Labels: The life of Brian
Gung Hay fat choy!
Happy new year!
As I think most people have heard by now, according to Chinese astrology, this is year of the pig. Some people thought it was the year of the Golden pig, and that it was a huge deal that only comes around only every 600 years or so. Then it came out that it wasn't the Golden pig at all. This is the year of the fire pig. (mmm...barbecued pig!) The latest I hear is that the whole golden pig rumor was started by "the government" (whose government they didn't say) in an effort to boost declining birth rates. You knew there had to be a government conspiracy in there somewhere.
I don't know about any of that. But I will say the golden pig has had an auspicious effect on my blog statistics. See, way back in September 2005 I wrote a short entry about some bankers who came into our school office and left some golden piggy banks as a sales promotion. I snapped a picture of one with my camera phone and put it up on the blog. Well, now if you do a Google image search on the phrase "Golden Pig" the third image that appears is my glittered little piggy bank. I daresay it's the most famous golden damn pig on the Internet! Over the past few months I've noticed my daily hit count steadily increasing, and almost all of them were courtesy of the gold pig. Yesterday I had 32 hits, which is a record for me. I know some blogs get more hits in one day than mine has had in its entire lifespan, but still...
2008 is the year of the rat, Wikipedia says the elements associated with it are earth and fire, so I guess I'll have to start now taking pictures of rats. Eww.
Labels: life in Korea, Meta-blogging
Anyway, I hope you like them...
There are two classes at seventy minutes each, one for students and one for parents. The student class is pretty standard. Fifteen students signed up for the class. Ten Came on the first day. Four or five on each of the following days. The five who came today–all girls–are all students who I haven’t really noticed before, but who are just delightful to teach. It’s too bad they get lost amongt the talkers, the flirters, fighters, the sleepers, SMSers and the hair teasers.
Teaching the adults has taught me a lot about Korean culture. Last Sunday night as I was preparing for the first lesson, it occurred to me that they would be uncomfortable speaking English to each other, so I thought I’d try to head it off by giving them a little pep talk at the beginning of class. I explained how I know it feels weird to speak a non-native language to each other when you could just use Korean and it would be easier, but we’re here to practice English so let’s just try. They all said they understood. They all said they would try. And then they did every activity I gave them in Korean. What really blew my mind was they seemed to have no idea that they hadn’t done what I had asked them. (They were very controlled activities too, so it wasn’t a question of difficulty I don’t think.) I was about to get upset like I would with my school students, their kids in other words, but I caught myself and just found the whole thing humorous instead.
Really, they were exactly like my middle school students, just older. One woman who had a slightly higher lever than the others took it upon herself to translate everything I said into Korean. When we did a worksheet, the students who “got it” complete their papers and then let the other students copy their answers. During my first class, I asked the students to look in their purses and pockets to find items that would say something about themselves. While doing that, one woman found a packet of gum in her purse and passed it around the classroom…and then the popping started.
The second day of class only four of the adults came back. Yesterday some of them called and said they couldn’t come because it was high school graduation day. Today they just didn’t come at all. I’ve used almost my entire class time writing this blog entry. Even while writing this I began to get a bit miffed, but why bother? Again, I’m really fine with it. At least there are no pretenses. I have the next five days off for Lunar New Year, and if they decide to come to class next week, I’ve already got some photocopies all ready to go. If they decide they can’t be bothered, well, I’ve got to be at school anyway, so it doesn’t really change my life that much.
Today is graduation day at my school. Last year I dressed up and came prepared to participate in the ceremony. As I sat at my desk it waiting, it eventually became clear they had started without me. I went down to the cafeteria to take a peek, and I immediately understood that I hadn't been snubbed, there was simply no room for any extra spectators. See, my school doesn’t have an auditorium, so between the students, parents and teachers, the cafeteria was packed tight. I even think only the homeroom teachers attended the ceremony.
Today I wore jeans and a polo.
After today the kids will go away for three more weeks, but I will have yet another class to teach. This time I’ll have one class for students and one for adults. Right now I’m trying to put together some activities for the classes and I’m having a harder time than you might think. While there is a temptation to photocopy any old worksheets I find and recycle activities I’ve used a hundred times before–indeed, that seems to be exactly what my superiors want from me–my training and instinct as a teacher tell me I should try to put my lessons into some kind of meaningful context. Fortunately I guess, there is no time for philosophical dilemmas such as these. I’m under a deadline. (Thanks Mr. Vice Principal. No, really.) As a sort of compromise I’m trying my best to choose worksheets, warmers and games that cover similar content areas.
I was going to give an example of a lesson I’m planning for next week, but that sounds incredibly boring. There is however, one activity I’m going to try that I want to mention. I think the official name is Number Battle, but I call it Math Hands. It’s sort of like a rock, scissor, paper game, but with numbers. The complete instructions are here.
Labels: EFL teaching, Korean middle school.
So I’m back, but I guess I’d better not get too ambitious right away. Let’s just get something posted and then take it from there. In the time I was away from here, I went away for real, to Thailand and back. Here’s a picture of me on Koh Samui. My head is a little fuzzy because the auto-focus didn’t quite fix on me just right. It’s also possible that the focus is fine, and my head is just a little fuzzy.
Labels: The life of Brian
