Pink Shirts, Pink Pants, Pink Shoes...

I finally taught my first week of classes. The Junggye Branch gave me a pretty sweet schedule. I work 4-10pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. The commute from Gangnam in south central Seoul to Junggye in north east Seoul, where my branch is located, is an hour and a half door to door. I am used to the commute in NYC, but this is just insane. The Junggye branch is one of the 7 main branches of CDI in Seoul. Out of all of them, apparently, Junggye is the most chill. My faculty manager is not some uptight guy who scrutinizes everything I do. He actually is very laid back and is very positive about everything. On the phone he sounds like a Cali surfer dude. In actuality, he's a veteran CDI instructor who's probably in his mid-30s and acts like he's in his 20s. The hierarchy goes Branch Manager > Faculty Manager > Head Instructors > Instructors (me). My HIs are really laid back, yet knowledgeable people too. They have given me some great advice on how to make my classes better such as keeping to structure, picking up my pace, and tactics on how to make them answer questions such as putting names to questions. My biggest problem is just trying to make them laugh. I had to use an example such as: If you're principal "declared" (vocabulary word) a new rule that you had to wear pink shirts, pink pants, and pink shoes to school, how would you feel? This is a true example for me to explain to the students about the words "declare,"bitterly," and "opposed." Doesn't it sound like I'm in Dr. Seuss Land? I can't wait to see my CCTV (classroom video monitoring) because I was throwing markers, spitting, and jumping around either because I was nervous or because I was trying desperately to keep my students' attention. My icebreaker really happened to soften the class. I had the students guess which statement was false:

1. I have traveled to 20 countries.

2. I have eaten a spider.

3. I speak Korean.

Surprisingly, most of the students guessed that I really did speak Korean! They really like it if they can relate to you and know that you are a human being. Apparently, "teacher" is the next level down from "emperor." They believe teachers are all-knowing, therefore should be highly respected. I have had my share of troublesome students though. On my second day, I had to discipline a student for speaking Korean by making him move seats. They really hate it if a boy has to sit next to a girl. My class rules are:

1. No Korean--ONLY English

2. Respect Others--Do not speak above others & Do not touch others

3. No Food--ONLY water

4. No Cell Phones

It is unbelievable how attached these kids are to their cell phones! One student asked if she could use her cell phone because it had a dictionary. Nice idea, but cell phones would just distract them in class. Other than breaking those rules, the children are very smart and quite attentive. Korean students are like super academic machines. They have to go to school Monday-Saturday. After school they go to Hagwons or academies. Each day, they go to a different hagwon focused on either English, math, science, sports, or music. When I asked my kids what did they do this weekend such as biking, playing at the park, or going to the beach, most of them replied with, "I stay at home."

The two class I teach are Memory English and Bridge Reading, which are the middle level classes for elementary and middle schoolers. Teaching middle schoolers is the toughest. They are like rocks and the class is like pulling teeth. CDI has their own R&D center that develops their teaching materials. For Memory English, I get the students to analyze stories about burping and sweating or the civil war. For Bridge Reading, the students have to learn about heredity and photosynthesis. I cannot believe that these kids have to learn this! For instance, the students have to take a 10 minute quiz reading a 1 page essay on heredity while marking up (circling transitions, underlining key details, and labeling major and minor details) and then answer 8 questions about the passage. One question asks them to put a random group of sentences in order in which they appear in the story. That alone would take me 10 minutes! The elementary school students are extremely lively. They love to shout answers, speak out of turns, laugh at everything, and want to know everything about you. Week 1 is always overwhelming according to veteran teachers. What I learned at training has no really helped me with actual teaching. Being in front of a Korean class of young children is a whole new experience. It really cannot be taught. I have to go lesson by lesson week by week and hope for the best that they start warming up to me allowing them to be more interactive. Week 2 should be interesting when I see myself on CCTV and hopefully find an apartment!

Gerunds, Adverb Clauses, Participle Phrases...

My flight over from the States wasn't bad. Although I had a stop-over in Minneapolis and Tokyo, it was good to break up the 24 hour trip and actually get off the plane a few times. I got to Seoul at 10pm. Thank goodness for CDI having a cab waiting for me. Some of the trainees told me they paid upwards of $100 for a cab. I am staying at the Coatel Hotel, in the Gangnam District (the Manhattan of Seoul). I have the best roommates a girl could ask for. My Khan is from Seattle, Jenn is from Palm Springs, CA, and Christie is from Pittsburgh. CDI heavily recruits Americans and Canadians I guess because of our accents? Apparently, this is the largest recruiting class CDI has ever had. I trained with about 80 other people. I have met some of the coolest people. Everyone seems to be so well-traveled and of course adventurous. It really takes a certain kind of person to leave his or her own country to do this.

Training this week felt like finals in college. It was literally grammar and teaching boot camp from hell. On the first day we had bizarre medical exams that included blood work for TB, urine tests for drugs, height, weight, hearing, sight, and bust/torso size. We then had a grammar lesson on parts of speech that I hadn't thought about in a long time such as gerunds, adverb clauses, and participle phrases. I mean who goes around saying, "That's a great participle phrase." The following day, we took the grammar test. The passing grade was a 70. For our class, the average grade was a 70.2. Just about half and half passed/failed. It was very sad that we, as college graduates, could not pass a grammar test. The rest of week was filled with 2 training sessions a day for almost 3 hours each. My group would leave the hotel at 7:50am and not get back till 8pm! Too bad training isn't paid for. This week we averaged maybe 5 hours of sleep a night and working on grammar and teaching techniques for 12. Not to mention building jet lag. Oy! Nevertheless, I can't say I hated it because I really learned a lot for being an inexperienced teacher. Imagine being a student in a Korean language class and the teacher asks you to circle the transition words and identify the main idea. I would just look at the Korean characters and blank. We did go over the same material all week such as essays about natural regions of the US and burping and sweating. I'm so over soil and the burping and sweating. At least these are the essays we are teaching in our first week of classes so we know them backwards and forewards. Our final exam was on Friday which included a written test of the 3 hour breakdown of a class and mock teaching. Did I mention I teach 2 three hour classes each evening from 4-10pm? It blows my mind how intense these children are and what their parents expect. Our trainers assured us that this is normal for the kids. I know most college kids can't get through a 3 hour class! After a long week of intense training, retaking the grammar test, and having our written test and final mock evaluations, we were glad to finally sign our contracts and get started on celebrating.

Thanks Michelle for the pic!

It's sad that I've been here a week and have seen nothing of Seoul except for my hotel and the CDI Center. On Friday night after signing contracts, everyone was ready to get crazy. Since we had the largest recruiting class, I met some amazing people not only in my training sessions, but in the hotel, in the CDI lobby, and on the shuttle ride. We finally got to show our true colors on the dance floor! Clubs here are insanely packed. I'm talking like hundreds of people and they have 20,000 won cover charge ($20). After Friday, more than half of the recruits left to go to their schools around Korea. The rest of us are spread out around Seoul. I'm really going to miss Jen (Busan) and My Khan (Daejeon). At least I know I have people to visit and places to stay when I go to these cities. Luckily, Christie and I will be in the same area of Seoul in Junggye (NE Seoul). Also, I have a ton of friends in and around Seoul who are just a subway ride away.

Me, Tolani, & Jen
Thanks Tolani for the pic!

I can't believe it's only Week 1 of my year in South Korea. I think I'm really going to like it. I've met some great people and the Seoul lifestyle is a lot like New York...perhaps even crazier. People stay out till 8am! I've already spent $100 and I'm losing weight because I only eat at mini marts, which have great sushi and noodle bowls for a 1000 won, or about a dollar. Tomorrow I am going to my branch in Junggye for the first time and teaching my first two classes. Eek!

“Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” -David Gray

Packing is usually a last minute endeavor saved for the wee hours before my flight. Today is no different. Tomorrow I leave for Seoul, South Korea. After months of phone interviews, essays, criminal background checks, and relayed emails, I am finally taking off for a one year contract to teach English. Since my study abroad experience in the fall of 2006, I have discovered a passion for travel, culture, and peoples. Upon graduating from college last May, I knew I wasn’t ready to join the workforce/ rat race in New York. I decided to take a job with Chung Dahm Institute (CDI Holdings Inc.) in Seoul, South Korea. I will be teaching 4th-11th graders how to write and converse in English. I have a mixture of emotions including both excitement and fear. Nevertheless, I know this will be an exciting year of traveling, adventures, meeting new people, establishing some great relationships, and most importantly --learning.

Goals:

Learn Korean
Run ½ Marathon
Coach/Play Soccer
Learn to Play the Guitar
Learn to Knit
Read More
Study for LSAT/GRE
Travel to Mongolia, Laos, Tibet, and some other places I’ve already been to
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