Stop Looking At Me!! I Am Not A Monkey!

Alright- this is ridiculous now. I feel like I'm in a damn zoo (or joo, as my kid's call it, they can't say z yet). I know I'm white and blond and blue eyed and stand out a little here, but for god sakes, there's enough white people it shouldn't be THAT weird. I went to Costco grocery shopping last week and was so frustrated by the time I left, it was unbelievable. It took me so long to shop because people kept stopping and staring. Children were pointing- and when I looked to their parents to explain to the child it's rude to point- or to tell them it's okay to wave back to me, well- I discovered the root of the problem. The parents themselves are pointing and staring at me. To make matters worse, we're at Costco, so I've got this enormous carts and can't manipulate the damn thing around all the staring, pointing parents. For some reason they are also very interested in what white people eat and kept blocking my way and staring into my cart. Maybe it's because I'm from Canada, and we're pretty diverse. I just don't understand it. In any event, any future grocery shopping will be done with sunglasses and baseball cap.

• Alright, that said- I suppose I should talk about my job since many people are asking. I didn't understand why friends of mine who taught English never talked about their jobs. Now I know- there's not a whole lot to say... It is by far the best job I've ever had- it pays well, time flies by, the kids are great and I actually feel like they're learning something. A far cry from my Montreal profession as 'waitress', the job is fulfilling. I teach eleven classes of kids- ranging in age from four to fifteen and I have no more than eight kids in any class. So the actual teaching varies alot. My four year olds didn't speak a word of English when I got here, and in fact, didn't understand that I didn't speak Korean. They thought I was being difficult by not responding when they talked to me. Now, a month and a half later- they're starting to talk a bit. They know Please and Thank You and Help Me. One of them told me to "Hold on a minute," the other day and I almost died. I hadn't heard a full sentence out of any of them before that. With that class, I read them the same story every day for a month. Eventually they start to understand and repeat some parts of it back to me and my head just wants to explode from reading Who Says Woof? twenty times in a month... My five year olds are the smartest kids I've ever met. They blow me away. It's amazing how much difference a year makes at that age. They all speak near perfect English and only have a slight accent. Although they do still say joo, instead of zoo... which is pretty funny. With that class, I whip through three books in a month and spend most of my forty minute classes trying to waste time cause they finish everything so fast. I have to admit that their my favorites, and of course being me, I find the girls too princessy (which they are) and the boys hilarious. I'm trying to curb my favoritism, but it's hard. Ryan (the cutest/smartest/hardest to handle) asked me the other day if I made my spaghetti in Canada. I explained to him- again- that I don't go back to Canada every night, I stay in Korea. And he looked at me and asked why I told him when I came that I 'live' in Canada, and not 'lived'... damn five years olds and their attention to grammar... As I mentioned before, I also teach them science class, origami (which is always interesting), arts and craft and gym. Origami usually means that I make eight butterflies, stars, baskets or what have you and pass them out and the kids get excited that 'they' made it. They love science class, but think that it's magic and refuse to listen when I try to explain why the experiment works. It's like telling a five year old there's no Santa Claus, they just won't believe it. And despite my best efforts, gym class with the four year olds is a gong show and I've given up teaching them. I give them a ball and let them go at it. So that's my day from 9am to 3pm. Then the afternoon kids come storming in and that's just completely different. They're mostly older and come either Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday... and of course, with 3 hours of English a week and attending nine or ten other schools, they retain as much English as many Canadians do French. And this is where my problem classes lie. Because it's an (expensive) private school, parents want the sun, the moon and the stars. They wonder why little Billy can read and write English but can't speak. Well, because he doesn't talk in class, he just reads out loud and then class is done. My boss was very excited when I started and asked me to do role play with the kids to improve their spoken English, but said he still wanted me to get through the books in the normal time or parents would be mad. So, I don't do role play 'cause the last five minutes of class just isn't cutting it and there's no point. Classes mostly involved reading a short story and answering some simple questions about it. I recently discovered, however, that many of these kids are not even here to learn. They are there because it is fashionable to say that your children attend English school. Difficult to believe, but true. English school rates up there with Prada sunglasses, Louis Vitton purses and Burberry scarves in Korea. This also explains the non-sensical English we find everywhere. My deer-in-the-headlights kid, Paul has a pencil case (made by one of the largest Korean companies- in fact, made by the makers of Peppero) - that says "All I want to do is making love to you." I can only assume they meant something different...

  My boss is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and being an accountant... well, he's a little cheap. So things that make sense to the average person, such as turning the heat on when it gets below freezing- just don't occur to him. So, he spends the week chatting up parents at the school, trying to convince them that this is the best school for their child for the next school year, as teachers and students pass by the office wearing their winter jackets and huge furry slippers... Personally, if I were paying 600$ a month for my kid's kindergarten, I would be mad if the school tried to cheap out on heat. But maybe that's just me.

  All that said, it is a good job- sometimes frustrating, but in the end, I get paid regardless of why the kids are there, so it's not my problem. If anyone's thinking of teaching in Korea, let me know and I'll tell you what to watch out for. I've learned a lot about the way things work here over the last couple months, and would have negociated some things in my contract differently if I had known better. Basically, you just need to remember that they're desperate for teachers here, so you can pick and choose and play them against each other. Hope this helps, for anyone who's thinking about it...

  In closing, I have just received word from my computer-smart friend, Dave, that in fact you can reach my photos directly without signing into to flickr - so- the link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/14265677@N00/ . Sorry for any confusion- I am none too good with computers... Secondly, to those of you who have already accused me of only posting boring pictures, well I'm sorry muffin- I thought for a second that culture and history could be interesting- but I guess they're not. Just kidding. For my next posting, I promise to include funny English mistakes and pictures of all things Samsung.