There once was a supervisor and once upon a time she decreed that there would be a Hangeul (Korean written language) test. She made some books and she made a test. Then she made us take it. Here's the video made by the reporters that "may" be at the test. Two TV programs showed the video in slightly different versions, so here they both are.
If you've seen one... you've not seen Theresa :)
In the interest of this blog being somewhat understandable; I'll start with me! I'm an EPIK Teacher in Taebaek City, Gangwon Province, South Korea.
Being an English teacher in a small city (town really) means smaller schools and smaller classes. That's a big advantage, particularly as no-one in my school wants me to go anywhere, so I don't have another school to teach at. I was told the other day that the Principal gets "worried" anytime I leave the school. He must have had a heart attack when I came back from my one day visit to Kaeseong, North Korea and said "Guess where I went on the weekend!"
Today has been pretty typical, I have one scheduled class and one *bonus* conversation class. I just found out that my normal class is cancelled due to the province wide exams that will be happening next Thursday. I'm cool with that. None of my material is tested and there is enormous pressure on these kids (my students) to achieve 100% in the exams.
But there is an issue with cancelling my classes.. I get bored. Very bored. What to do? Well there's facebook to mess around on, then there are the wedding videos that I've been making (on pause until I complete my hard drive upgrade), Aussie newspapers to read, skype chat with Mike, games to play, oh and yes - lessons to plan. The trouble is that with being bored is that I'm just not motivated to prepare some lessons. So far today, I've made some photocopies of a lesson that's completely ready to go and started on making an answer sheet for the next picture story. I've also read the news, spent a little time on Facebook and played 5 games. What will happen when I move back to Australia? I'm currently not expected to work much and so have formed the expectation that I don't need to do much work at all.
Does this mean I'm lazy in the classroom? Heck NO! I love the time that I have with my students and I give it my all when I'm in the classroom. When I'm teaching I feel alive and I really feel that I'm doing something that's not just for my own financial gain. These students don't deserve a second rate education and it's programs like EPIK that can make a difference. At least I have the delusion that it's possible.
But the staffroom? Am I lazy in the staffroom? When the students are in their classes? I may as well bring in a pillow and have a sleep. I wonder if my toy Kangaroo would be comfortable?
I've been away.. from my blog. There is so much that's happened since my last proper post that I'm not sure where to start. And not being sure where to start has given me the excuse to procrastinate. A lot.
So to bring you kind-of sort-of up to date; here goes.
I've been to Australia, caught up with some friends and family. Missed quite a few people and met other friends in person for the first time. I played the tourist in Tasmania and found it to be a beautiful place filled with absolute sweethearts. (Course can't tell the guys that they are the sweethearts probably ruining their macho rep.)
We went up to the blue mountains with family. Enjoyed the wood fires and the food, oh sigh the food!!! Finally got around to finishing the tennis grudge match against my brother, turns out he's quite good at sledging but not so good at finishing out a long game of tennis. I won by the way! Yeah me!!
We ate Galbi and Samgyeobsal with my Dad and brother. It wasn't all that bad for Korean food but the surprise on the waitress' face when Mike asked for Denjangjjigae was priceless!
I coloured my hair pink. It was going to be a hilarious surprise for Mike but he decided to visit me at the hairdressers - while I had black looking goo on my head. You win some, you lose some...
We got back to Taebaek, packed up our apartment and ran off to Orientation. We had a brilliant five days getting to know all the new people. Which concluded with our wedding anniversary. The ACs (Alex's Cronies) got together and organised a cake, a speech, some red wine. It was lovely. I almost cried but thankfully didn't! I made the video to show what Orientation was like. Everyone liked it. Or they told me they did...
We had major dramas with our new massage parlour apartment and ended up being moved into a second new apartment. Our new place has crappy water pressure and is an extra 10 minutes out of town and we can smell the pig farms when the wind blows the right way. However the new place is lovely, we have great big windows so we can see our view (across the valley and up the mountain), it's quiet in a way that is relaxing and I finally have my own desk!! Anyone who suggests that Mike & I could possibly share a desk doesn't know Mike very well!
Last month I had to teach a demo class, which means I get to be watched and scrutinized. However many of the teachers that should have been there didn't turn up so it was less of an event for me. The teachers that were there thought I did a wonderful job with my co-teacher and that we had actually demonstrated team teaching. Which was fantastic as I wasn't all that worried if we showed a good example, I was trying to show different activities that could be used successfully in the classroom.
Last weekend was the Kotesol conference, it was full of books, lectures, publishers, writers and English teachers. Mike & I ended up with some heavy bags and I'm hoping that we'll be able to put these new materials to good use. I can but hope.
Being in Seoul means there's always a party to go to and last Saturday night was no exception. Mike & I enjoyed a spot of decent thai food before joining up with everyone at Geckos in Itaewon, Seoul. While walking over, I slipped on my pink angel wings as I figured I may as well dress up for a Halloween party. I'd already applied the glitter so I was ready to go. We found the bar and just before we headed upstairs, we stopped to watch a sneaky spiderman scaring people with his web (a piece of netting). I was amazed that people kept walking past a tree where large group of people were standing around laughing. It was all in good fun and the scarees seemed to think it funny too. So we joined up with approximately 35 EPIKers from Gangwon-do and had a great time. I chatted with people, met some gorgeous Korean women, took a bunch of photos then surrendered my camera to Mike and myself to the dance floor. There are quite a few photos that I was surprised (to say the least) to see when I downloaded the contents of the memory card. I'm sure you can work out which is which!
That's as much as I'm willing to talk about now :)
