Same Same, but Different

Well yesterday's lesson was certainly less than original as I again taught the same material from Monday to two different classes. Tuesday was a bit different however in that I only had two classes, each of which were three hours long instead of two.

The nicest part of the day was that for the last hour of the first class and the first hour of the second class I was scheduled to grade essays rather than teach. I think they give this responsibility to the Native teachers as we are more familiar with grammar and sentence structure than the Korean teachers. . . if only they knew!

'Essays,' as it says on my scheduled was a great break that allowed me to get off my feet and out from under the pressure of teaching! I simply retreated to the Native Room where I had some quiet time to myself to think and grade.

The topic of this week's essay was, wouldn't you know, Qualities of a Good Teacher! At first I was excited as I expected to gain some valuable insight into what Korean students look for in a good teacher. . .little did I know what was coming!

Two qualities in particular showed up in just about every essay and more so in the less complex ones. The students asked for 'no homework,' as they already have enough homework from public school and academy. They also requested 'no tests' as they are very stressful and do not get much, if any sleep when there are tests.

While perhaps not quite as prevalent, two more salient topics were brought up, primarily by the more mature/developed essay writers. These students showed a trend of asking that their teachers not smell like bad cigarettes and more notably that they not hit them. Now this differs a bit, or so it sounds, from the canning that I witnessed in Ghana, often the result of a direct violation of rules or misconduct. The essays suggested that children are routinely beaten with "thick rods" for a number of reasons including not doing well on a test or, more often, because the teacher is drunk.

One student in particular wrote an extremely pertinent essay about how teachers show up smelling bad from cigarettes and crazy drunk from the soju and beer. They then in turn take our their craziness on the students by hitting them unfairly, to the point where one student was made deaf and another young girl had multiple open wounds. . . .

As heart wrenching as these essays were, it did offer some hope! It sounds like I might just posses the qualities that these kids are looking for in a good teacher! Especially since another frequently mentioned quality was humorous and a good personality! So it looks like all I have to do is lay of the cigarettes and soju from now on before coming to class if I really want to do my best!!

Not really sure what today holds as I'll be with a new teacher, Jun Jin Young, in a new class today. Perhaps a change of material?! But just when I was getting so good at the other lesson, darn!

Tonight should be a big night however as it has been talked about since the day we arrived. If I understand correctly, the boss, Mr. Song, will be taking everyone out for a 'meeting' after work. Now this doesn't sound like your typical corporate meeting as Moon Young was telling me about the meeting yesterday and asked if I could drink a lot because I would need to if we are to stay out with Mr. Song until 2 am as expected. . . .considering we are still just about dead at 10:30pm following work we'll see how this late night 'meeting' goes. . . and don't we all still have to show up for class the next day!?!

Should be an interesting day to say the least. . .everything is the same same, but different. . .as they say in Thailand!