Marcie Teacher

First day of teaching in Korea.

Omg. I just had my first day of teaching English in Korea…wow I am so tired! Overall it was a great experience but I do feel like I was just taught how to swim by being thrown in water. In the morning time I teach 3 classes, blossom, olive, maple. Then we break for lunch and then I teach/play a learning game with maple, olive, blossom class. The students were very excited to meet me and to tell me about themselves. The funniest thing though is that they call me Marcie Teacher, even the staff call me teacher, sometime when they are talking to me instead of saying “you do this…” they will say “teacher do this…” It can get a little confusing. In the blossom class I have a very involved Korean speaking teacher which I think is helpful; in my olive class the Korean teacher is more hands off. The students in blossom and olive are about the same level. The students in the maple class are very young 4/5 years old.

This morning I was given a book and I was told you teach this okay. I was kind of wondering why they didn’t give it to me sooner, but it worked out okay. The only thing though, was that I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to teach the maple students something different so I was teaching these poor students something way too advanced for them…oops :/ we caught on about half way through the lesson.

Lunch time was kind of cool, the school makes the lunch for the students but the students bring these empty bento boxes with locking lid, for us to serve their food in, complete with chopsticks of course. I am doing pretty well with eating Korean food. I haven’t eaten anything that has made me sick (yet) and I have tried lots of new things and even things that I thought I wouldn’t like. I haven’t gone to the grocery store yet. I really should just go but the thought seems a little overwhelming. I might ask my teacher Ester to come with me one day this week after work. She is super nice I love her already. 

Later in the afternoon I had the older elementary students, they are called Yale, Oxford, Harvard, Cornell. Yale and Oxford are the same level, this class seems along the same lines of when I was student teaching French, have a book with text, listen the tape reading it, read it together as a class, some listening comprehension questions etc. The Harvard class is a the most advanced, I’m not really sure how much teaching I really do in this class, it is more grammar focused; like today they worked in their workbook and we went over the answers. The Cornell class is more challenging, they are older students but this is their first year learning English, it is very hard to keep them on task. This is a class where I wish I had a Korean teacher to help me keep the kids in check. However at the same time the material/ text that they are supposed to be learning is not at their level. Like today I was working on animals, and I was supposed to explain the difference between mammals, insects, reptiles, birds, fish etc. One of the questions was Which class of animals doesn’t have a backbone or skeleton? And this was the question I was supposed to be asking, they don’t know what a backbone/skeleton is and they sure as heck weren’t watching or listening to find out.

After school was over the staff had a little party for me. They even had a cake! It actually was a really good cake, I was surprised because I thought Korean bakery goods weren’t going to be very good. However I think this was from a French bakery. Also I successfully ate my piece of cake with chopsticks! Yes you heard me right I ate my cake, with surprising ease, with chopsticks! I also gave the teachers the gifts I brought them from Oregon, I got them jam and chocolate from the made in Oregon store. The chocolate had pictures of Oregon on it, which was a big hit : )

I still haven’t gotten used to the time difference, it isn’t terrible but I keep waking up super early. Like this morning I woke up at like 5 or 6 I think. I could seriously go to bed right now but I feel like I need to stay up in order to get my body on the right time. I might watch a movie or read a book for a while or organize my closet a little beat. And knowing that I have to do it all again tomorrow is just making me want to go to bed sooner…granted I know that hearing so much Korean and everything being new and different is making everything more tiring, once I get through the first week I will be good. I just need to experience everything once then I will know what is expected of me.

Alright I love you all.

Random question: if any of you have any children songs that you can email me I would love you forever. I totally spaced and forgot to copy my mom’s music :/ *hint hint mom*