Kids Are So Smart

Sometimes these kids really amaze me. Actually most of the time they do. With their insane schedules consisting of public school, acadamies, and various other lessons...not to mention some of them speak Chinese too!!! Three languages before high school? Wow. I pretty much only count myself as monolingual, though I think if I brushed up a little on my Spanish I could get by.

So, most of my classes are awesome...except for that one. But today I had Times classes, which are basically newspaper reading classes. And my first class is considered Intermediate for their level but they are so great. They can hold up a good conversation in English, which they proved today. One of our articles was a discussion about whether or not scientists should continue to develop new weapons. The arguments were that we could get useful things out of the research such as computers and GPS (which we wouldn't have if it weren't for weapons research according to the article). The other side of the argument was obviously that it could start wars and people could get hurt and what not. And that we can study other areas of science instead of developing weapons.

Oh so I need to throw in here how surprised I am that the rest of the world finds America to be so powerful. I mean, I guess I see it, but it's just not something you think about until you're not in the country anymore and cab drivers say "Oh, you're from America, very powerful country."

So we finished the article and one of the students commented on America having scary weapons. And I asked if he meant now. I think he might have meant now, but he said that historically America has had scary weapons. Obviously the bombing of Japan is a scary one, haha. I can understand that. "Much destruction, the air was very dirty," he said. Yeah. But he also said how he doesn't like Japan, so it's all good. (Just kidding) So I told them that I think North Korea is hiding scary weapons and I would be the most worried about them, but then proceeded to downplay it by saying that it's OK because there's American military presence here to protect us. However, I didn't want to seem to overconfident so I mentioned that South Korea obviously has a competent military as well.

These kids are probably about 12 years old and one of them said to me "Teacher, don't worry about North Korea, there's nothing to be afraid of. Teacher, you don't need to be worried." He basically told me that South Korea can take North Korea. Haha, I just am amazed sometimes by their ability to understand and process things and then try to reassure a 23-year-old. Not that I really am that worried :-) I guess maybe this isn't that great of a post for everyone else, but I just thought it was a great class and probably something I won't forget for a while. I love working with kids.

So, other than that, I really wish I could find a live stream of the America-Algeria World Cup game, but it's pretty hard and I just gave up. It doesn't matter though...S. Korea made it and plays again Saturday night!!! Yay Korea.

Tomorrow/today is the one month anniversary of my arrival!! I can't believe it's been a month already :-)

I realize I haven't been very good at updating this very much. Sorry.

This past weekend was great. We visited two museums and ate really good Italian food. I also saw my first accident here. Well, I didn't actually see the accident, just the damaged cars. It's surprising there aren't more accidents here given that their driving is crazy. I don't think stop signs exist, red lights seem to be optional and u-turns are a completely normal part of driving on almost any road here. They use their horns a lot and I really think South Korea must be one of the biggest consumers of brake pads.

That night we went to a few bars to watch the South Korea and Greece world cup game. It was a lot of fun to watch with the Koreans. They really get into their soccer here.

Oh, I forgot about Friday. Friday after school I went to eat with some of the other teachers. And to the batting cages. That was great. I haven't hit a baseball in a while but it is definitely a good way to release stress. And dinner was great. The food here is so good, but so much spicier than I expected. I usually need tons of water for one meal and my mouth is usually still on fire.

Sunday I hung out in my apartment for most of the morning. I did get my TV moved with the help of Jacob(and by help, I mean I watched him do it). But it's so much better now because I can use my desk! Great. Then we went to the baseball game. I love sports here because they are the same in any language. We ran into a couple from the other campus and sat with them along the 1st base line. Here, you buy food and bring it into the stadium to eat. I got a box of fried chicken, and some of the parts weren't ones that I could exactly name. Oh well, it tasted good. The game was great, I love baseball games! And there was a lot of good energy. It rained though, I could've done without that part.

I just realized what time it is. I need to get ready for work!!

It was all in Korean! and the Heart Shaped Beach

So I haven't posted because I couldn't figure out why the Blogger page was all in Korean. It's good now though...easy fix.

Teaching, I think, is very slowly getting better. I'm starting to think of games and things on my own to do in class and am using more online resources. I think most of my students are starting to accept me also. Last night one of the Korean teachers told me that one of my students told his mom that he really liked my class and thought it was a lot of fun. Favorite student now? Haha. It definitely helped to hear that when I was still feeling pretty unsure of myself. I still have the bad class though, and this last class only one of them paid attention to what I was saying. I was about on the verge of tears, but if I cry, I'll never get them to respect me, even though it probably wouldn't make much of a difference anyway. They may be sitting in different seats next class. I'll just keep trying new things I guess.

Oh, I got my hair cut to just below my shoulders. It was getting way too long and it was always tangled and hot and I finally just did it. It was only 8000 won. I was so amazed at that price.

So, this weekend I went camping on a beach with 4 other girls from Avalon/Reading Star/Langcon. We were up at 5am Saturday to catch a bus to take us on a 2 hour ferry ride to an island off the coast of Korea. There was a group of Canadiens on the boat going to the same island and we talked to them a little bit. But when we got to the island we were going to different beaches. We were going to the heart shaped beach. I really need to make a picture page for people who don't have Facebook, it's really awesome how it looks like a heart...maybe this morning, I'm feeling ambitious. Anyway, we got to the beach and it was totally deserted and beautiful. It was the first time I've been to a beach without big waves, there were just small waves. Enough to make the pretty beach sound to fall asleep to. The water was REALLY cold though. I didn't go in much past my ankles. That didn't matter, we still got tanned/sunburnt. Also, there were little bugs everywhere! I don't like bugs, but I made it through :-) So we tanned and hiked around the rocks a little bit. Then we debated trying to walk to the closest village to look for food. We had to walk up this huge mountain and down the other side, probably at least 2 miles, maybe more, until we found a couple and we communicated that we were looking for a store. They called a taxi for us and our cab driver saved the day!! He spoke pretty good English. He took us to the store and waited for us to shop before taking us back. He also told us the ferry times for the next day since we had forgotten to look and we picked a time for him to come pick us up the next day. It was perfect. So we got back and knocked an entire tree off the hill for firewood and set up our fire. Then we watched the sunset from a little bluff over the water. It was so pretty. Then we ate and hung out around the fire before falling asleep. It was great. If anyone had ever told me that there were empty beaches that you could camp on without being bothered, I wouldn't have believed it!







There are so many more pictures...like I said, I'll work on that...

First Days of Teaching

So, I have started "teaching" this week. And the quotation marks are there because it's been mostly testing/orientation stuff. So I don't have a great routine yet, but I think it will come...


Yesterday, I thought my classes were testing, but it turns out they weren't, so I had to teach. I also made my syllabus using a workbook that they do not have, so I couldn't give them their syllabus, but told them I would have it for the next class. Apparently Korean mothers don't like it when you don't have a syllabus because the school got some calls about that...Anyway, I wasn't totally prepared to be honest and I wanted to get into some of the classes before deciding what I was going to do. So the first class was short and there was only one student...very easy. THEN...ugh...then...I walked into class and recognized a few of the students from observation...recognized as in trouble. The class was awful. They didn't listen to anything and talked the whole time, even after I yelled at them and was as strict as I could be without being totally horrible. So anyway, afterwards, I talked to their Korean homeroom teacher who told me they can be difficult. And today we talked about it and it's basically a class of disruptive students all put together. Fantastic. So I am really trying to come up with what to do when I see them again because this is going to be bad if I can't get them under control. We'll see...I'm sure I will mention it again...

Besides that, most of my other classes seem great. Some of these kids are so awesome and are going to be so much fun to teach. I only have one syllabus left, and it's pretty much been done by one of my co-workers so now I can focus on teaching :-)

I think I found a new favorite food at Kimbap Nara...Gogimandu...it has meat and soy sauce and it's a dumpling...who wouldnt like that?

I'm much more settled now. I have most necessities and it feels more like MY OWN apartment :-)

OK, I'm out of things to write for now...