I say this because I am teaching kindergarten, which I
didn’t want to do, at all, but you kind of have to, especially to secure your
first job teaching in South Korea. And
you’re in a country with a hard-on for youth and inexperience. Despite my
initial reservations due to not being the Barney or high-energy-type who has
the desire or patience to sing and dance like a clown for little tornadoes of
energy, I figured it’s still going to be good experience, and I was keeping an
open mind that I might actually enjoy it.
But my very first class helped prove that my self-awareness
was too accurate for that to happen.
First, part of teaching in South Korea is that things tend
to be thrown at you very last-minute, hence after a 30 minute tour of the
school, I was given my schedule and herded over to teach my first class.
Naturally there was no observation time, just me and 4, 6-year old boys (the
Elmo class). Another thing it’s important for you to know is that a Korean
child’s life kind of sucks. Starting from around age 4 or so, they are usually
in school from 8 AM to about 8 or 9 PM Monday through Friday, though frequently
Saturday as well. There is a truly ridiculous but rampant belief throughout
Asia that simply forcing a child to sit in a classroom will imbue them with
knowledge. Stick a teacher in there, and they should learn much more, faster.
Memorizing is the really the name of the game here, which they think is
learning, and playing is fun, learning isn’t, so playtime, play learning,
recess, anything that children naturally want to do and should be doing, these
kids have very little, if any, chance to do. Daily when we’re greeting the
students when I ask a 5 or 7-year-old how they are, they say tired. What child
is tired at 10 AM!?
Sadly, every child but the 4 in my class. I have them about
twice a day every day for 35 minutes each class. They make me dread going to
work, just those boys. There are 2 in particular who are the biggest little
thorns in my side: Ian and Eric. Ian would be especially adorable were it not
for the fact that between him & Eric I spend half the class telling them to
stop running, sit down, get out from under the table, stop running, be quiet,
read, leave his book alone…. Punishment is having them stand against the wall,
which Ian refuses to do, usually resulting in me eventually helping him do so,
followed by him saying, “TeacherI’msorryteacherI’msorryteacherI'msorry,” as
soon as he is up. Ian is also a constant whiner. "Teacher my eraserrrrrrr, teacher my eraserrrrr!" because
1.) it's gone, or
2.) he's lost it.
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| Ian: we were at a field trip to a tea ceremony, so he was wearing Korean formal wear, and looking very serious because for once he seemed to appreciate he needed to be on his best behavior. |
The one benefit to this age is that they know standing is
punishment, and even worse is standing outside (unless you’re Eric and can
resort to dancing in front of the glass-wall of the classroom). We teachers
write biweekly progress reports to each child’s parent, which is the euphemism
for lie because we are only allowed to say the children are precious little
angels/geniuses/models of good behavior. There really aren’t any real
repercussions to not doing their work or behaving, because bad grades and
intimations that they are raising a problem child will cause the parent to pull
their student and their money.
If the students do something good, we put a smiley face next to their name. 3 smileys and they get a banana sticker which apparently once a year they can use to buy things from some market the school creates for the kids. (In elementary school it's stamps, and they always just hand me their stamp sheets. I assumed it was some sort of attendance thing until week 2 I said something and Kiara said, "Oh, yeah, I should have told you," and explained the stamps are the banana stickers for elementary kids... and about how the kids use them at this market. Because why would you tell someone that before?). Except for yesterday because 2 kids had their books out when I came in, for example, I hadn't given out any banana stickers in about 2 weeks. But I take them if the kids get 3-4 frowning faces OR I write their name 4 times because they've been speaking in Korean.
My one comfort is that the whole Elmo class, and Eric and
Ian in particular, try the patience of every teacher in the school, even the
assistant principal and native teacher, Anna-teacher. Every morning before
class the kids are all gathered into a room and sing some songs, stretch, and
generally warm-up for English. I watched as Anna-teacher had to send Eric to
stand against the wall, and he continued to dance as he always does. Eventually
she had him stand outside.
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| This is how Eric smiles for anyone at the school who's taking a picture of him, including for the month of January birthday party, where he was a guest of honor. As you can see, his charisma and charm gets him far with all the teachers. |
I do have one other kindergarten class in the mornings, the
Clifford class: Jessica, Lydia, and this ADORABLE, happy little boy named
Prathit. I believe Clifford is 5, except for Prathit, who’s 4. Naturally
because there are girls in the class, the chaos quotient is cut by 2/3.
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| One of the sweetest students we have, Prathit. Referencing the aforementioned charms of Eric, one of them is hating all brown people, so he will move to another table if Prathit sits by him at lunch time. Racism is rampant and unapologetic in Asia. |
Oh, I should add that I have now had/made both Jessica and
Lydia cry in class. Jessica because I (now) know she can’t read, and when I
asked her to read and she said no, I thought she was just being difficult. Even
after hugs and apologies she just wouldn’t calm down. She had to go sit for the
next 30 minutes with the receptionist before she calmed down. Then on Friday
Lydia start sobbing because I said we were going to read a story
one more time because there are a lot of new words. She didn’t want us to, I
said we were going to, and off she went. “Christ, not again,” I thought. I
asked her if it was because I wanted us to read again. *shakes head;* is it
because she wanted to read? *shakes head;* is she afraid I’m mad at her? *shakes
head;* Finally, out of options I said, “Do you want a hug?” She nodded and cried
herself out for a good 3 more minutes before she was ok and things went back to
normal.
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| Lydia |
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| Jessica |
Of course, kids cry and pitch fits. And I worried a little that I was too stern with them, until I learned
how overly dramatic Korean students are. Yesterday we had an all-school
practice for graduation which is at the end of February. Kiara was lining the
kids up, tallying who was gone: “John’s absent… Krystal’s still crying….”
Krystal, 7 years old, was gone for a good 20 minutes crying. Kiara and Sara both mentioned
how dramatic the students here are, so, it isn’t just me. In any event, during
the rehearsal Lydia was pretending she was a cat, knelt next to me, and hugged my leg and leaned her head against me for much of rehearsal. So I guess all is forgiven.
In the afternoons the elementary school kids come in. One
class I was told are brilliant, but when asking them to do their in-class
activity that consisted of underlining the present and past tense verbs, the
class acted confused and underlined “and” and “or” in addition to/instead of
the verbs. I was alarmed at how confused they seemed, how slowly we then
progressed and then fell behind. When I talked to June the owner, I was assured
the kids definitely knew what verbs were and are very smart. Initially she
thought maybe they couldn’t understand me, and were trying to take advantage of
my being new by acting confused. It wasn’t until it kept happening and I talked
to Kiara-teacher that I was told, first by her then also by June, that Leslie
used to just write the answers for their in-class activities on the board. Not
only that, but I definitely have to do that so they catch up, because they
can’t fall behind.
So then I realized they’re not really learning and I’m not
necessarily improving at teaching, so there’s no
it’s-so-rewarding-working-with-kids, young and eager to learn. I decided it was
time to accept that all anyone wanted from me was to give me money to be a
glorified babysitter, so that’s just what I am going to do. I’m done worrying
about researching games that won’t require anything that the boys can use as a
weapon (read: anything) and engage them enough to trick them into learning and
stem the mayhem. I’m focusing on remaining calm inside and taking no moment of
my day seriously.
To add to the joy of all THIS, I get the other thing I
despise about new jobs: not knowing how things are done and not knowing how or
what to do. I absolutely hate the new-job learning curve. Meaning right now Jen
is not experiencing much joy during the day. There are 2 other native teachers:
Kiara-teacher, and Sara-teacher. Oh, and before I go any further, whenever
Kiara spoke of other teachers, it was always their name-teacher. Even outside
of school. So I’m doing it too because it’s what you do and how you refer to
other teachers and introduce yourself to students. It’s considered respectful.
Anyway, Kiara-teacher is somewhat helpful but not super-warm/into
socializing. This may be because in her youthful enthusiasm she was bombarding
me pre-trip with the very basics of going-to-another-country. Shit that anyone
who’s ever gone anywhere knows. Like, “You should get some Korean money before
you come. They use the won. But they do take credit cards too!” And I was
receiving these emails while still getting plenty of emails about last-minute
preparing-to-leave stuff. I finally said I appreciated her help but I was a
seasoned traveler and knew all of what she was telling me, and to essentially
lay-off. So it occurred to me today that, being young and self-centered, she
likely took that personally, whereas I only meant, stop telling me that I
should bring prescriptions with me when I’ve been traveling longer than you’ve
been alive, but DO give me details about the school, or helpful hints for
dealing with the students. The other teacher, Sara-teacher, seems really nice,
but likewise has her own life outside of school and not much more inclination
to invite me anywhere. I’ve seen no other Westerns anywhere here, and while I
have started studying Korean, I’m still only 1/2 way through the alphabet and
know… only how to say, “hello,” “thank you,” “quiet,” and “sit down.” Heh heh.
So befriending Koreans isn’t really going to happen quite yet.
So! I still have the whole this-past-weekend to write about,
but quite honestly today was busy: after reading the news, I tested my new
no-internet-GPS map directions to find a train station that is closer than the
one near work; grocery shopping; put away laundry; cooked lunch & dinner
for today and then dinner for Monday & Wednesday, my 2 late days. And some
limes (LIMES!!!!!!!), so the expensive bottle of Bombay in my freezer is
looming larger and larger than your boundless curiosity about Jen in Korea. So
until… next weekend? Adieu/anyeong ga-something-o, which I THINK is goodbye in Korean.
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| In case you wanted to see the rest of Elmo, this is Allen. He is the most studious of them all, and will complete all assignments asked. He has a speech impediment which we're not sure if his parents do or don't acknowledge (because another benefit to being a Korean child is if you need classes or have a learning disability, the parents will deeply deny it rather than get their kids whatever help they might need. |
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| Jayden. Interestingly, this is how he looks all day, every day. |
