"Students, what is slang? Slang? Yes! Su Bini?"
"Black People Teacher."
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
We Wish You a Merry Curisumas.
I'm looking into planning my winter intenisve English camp and I wanted to teach my kids christmas carols! So I thougth "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" would be a fabulous choice and I want my kids to understand what they are reading so I got onto Naver (like Google except in Korean for Koreans) and typed in "We Wish Your a Merry Christmas." Well some korean lyrics appeared under the lyrics just like I wanted so I copied and pasted the whole set into a word document. Well during a break I asked Eunyeong if she would look over my lyrics to make sure that they were correct (note that I hadn't read through the lyrics myself) she leaned over and burst out laughing. I looked at her perplexedly then quickly glanced back at my computer screen. I began reading:
We wish you a merry christmas
(위 위슈어 메리 크리스마스)
We wish you a merry christmas
(위 위슈어 메리 크리스마스)
We wish you a merry christmas
(위 위슈어 메리 크리스마스)
And a happy new year
(앤 어 해피 뉴이열)
Sure enough i'm an idiot. While the letters below the English are definitely Korean they are also a DIRECT saying of the English word. For example, 위- we 위슈어- weeshyouuh 메리- mary 크리스마스- koorisuhmasoo... 앤- an 어-oh 해피-hapi 뉴- nyew 이열-eyewl.
So much for being competent at navigating the internets.
Anyeong!
We wish you a merry christmas
(위 위슈어 메리 크리스마스)
We wish you a merry christmas
(위 위슈어 메리 크리스마스)
We wish you a merry christmas
(위 위슈어 메리 크리스마스)
And a happy new year
(앤 어 해피 뉴이열)
Sure enough i'm an idiot. While the letters below the English are definitely Korean they are also a DIRECT saying of the English word. For example, 위- we 위슈어- weeshyouuh 메리- mary 크리스마스- koorisuhmasoo... 앤- an 어-oh 해피-hapi 뉴- nyew 이열-eyewl.
So much for being competent at navigating the internets.
Anyeong!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Adoration
"Teachah! Bebayro?" Today is bebayro day, which means everyone gives one another bebayro which is chocolate covered breadstick cookies. I said, "배배로 없어요." (I don't have any bebayro) There was a general sigh of discontentment, my students all began turning inward, I recognized my cue to leave and was about to spin on my right heel when one of my (more annoying and less studious but adorable nonetheless) students said, "Molly teachah! Here!" He then broke off the part of the bebayro without chocolate and handed it to me. I crossed my eyes and stuck my tongue out with him as the other students burst into uproarious laughter.
Students, they think they're so funny.
Anyeong!
Students, they think they're so funny.
Anyeong!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Mystery Field Trip
"Molly, tomorrow you need go on a field trip. Go to Stadium by Home Plusuh, main front gate, and wear big shoes. Oh, and man with red flag will help you."
THAT'S what I was told about my adventure today. So like the good little teacher that I am I showed up at the main front gate at 8:30 this morning with big shoes aka tennis shoes and looked for the man with red flag. I stood there in the cold glaring up at the sun and the stadium wishing ill thoughts on everyone who thought this little "field trip" was something I should do. I finally ran into some other native teachers I know and we began walking around the stadium searching in vain for "man with red flag." We finally happened upon this man, he was a short, thin, korean man, with a red flag! He beamed at us, raised the flag and then tweeted on a whistle sharply and pointed us in the direction we were going and beamed at us. I couldn't help but smile back at this absurdly pleased Korean, whistling, red flagged man.
After we boarded the bus we were informed that today we would be making pottery and going to a temple. Oh boy! Once at the pottery station I managed to make a...erm...bowl? MERRY CHRISTMAS MOMMA! You can expect an extremely misshapen bowl in either a pine or acorn color to arrive on your doorstep just in time for Christmas, granted it's inner inefficiencies don't explode in the kiln. This you can then add to the collection of misshapen pottery you've received for being the sole recipient of my misguided attempts at pottery.
After the pottery experience we had a "Natural foods diet" lunch, which means we ate a lot a vegetation. I had acorn jello for first time! It's black, and has seaweed flakes on top, it tastes like nothing but seaweed and has the consistency of slightly more hardened jello. Ew. I won't be repeating that experience again unless it's been deemed of the utmost of an insult to not eat it (which could conceivably be everyday until Jan). After the acorn jelly we went to a temple where Nerina (a South African friend of mine who's totally bad ass in all senses of the word) and I walked along a beautiful river pathway and discussed life while the river rushed by at our feet, needless to say it was a divine end to the day!
Anyeong!
THAT'S what I was told about my adventure today. So like the good little teacher that I am I showed up at the main front gate at 8:30 this morning with big shoes aka tennis shoes and looked for the man with red flag. I stood there in the cold glaring up at the sun and the stadium wishing ill thoughts on everyone who thought this little "field trip" was something I should do. I finally ran into some other native teachers I know and we began walking around the stadium searching in vain for "man with red flag." We finally happened upon this man, he was a short, thin, korean man, with a red flag! He beamed at us, raised the flag and then tweeted on a whistle sharply and pointed us in the direction we were going and beamed at us. I couldn't help but smile back at this absurdly pleased Korean, whistling, red flagged man.
After we boarded the bus we were informed that today we would be making pottery and going to a temple. Oh boy! Once at the pottery station I managed to make a...erm...bowl? MERRY CHRISTMAS MOMMA! You can expect an extremely misshapen bowl in either a pine or acorn color to arrive on your doorstep just in time for Christmas, granted it's inner inefficiencies don't explode in the kiln. This you can then add to the collection of misshapen pottery you've received for being the sole recipient of my misguided attempts at pottery.
After the pottery experience we had a "Natural foods diet" lunch, which means we ate a lot a vegetation. I had acorn jello for first time! It's black, and has seaweed flakes on top, it tastes like nothing but seaweed and has the consistency of slightly more hardened jello. Ew. I won't be repeating that experience again unless it's been deemed of the utmost of an insult to not eat it (which could conceivably be everyday until Jan). After the acorn jelly we went to a temple where Nerina (a South African friend of mine who's totally bad ass in all senses of the word) and I walked along a beautiful river pathway and discussed life while the river rushed by at our feet, needless to say it was a divine end to the day!
Anyeong!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Things Are Changing
Things are changing here in Korealand and i'm hoping for the better. While I always tend to reject change immediately as invalid and useless, this time the change is something I yearned for at the beginning of my teacher term so I suppose there's no use bitching about it...isn't this what I wanted?
It all started yesterday, my friend Emily who works at a middle school about a 30 minutes walk from here held an open class. An open class is quite simple, you teach your class and any number of people are invited or allowed to attend. This allows for other teachers (like clueless muah) to observe and gain insight, principles can come to compare their native teachers to other teachers, as well as an opportunity for parents and relatives to come in and see how their children are being educated. Three of my co-teachers and I, along with our principle went into Emily's class and observed.
The first noticeable difference (and the biggest) is that Emily has a beautiufl classroom filled with life size pictures of cities, a TV space for kids to come in and watch movies, a stage, microphone, sliding chalk and white boards and circle tables that enable the group mentality. While I taught with Emily during summer camp I definintely saw her classroom but now i've been here for four months, and every day I traipse about my school carrying whatever materials I need for class. EVERY. DAY. up stairs, down stairs, through cold corridors, amongst the masses of sweating and swearing students, oi it's tiring! The second noticeable thing is that Emily and her co-teacher worked like a team, each of them had a speaking part in the lesson and each of them worked off one another like a dream team. There are few things with Emily's situation that will not be applicable to me, like she only has 1 co-teacher (I think) whereas I have 8, and they have been teaching together for the last 8 months. So that won't be applicable but some people will try anything to maintain perfection.
SO today my principal called a meeting with the English teachers (I wasn't invited, i'm slightly bitter but I wouldn't have understood anyway so oh well I guess). During this meeting he informed them that he wanted us to read more and that he wanted my co-teachers to become more involved in my lessons. I wasn't there but i'm sure I heard a great sigh of depression emit from each of them. These teachers work their butts off every single day and one day a week all they had to do was translate the trickier parts of my lecture. Now they have yet another class to plan with someone that they don't really understand. Oi vey. Not only this, but i've not been teaching from a text book, instead i've been making up as I go, week by week. So now I also have to change how i'm teaching, what i'm teaching, and how I approach the kids.
So, while i'm actually pretty excited to work more closely with them (now maybe i'll be able to approach them and politely ask them to STOP SPEAKING KOREAN IN MY ENGLISH CLASS) and the fact that i'll actually be using a book like a normal teacher and not just some funky city-wide celebrity teacher with blonde sparkly hair from America; I'm also a little bit nervous and a lot bit apprehensive. They each have a different teaching style and a different idea about how and what I should teach. While I try to cater to each of them generally I just end up with a general lesson plan that I hope they can help mold to their own teaching styles; but now that I must teach with each of them i'm going to have to create 8 versions of my 1 lesson plan for 25 classes, 3 grades, and 2,700 students. holy jesus.
This is what I initally wanted...right? Cooperation and assistance...? eeep.
Anyeong!
It all started yesterday, my friend Emily who works at a middle school about a 30 minutes walk from here held an open class. An open class is quite simple, you teach your class and any number of people are invited or allowed to attend. This allows for other teachers (like clueless muah) to observe and gain insight, principles can come to compare their native teachers to other teachers, as well as an opportunity for parents and relatives to come in and see how their children are being educated. Three of my co-teachers and I, along with our principle went into Emily's class and observed.
The first noticeable difference (and the biggest) is that Emily has a beautiufl classroom filled with life size pictures of cities, a TV space for kids to come in and watch movies, a stage, microphone, sliding chalk and white boards and circle tables that enable the group mentality. While I taught with Emily during summer camp I definintely saw her classroom but now i've been here for four months, and every day I traipse about my school carrying whatever materials I need for class. EVERY. DAY. up stairs, down stairs, through cold corridors, amongst the masses of sweating and swearing students, oi it's tiring! The second noticeable thing is that Emily and her co-teacher worked like a team, each of them had a speaking part in the lesson and each of them worked off one another like a dream team. There are few things with Emily's situation that will not be applicable to me, like she only has 1 co-teacher (I think) whereas I have 8, and they have been teaching together for the last 8 months. So that won't be applicable but some people will try anything to maintain perfection.
SO today my principal called a meeting with the English teachers (I wasn't invited, i'm slightly bitter but I wouldn't have understood anyway so oh well I guess). During this meeting he informed them that he wanted us to read more and that he wanted my co-teachers to become more involved in my lessons. I wasn't there but i'm sure I heard a great sigh of depression emit from each of them. These teachers work their butts off every single day and one day a week all they had to do was translate the trickier parts of my lecture. Now they have yet another class to plan with someone that they don't really understand. Oi vey. Not only this, but i've not been teaching from a text book, instead i've been making up as I go, week by week. So now I also have to change how i'm teaching, what i'm teaching, and how I approach the kids.
So, while i'm actually pretty excited to work more closely with them (now maybe i'll be able to approach them and politely ask them to STOP SPEAKING KOREAN IN MY ENGLISH CLASS) and the fact that i'll actually be using a book like a normal teacher and not just some funky city-wide celebrity teacher with blonde sparkly hair from America; I'm also a little bit nervous and a lot bit apprehensive. They each have a different teaching style and a different idea about how and what I should teach. While I try to cater to each of them generally I just end up with a general lesson plan that I hope they can help mold to their own teaching styles; but now that I must teach with each of them i'm going to have to create 8 versions of my 1 lesson plan for 25 classes, 3 grades, and 2,700 students. holy jesus.
This is what I initally wanted...right? Cooperation and assistance...? eeep.
Anyeong!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Group Mentality?
So yesterday as I was leaving school I walked out the front door, some of my students started bellering "Teachah! Goodbye Teachah!" I turned around, smiled, and waved back at them. They started yelling "Teachah! Teachah!" I turned around again, "mo?" (what?) "Teachah! Where you from?" I looked at them disapprovingly and burst out in consternation, "Where am I from?!" the 15 3rd grade boys burst into smiles, then one of them started chanting "Migook! Migook!" (USA USA) another one started "USA! USA!" then a third boy looked at me quizzically "hug?" I stared back, my brain was scrambled and I didn't respond. They (of course) took that as a yes and 15 adolescent boys raised their arms and rushed towards me, they encircled me and began jumping up and down bellering "Migook! USA! Migook! USA!" I just burst into laughter and started jumping with them, I mean, what's a girl to do except join in?
Anyeong!
Anyeong!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Cold Hallways and Rice Tea
Two perplexing (more perplexing than usual) things about Korea are as follows:
1. They don't heat the hallways, only the classrooms. The government issued a mandate instructing public schools to save energy, so they only heat the classrooms (this fact was provided by my co-teachers, no idea how reliable it actually it). So basically I leave the teachers room, freeze on my trek to class because the windows are wide open, boil in the classroom because there are 35 sweating prepubescents nervous in front of me, and then freeze on my way back to my desk. It's deeply disturbing.
2. If they can make it out of rice they will. I am currently drinking rice tea, yes, rice tea. It's very interesting. I add sugar because it's not sweet at all so it kind of tastes like what would happen if you were to add water to rice after it's cooked, let it sit for a while and then drink only the water. Weird.
Anyeong!
1. They don't heat the hallways, only the classrooms. The government issued a mandate instructing public schools to save energy, so they only heat the classrooms (this fact was provided by my co-teachers, no idea how reliable it actually it). So basically I leave the teachers room, freeze on my trek to class because the windows are wide open, boil in the classroom because there are 35 sweating prepubescents nervous in front of me, and then freeze on my way back to my desk. It's deeply disturbing.
2. If they can make it out of rice they will. I am currently drinking rice tea, yes, rice tea. It's very interesting. I add sugar because it's not sweet at all so it kind of tastes like what would happen if you were to add water to rice after it's cooked, let it sit for a while and then drink only the water. Weird.
Anyeong!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Stomping, Squamping, It's all the same really.
Eunyeong- What is the sound of stepping? Squamping?
Molly- Do you mean stomping?
Eunyeong- Yes! Stomping…stomping…I thought squamping? I’m so silly!
Molly- Do you mean stomping?
Eunyeong- Yes! Stomping…stomping…I thought squamping? I’m so silly!
He brought his purse, I brought mine.
So I went on a date with a Korean man named Seung Heun last night. He brought his purse to dinner, I also brought my purse. I just love Koreans, the men are seriously the most ladylike men i've ever encountered. We literally walked, arms linked, through the streets with my purse dangling off my left shoulder and his "murse" (man purse) dangling off his right shoulder. If we had been anywhere else in the world people would have turned and stared, But not in Korealand! So we met up at (guess where?!) McDonalds, I took a different bus last night so I ended up being on the bus for about 45 minutes which is irritating to say the least. But I finally made it to Daccurri and we departed for dinner. Spaghetti dinner. I swear, every single Korean i've ever met takes their dates out for spaghetti, the spaghetti is always delicious but the worst part is that they serve pickles with their spaghetti! How's a girl supposed to enjoy her cream covered noodles of delight with seafood if there's a damned pickled in the middle of it all!? The sweetly vinegard morsel just sets off the whole meal. Anywho, I scarfed my pickles first and foremost and we chatted and chatted, my Korean is getting better so we speak about 30% Korean and 70% English and we both have to continually look up words in our dictionaries. It's actually quiet comical, I frequently feel like i'm on a date with a dictionary. After dinner we continued on with the typical Korean date and went to have wahpulls (waffles) and play Nintendo Wii. Because Korean dates frequently involve Wii i'm actually getting pretty darned good at Mario Bros! I might just have to invest in one? Anyway, i'm off to teach the Chicken Dance to my kids haha!
Anyeong!
Anyeong!
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