Shannon teacher

Hi everyone-
Sorry I haven't written in awhile, but this week has been killer. After going to orientation on Tuesday, I observed at least 12 classes a day Wednesday and Thursday. Friday I started teaching. I am SO glad it's the weekend. A few notes about the school...
The school I teach at is called a hagwon. These are very popular in South Korea. A hagwon is a place students come either before or after their regular public school to learn english. Students work very hard here (nothing like the U.S.) in that their days of learning start early, around 8 a.m., and don't finish until 9 or so at night (if not later). This is because the university system here is very competitive. To get a good job, you must have come from a good university, and getting into one depends on ONE test score. This test is given only once a year. All students must take it on that day. If you're sick, too bad. You wait until the next year. It's very strict, there are no make-up tests or re-takes. Plus, getting into the university is completely dependant on that test result, regardless of what your grades were or if your teachers liked you. This is why Koreans study hard from kindergarten to high school. A little pressure, huh?

Anyway, my hagwon is k-middle school. Classes start at 10am (kindy who may go to an afternoon Korean kindergarten) and don’t finish til 9pm. Usually the students take 2 class periods there, one from a native English speaker, and one from a Korean English teacher. Half of our staff are native speakers (most are from Canada), and the other half are Koreans who speak English as a second language. It is good to have them teaching because they can teach things like grammar in Korean so the students can understand it better.

I start at 10:40 (MWF) or 11:20 (TTH). I usually finish 7:30 pm. Classes are 40 minutes long and have 5 minute breaks in between. I usually teach 7 classes per day, but not straight through. I have some long breaks. My first 2 classes are kindergarten. My first class is 5 year olds (age 6 in Korean), and my second class is 4 year olds (age 5 in Korean). Koreans count age differently than the US. You are 1 year old the moment you are born here. I guess living here I’m closer to 30 than I thought!

The class size is 12 students max. That even feels like too many. Especially when the students are young. My 4 and 5 year olds are uncontrollable. There are many naughty children in there, but they are just being kids. What really makes it hard is that they are just learning to speak English, but for the most part they have no idea what I’m saying. If they are doing something wrong, I can’t really explain it to them. I use a lot of body language and “looks”. It gets easier with my older classes. I have several classes in which they’re 7-10 yrs, and they’ve had English for several years. There is a basic understanding. They also tend to be better behaved. All in all, I have about 100 students.

How do I remember their names, you ask? Each child is assigned an English name given by their Korean teacher. What’s funny about this is that the Korean English teacher may have spelled the name by how it sounds to them. For example, one of my students names is “Poe”, this is supposed to be Paul, but oh well. There are many instances like this. SO when I go around and say “my name is Shannon, what’s your name?” I write in on the board, they think I’m the idiot when I spell Poe “P-A-U-L”. They call me Shannon teacher. Koreans tend to name by rank. Someone explained to me that Koreans call the manager “Manager” instead of Sarah, and “Supervisor” instead of “Angie”. So instead of “Ms. Ahrndt” they call me “Shannon teacher”.

Another funny thing is that these students don’t see many Westerners. So of course they all come up and inspect me like I’m an alien or something. One 6-year old who was inspecting said “your head is long, cucumber”, and then she laughed (along with the others who were around). Then in the same conversation another girl said “nose long, Pinocchio” I said “well, your nose is short, bitch” (ok, ok, so I didn’t...). I guess they aren’t used to seeing these differences so I have to be tolerant.

All in all, it will definitely be a challenge but the good thing is that 1) lesson plans are already there for me, 2) there are other native speakers who can help me out, and 3) the kids are pretty cute and loving at times (as you can see in the photos).