's right to education.

Yelling at "Park"

"Park" is a third or fourth grader in the lower level class. He is a bit rambunctious at times, completely unresponsive at times, and other times really tries hard yielding slim results. He isn't without talent. When he was in second grade assigned a homework assignment to draw a clock. He drew a picture of his bedroom with the clock in great detail. In the summer, he drew a picture of my co-workers jeep after seeing it one time. He had all the details of the grill, headlights, rims, and so forth.

"Park" brings me back to when I was working in Las Vegas with Col. Joe and his son Dr. Walker who told West Point stories. One in particular about the famous American painter James McNeill Whistler.

" James Abbot McNeill Whistler, the future painter, got booted in 1854 for being too impudent in engineering drawing class. Assigned to draw a bridge, he insisted on drawing three boys fishing from the side of it; when ordered to erase them, he then drew three little headstones by the river bank." -John Blackwell

That's "Park" for you. I lost my temper after leaving the room on a couple occasions and returning to "Park" running, and jumping on the desks. He is pressing his face against the observation windows making some interesting faces. He was so focused in his antics that he could not hear his classmates warning him that I was standing there watching him. He shed some tears after talking to my co-teacher and said he was sorry. I too said I was sorry for losing my temper. This used to be a daily occurrence when I first started.

Friday Phonics and Grammar

It's Friday, we are late into our 7th hour teaching. We've seen the kindy classes, the 3-4 advanced, the 3-4 remedial, and now the phonics and grammar class. It's just about 7pm and the kids are studying grammar, foreign language grammar. You have to admire this. Meanwhile I'm looking at the Miami Herald webpage, and see more violent crime with school children. It's very different here.

Basketball

Sunday was the backdrop to a nice size potluck picnic. I encountered a cultural hiccup when interpreting "we'll play some football" as american football. Apparently that's soccer. In any event, we ended up playing basketball in the rain with a soccer ball. The girls played pretty rough, i have a few scrapes and bruises. Basketball, tacos, and an Italian dish were the highlights.

Poker

After work on Friday we had a 10 person game of poker. I didn't have time to change, so I was over dressed. Wearing a purple tie to a poker game is strategy in itself. I was all in on the third hand with an ace high... Albert called with a queen high. The game seemed to progress in this way. No matter what I did chips found their way to me. Another guy threw his cards in thinking he saw a straight when i showed my cards. He had the winning hand, but having thrown in his cards the chips were mine.

Sunday, and our resident Australians have organized badminton, and football at a nearby park. Everybody is bringing a dish of food. If the weather holds up, should be a nice day... it 68 degrees in my apartment with my window cracked open.

Opening Ceremony + Phonics + Grammar

Our English Center opening ceremony was held today. Parents, students, and some faculty attended. Enough balloons adorn the stage that it looked like a bridal shower, or a young one's birthday. It was very professional and looked expensive.

We seem to have been reprimanded after each previous opening ceremony for not being ceremonious enough. I suggested a marching band, balloons, and offering to swing by the train station to pick up extras for our audience. Apparently they liked the idea of the balloons. There were floral arrangements too, and balloons in the the shape of floral arrangements.

Today also starts our Phonics and Grammar course. My co-teacher an I are teaching this as a volunteer service. Parents wanted some extra prep courses for their kids that they would be better ready for the demands of middle school.

As time goes by

Progression and regression. I started taking Korean class, and stopped about this time last year. I was going to class at that time, mostly to socialize with other foreigners. Now I'm studying on my own. I'd like to talk to the people I've known for over a year, the people i've never done much more than say hello, thank you, and okay to. It's an uphill battle learning a language. I'm listening to MP3's, reading some Korean survival, and repeating whatever I hear somebody else say.

In my classes, I've begun using a textbook. I have six books for six different classes. Super Kids English, I believe. I found it the right mix of easy to understand pictures, and tightly organized pieces of conversation.

The topics this week for the low level 1-2 class is classroom English. Make a circle, raise your hands, please be quiet, color, make a line, etc. Then the advanced 1-2 class embarks on expressing their feelings; happy, sad, cold, hot, sick, angry, etc. The 3-4 low level class is repeating the days of the week and trying to identify letters, and sounds. The 3-4 advanced class is asking where a class trip is going, and what they will do. The low level 5-6 class is talking about where people are from, and what language do they speak. Advanced 5-6 is asking about what vacation plans, and past vacation experiences.

It's tough keeping it all straight, but it's far easier than creating the topics, target language, and materials myself. Then deciding how to change the material so it's appropriate for each age group, and further changing to match level. The downside is that it's far more linear. This seems to bore the kids. At the least they are learning, or maybe memorizing.

Being the beginning of the Korean school year, former students have come back to visit. This is very pleasing. The middle school students don uniforms (live in these uniforms) and all chopped off their hair (per school rules).

Those who are still my students advanced to the next grade, and this has dramatically changed the chemistry of all our classes. There is an inexplicable excitement about this. The kids grow quickly. The kindergarten students had been some of my favorite. We started teaching them as an experiment. What started very slowly and painfully had become something quite special. Very very very slowly, and very very very painfully. And each day they had class they march in and yell, "HELLO! GOOD MORNING" From there it was chaos with moments, "ah-ha."

Pizza, Treasure Hunt, Photo Scav. Hunt (Part2)