I am taking a look back at my life so far as we have now passed the seven-month mark from my arrival in Korea.
My life in Korea over the past 7 months (what? really?) has been, for lack of a more poignant cliche, a roller-coaster ride. It is a wild notion to me when looking back over the whole span of time that there was ever a point in my life where I knew little to nothing about Korea at all. I used to know we fought in a war here once, though I was always vaguely unsure who we were fighting for or with. I just knew a lot of people had died for a cause that many other Americans at the time didn't deem worthy of American lives, so it was all steeped in some controversy, much like the Vietnam War (still know little to nothing about that). There was a point in my life where I couldn't read the Korean alphabet as smoothly as the English alphabet, yet now I can't look at a Korean word and unsee exactly as it should be pronounced. I am in no means fluent, but I have gotten to the basic conversation stage of the language and can somewhat comfortably take taxis and easily order food at restaurants without batting an eye. And there was a point in my life 7 months ago when such a reality seemed impossible to me. Laughable even. Yet, here I am, 나주에 영어 선생님 이에요! (That says, "An English teacher in Naju").
My teaching, while at first daunting, demoralizing, and down-right difficult, has transformed into a thoroughly pleasant, even positively challenging, experience. I have grown to love my students and devote a great deal of my time, energy, and thought into their well-being and happiness. Their English is limited, and I love them all the more for it; They tried their hardest to communicate with me inside and outside of the classroom because they want to get to know me or be my friend, and I seem to have made some impact on them because they were all thoroughly distraught when a rumor spawned from miscommunication resulted in the entire student body believing I was permanently moving to Japan right after Christmas, never to see them again. I should explain...
Like a large version of the game telephone, I had told one student I was visiting Japan for a week to see my best friend and former college roommate Richard. Well, this student heard "Japan" and "going" and assumed that I was leaving for good to Japan. A week later on my last day of school, everyone was thoroughly miffed at me with no explanation. I finally got it out of a female student who speaks decent English and did my best to clarify to as many students as I could, though I barely scratched the surface of my 350+ student body. Let's just say there will be many happy students when they see me walk into school March 3rd.
I do love teaching more than I originally though I would after a month here and for different reasons than I thought as well. I have quickly learned that the happiness of a teacher is largely derived from the happiness of the students. My students, generally, are unhappy in their education. And why shouldn't they be? They go to school everyday from 8-10 p.m., eat lunch and dinner at school, go to extra school on the weekends, and study for three years (the length of high school here) to take the Soonung, a 9 hour test on 10 different subjects that single-handedly determines the rest of their lives. That being said, my job first and foremost to my particular students is to be the fun. I see each class one time a week and get 50 minutes with them. That is 50 minutes in their entire week of schooling that they get to have fun with me. It isn't much, but for a lot of them it is the highlight of their week. Therefore, I make my class fun. We play games, I show American dramas (they all are addicted to the show "LOST" now), and overall I get them to practice what little English they know however I can. Building confidence is the ends, and doing it with laughter is the means. This all sounds quite... self-praising, but I am learning how to do my job and making good connections with my students.
On the end of their semester surveys, I got a lot of surprisingly confident feedback from students. I asked them their favorite lesson and what they liked and didn't like about my class (99% of students wrote things like "Oh no teacher, class perfect!", though one kid did write "your face"...). It was surprising to see how many of them gave me "A++++++++++" or ""S grades (S seems to be a thing here as a grade - Still don't get it), and one male student who was generally quiet with poor English skills wrote, "Thank you teacher for a funny class. I found the laugh what once I had lost" (I attribute the poetic nature of his second sentence to his shaky English, but I find it beautiful nonetheless). So overall, I think I am doing a good job :)
Other parts of my life seem to be good too.
I am about three quarters of the way through my 2 month paid vacation, and I feel utterly lazy and useless at this point, having spent the past 3 days doing literally nothing constructive. The break has been nice, but I am getting antsy to do something constructive and teach again. For the month of January I lived in Seoul in my own apartment and studied Korean language with some friends at one of the 3 top universities in Korea, Seoul National University. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and was one of the best scorers in my level, but I ultimately failed the course for attendance reasons as I was late too many days. I don't care in the least because I do not need the college credit for anything, and I still received a certificate of excellence which proves my merit, but most importantly I learned a lot and improved, which is encouraging. Next week I will teach a winter English camp at a friend's high school and then go to Busan, the second largest city in Korea, for a two day getaway. It will be my last hoorah in terms of travels. That will about wrap up my break, and I begin teaching again March 3rd. Just around the corner!
Whew, that was a lot, but for the most part you are caught up now. I will blog again once school begins and I have a few weeks under my belt. Thanks for reading!
All the best,
David
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