Nothing to do at school today. Weird.

Once again I am sitting in my office without classes for the day. Today is nationwide testing for seniors. It is a big deal for them because this makes or breaks their college career, something they and their parents have been preparing for since they started kindergarten. I don't have any seniors at my school, so my students just have a day off. But lucky me, I still have to come in to school even though there are only four of us here. So with the extra time on my hands I thought I would update my blog.

This may be a long post, so grab a cup of coffee and carry on my wayward reader.

I've written a bit about school, but let me share a bit more about my daily classes. I technically teach seven different classes each week. My classes consist of: a regular English class for advanced students, a regular English class for beginning-level students, an optional culture and activity class, English conversation club, Korean English teachers class, English class for non-English Korean teachers, and an English class for parents. I end up seeing each student one to two times per week.

I try to focus on speaking in my regular English classes. In the beginning-level classes my students can barely form sentences when speaking. Instead they shout out random words that I can hardly understand because their accents are so thick. You would never know they have had nine years of English training.

In my optional culture and activity class I choose a theme each week and we usually do activities centered around that theme. I end up changing lessons once every two weeks. So when I prepare these lessons, I make sure that I am as interested in the topic as the students are because I have to teach the lesson for two weeks.

My English conversation club is the light of my life here at Incheon Mansu High School. I meet with 8-10 students twice a week. There are two different classes, so I see the same students once per week. The club is made up of the best English speakers in the high school. I usually let them choose the subject each week and then I prepare an activity about the topic. Most of these students can actually carry on a conversation so I feel like I've actually established a relationship with most of these students. This past week I taught them the card game "Bullshit" (excuse my language) but told them it was called "I doubt it". I've never seen students so excited. They LOVED the game and it forced them to speak English most of the time. You can see pictures of me and one of my conversation classes in my photo album on the sidebar. Also, I don't have a co-teacher watching over me during this class so I have more freedom. I think that
is one of the reasons I enjoy the class so much.

Usually the other English teachers are so busy so I rarely meet with them for their class. Sometimes I will correct their teaching materials or they will ask me random questions about the English language. The other day I had a 20 minute conversation with Peter about the passive voice in English. Another time he asked me about the expression "wearing the pants in the family". Once he read me a bunch of jokes and asked me why exactly they were meant to be funny. Today he asked me about the phrase "beginner's luck". He really likes to throw random idioms into his speech and then ask me about them. He loves to refer to a student who "sleeps like a log" in every class of mine. Today he asked me if playing the piano was my "cup of tea".

I have only taught the English class for Korean teachers once. I am supposed to have the class every Friday and it seems like something comes up every Friday and they can't attend. I'm disappointed because the one time I had it I realized their English is much better than they let on and most of them can carry on a conversation with me. I was not aware of this because most of them do not speak to me during the day.

I have five mothers that attend my parents' English class. They are so cute. Their English pronunciation is horrible but they try so hard. Their English is very limited. I don't have a co-teacher with me during this class either, so sometimes it is difficult for me to communicate with them. They bring me presents almost every time we have class so I enjoy them a lot also.

I have three English co-teachers. Peter is my main co-teacher and is kind of in charge of me. I've described him before. He is incredibly helpful and a nice man, but sometimes I get annoyed with the way men over the age of 40 act in Korea. It is still a male dominated society and respect is a big deal here. Peter often tells me what to do and I am expected to do it. Namyi is one of my other co-teachers. She is 28 and not married. I have hung out with her outside of school once. We keep meaning to get together again but teachers work insane hours here so we can't always find a time. I enjoy teaching with her the most because we have similar teaching styles, probably because we're both young. My other co-teacher is Ms. Ok (I don't know her first name...ooops). Her office is upstairs so I rarely see her except when I teach with her. She is in her thirties and married with two children. She is very nice, but her English is definitely the
worst of my three co-teachers. Sometimes I have a difficult time understanding her.

It is now time for me to head home for the day. Overall this has been a rather productive day. I just performed my tae kwon do routine for a few teachers who are here. I am horrible at tae kwon do, but they all had good things to say. One teacher said I looked very powerful, another told me it was perfect, and they all said I excel at tae kwon do. I ate some delicious black noodles for lunch (a "Chinese" dish), Peter and I went to the bank to transfer money home, I sat on Facebook for hours, I listened to Korean pop music, I wrote three blog posts, I discussed the merits of evaluating teachers in the U.S. with Peter and another teacher, I had real coffee (a rarity in this office), I ate a sweet potato "for dessert", I talked about the lottery with my vice principal, and I didn't do any lesson planning. Good job me!