Whoa. I feel bad for those that go late to the seminar, because it does seem very helpful. The ones who go late to this thing are teaching blind for like 6 months... Also, it was a nice break from the everyday work. Meeting people and talking to others is a giant tension reliever. Also, as it was stated by someone there, being able to talk without dumbing down your speech is great. Ran into quite a few cool people and quite a few strange people as well.
The breakdown was quite interesting, lots of very-boring Korean speakers with sporadic really-interesting veteran teaching speakers. Everybody was mingling like no tomorrow, because it's probably the only time in the year you'll get a chance to meet a large group of people just like you. The food was mostly Korean, with the occasional western influence, which people quickly gobbled up.
I learned a bunch of ideas and concepts of how to teach your classes better, although most of the tips seemed like "engage your students by tricking them." It amazed me that some people don't incorporate powerpoint slides into their teaching at all. Also, I learned that we seem to have a fairly big apartment comparably to most, partly because we live in the boonies.
Some pictures from the orientation:
Gepik - Simon and Martina
Apparently, I sort of scared the "Kimchi couple" Simon and Martina. I was standing in line for our first meal there (which I think was lunch), when I realized they were standing right in front of me. Of course, the normal etiquette went out the window and instead I said, "whoa! It's you guys!" Simon told me later that he was afraid the rest of the orientation was going to be a bunch of people stunned/freaking out next to them. But, it wasn't. Strangely enough, I was only part of a few people that actually knew about them prior to the orientation.
Gepik - Contracts and School Variances
You realize at the orientation that the contracts are full of vague and confusing conditions that everyone has to abide by. Lots of people had their own concepts of what it meant, but were wrong. The contract says that they school can make you work 8 hours a day and an after school up to 6 hours (i.e as much as they feel like, including all day long). Some schools are a lot easier/better than others. For example, my school makes me stay after school three days of the week, Jacki's doesn't. So, normally I would get back home around 5:20 or so, but instead on three days I get home around 6:00. As much as I love being a work-a-holic like most of the Korean workers (and students), I'd much rather stay at home and relax from a long day of dealing with screaming adolescent girls.
Every school has their teachers doing different things, some have them teach in the mornings, some sporadically throughout the day. Some people have themed classes, some have to follow the book, and others have free-range of topics. Some teachers have to do all the work, and others just do roughly half. I found it funny at the orientation, because they told people, "don't compare your job to others." So pretty much people are, of course, going to talk to other about their jobs and compare and get annoyed that others have certain aspects better than others.
Some co-teachers discipline the students and some don't whatsoever. Even in my classes, the 1st and 3rd level classes are well behaved, but the 2nd levels (for which I have 2 co-teachers) are the most misbehaved and unruly bunch.
Stereotypes and Irritations
Many stereotypes of the Korean English teaching system (which is horrid) are joked about. For instance, if you ask the students "Hi, how are you?" It's an almost 99% chance that they will respond with "I'm fine, how are you?" in a robotic monotone. They have been drilled to a monotone abyss from which no student escapes. Then, there are the ridiculous last minute schedule changes. You're told of classes that you will have, don't have anymore, or that have been moved, within hours and maybe minutes of it occurring. It would be one thing if it happened occasionally, but it happens so often that it is a way of life here. It really irritates westerners, but there is not much we can do about it. As an example, I had just returned from orientation, and one of my co-teachers comes in a few hours before school was finished and says, "You're teaching an 1 level advanced class after school every week starting today." So, of course, I was irritated and showed it in some not so discrete ways, lol. The things that race through your mind are things like "I haven't planned anything... Can I get out of it?... I'm not going home for a while..." These last-minute year altering decisions come at you quickly and bother the best of them.
Thoughts
In retrospect, I feel that teaching here is a constant ball of confusion. You don't really know what your main purpose is, nor do you know if your doing your job correctly or not. I lot of times, you don't really feel as if the teachers care either. Even if you try to ask questions, the answers aren't clear or don't come for a long time. I had to hand my co-teacher liaison a sheet of paper with several questions that had been building over time. As of yet, almost a week later, only one question has been answered (she finally unlocked my desk). The last teacher that was at my school quit or was fired after 5 months, and I can see why in certain ways. They said he didn't plan any lessons, but that can't be the only reason. He was probably bothered by the totality of it all - the bureaucracy, the hassles, being thrown around like a rag doll.
I heard that this school wasn't going to hire a teacher, but then they did (me). It was probably from pressure to 'look' like a good school by saying that they had a English speaking teacher here. The native English teacher is a symbol. They are untrained but it doesn't seem to matter. The Korean education system believes that anyone that can speak English can teach it... lmao. Although I can see the reason why any English speaker can improve the general nuances of the language, it's been argued that we're just here to make minor corrections that any high school graduate could do. I've heard that the system used allow people with less education, but then, there was crime, so having a undergraduate is now the minimum. We do have master's degrees, unlike most people here in these teaching programs. We'll probably be moving on to better things, possibly still in Korea, if we can later on.
Generally, I've been kept super busy straining my creative skills trying to scrapping together any nonsense I can to babysit and entertain young minds under the guise of education. It seems to be working so far.
The English speaking teachers are an add-on, and are treated as such. After talking to someone, it made a little bit more sense, Korean teachers must teach the English book that they have. English teachers don't necessarily teach that book and are therefore a distraction from the main teachers purpose. Teachers in Korea are judged on how much their students progress through the year using a national test held twice a year. At Gepik, some people said that we are here to make Koreans like the English language, so, essentially, we are the representative of our cultures and language. Also, it is hypothesized that we are training the future Koreans to teach themselves, because slowly their skills will increase and they will gain the ability to train themselves. Click here to read more
