Treatment of students

Sometimes the students really drive me nuts.

But sometimes you discover something interesting about them.

Today, when my co-teacher (in my previous post) took over the first half of the class, I had to temporarily change my role to a classroom assistant until his lesson was finished. Apparently the class had fallen behind a bit and needed to catch up on some things.

The co-teacher tends to teach with an air of authority. He is one of those teachers who likes to be strict and force the students to listen rather than ask questions or interact in English; the students were told to be quiet all the time, even when they were. He handed out a worksheet about past tense, and had the students work on it.

I was near the back of the room and looked at the students. Some were a bit confused and didn't know what to do. These are normally my problematic students; they're the ones who are often off-task. When they saw me coming, they looked a little scared.

I stopped and spoke to them in the kindest voice I can manage. "Do you understand?" They shook their heads. So I knelt down and showed them how to do the worksheet. I did it in the gentlest way possible. These students are smart but they were just confused; they didn't want to ask for help because the class was so strict.

After showing them, they started to understand. And one of the most rewarding things with that is how they see you afterwards. In a class where things are strict, I tried to show that I am approachable and care about them. It proved to be helpful later when they discovered an error in the worksheet. Who was the person they asked for, when pointing it out? Me. They specifically asked for me to come and said, "Mr. C., there's a mistake." It appeared like they were more comfortable telling me about it than the co-teacher, which surprised me.

The students, especially the ones who used to be at the back and disruptive, seemed to treat me a lot better when it was my turn to teach the class. There seemed to be a newfound respect and trust as they started to be ease with me.

That is one of the coolest feelings in the world.

Moment of truth

My head co-teacher wants to know whether I intend to renew my contract. We're meeting after classes today to discuss it. He needs to know by May, but I plan on telling him this afternoon that I don't intend to renew after my contract expires in August (which I already knew since October but kept it from him).

The main reason I wanted to keep it from him until the last minute is because of anything that they may try to spring on me because I'm leaving. I've heard of some bad stories where the schools would pile on as much work as possible on the native teacher before he/she leaves town. I want to avoid that, although I don't think it'll happen.

I'm just terrified of what to do for a job once I get back to Canada. Will there be jobs anywhere? Will I be able to find something? What if there are no jobs? What if nobody wants to hire me? What if I don't have enough qualifications?

Sometimes I'm quite sure the anxiety I feel over here isn't due to living in a foreign country, but rather by the concerns and worries of what I'll face once I get back.

Seriously... What?

One of my new co-teachers keeps telling me that we need to work on our teaching methodology. He keeps using the word "methodology." When I finally asked him what he meant by it, his response was something like, "The methodology of teaching students. We need to improve our methodology for our teaching and use different methodologies to make teaching English more relevant for them."

Seriously... what?

Adventure in Korea: By the numbers

Contract statistics:
Number of days completed in contract: 209
Number of days left in contract: 156
Percentage of contract finished: 57.7%
Number of days in Korea: 217

School statistics:
Number of students whacked by co-teacher: approx. 46
Number of students sleeping in class: approx. 17
Number of times I've gotten lost in Korean Windows XP: 12
Months before I decided to say "screw it" and bring my own computer: 6.2 months
Number of times I bowed: approx. 6,100
Number of times a student has bowed to me: approx. 31,200
Number of times I bumped into a student outside of school: approx. 50
Number of cultural mistakes made at work: 13

Other statistics:
Amount of money saved per month: from 800,000 KRW to 1,300,000 KRW
Cost of power bill in fall, per month: 20,000 KRW to 40,000 KRW
Cost of power bill in winter, per month: 130,000 KRW to 150,00 KRW
Hottest temperature experienced: 31 degrees C
Coldest temperature experienced: -21 degrees C
Number of stamps and visas in passport in past year: 13
Number of stamps and visas in passport before this year: 0
Number of times I've been mistaken for Korean: 189
Number of times I've been mistaken for Japanese: 56
Number of times I've been mistaken for American: 14
Number of times I've been "mistaken" for Canadian: 0
Number of times I've been "mistaken" for Chinese: 0
Number of verbally racist incidents: 9
Number of physically racist incidents: 0

In-jokes:
Number of seasons experienced: 3
Kilograms of kimchi consumed: 42.1 kg
Number of Hyundais and Kias spotted: approx. 47,000
Number of Toyotas spotted: approx. 5
Number of times I had to Konglishize a word to make myself understood: 21
Number of "gamsa hamnida"s: approx. 327,000
Number of "annyeong haseyo"s: approx. 410,000
Number of times I've crossed my arms into an X: approx. 12,000

English names

Teaching English winter camp this week has been interesting so far. One of the unexpectedly interesting points were not so much with the teaching or the material, but rather with something quite trivial -- names.

In an article from William Cheung (a researcher at my alma mater, UBC) called "The Economics of Post-Doc Publishing," he states (emphasis added):

In my field and most other disciplines in science, English is the dominant language for publishing (Ammon 2001). Being a Chinese person from Hong Kong, my original name was, of course, fully Chinese. I was also given an ‘official’ English name translated by the government from the Cantonese (the Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong) pronunciation of my Chinese name (i.e. Wai Lung Cheung). However, non-Chinese speaking people often have problems pronouncing, spelling or even remembering my Cantonese-translated name.
...
Thus, in recent years, I changed from using my Cantonese-translated first name (Wai Lung) to my English name (William) in scientific publications and academic communications, while keeping the Cantonese name as a middle name. Such changes may be seen as ‘caving in’ to the dominant culture. However, when Hong Kong was under British colonization (until 30 June 1997), most students in Hong Kong were asked to acquire an English name. Hence, the use of an English name is psychologically easy for me to accept. On the other hand, this may be considered a violation of one’s culture to some colleagues.

• From: Cheung, William W.L. "The Economics of Post-Doc Publishing." Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics. 8.41-44 (January 2008). Print.

While most Koreans, like the Chinese in Hong Kong, have Korean-translated first names, I've found that it was next to impossible to remember them. I try to remember, but it's quite the mountainous task, especially when you have hundreds and hundreds of students. (My inability to remember faces easily is also an obstacle here.)

However, I have avoided forcing students to adopt English names for the exact same concern that Cheung mentioned. I don't feel comfortable forcing students to choose English names because it feels too much like cultural colonization to me. I would never ask a Korean for his or her English name, unless he or she volunteers it to me. In other words, I leave it up to the students whether or not they want English names. I won't force them to do it, but I won't stop them if they really want to choose one.

I have also heard of instances where "forcing" the students to choose English names has backfired. Some students decide to choose outrageous names. For example: "My name is Barack Obama!" Sometimes, if a parent decides to choose an English name for the student, it might also backfire. For example, I read about some parent who decided to bestow upon his child the English name "Grand." While the intentions are there, naming your kid Grand is just a little... strange.

For those reasons, I have decided not to bring up the issue. However, during this week's English winter camp, some students asked me if I would like to call them by their English names. I was a little hesitant to answer, but informed them that it was up to them as long as it's not like the "Barack Obama" example. Thankfully, the two students who volunteered their English names had normal-sounding ones: Ron and Michael.

That got me thinking -- why is it that they have normal-sounding names while others that I've heard of have chosen to be "Barack Obama" or "Michael Jackson"? Over the past several days, I realized that this week's class is VERY GOOD, despite the fact that they're my youngest students. They were so good, in fact, that some of them watch TV shows on AFN (the US army television channel), which doesn't offer any Korean subtitles. I was surprised to learn that despite not being fluent in English, they didn't need the subtitles and would prefer not to have them. They were just that good.

They also seem serious and willing to learn English, despite its challenges. I think that might be the determining factor here; the students who are more willing to learn and are serious about learning English seem to realize what's "acceptable" in English and what's not. They know that choosing a name like "Barack Obama" is unacceptable. They seem to want to know how to conduct themselves in an English-speaking atmosphere, which is quite cool. This group gives an honest effort, which is what I've been wanting to see from my students; to me, it doesn't matter if they are wrong every time, as long as they give an honest effort.

So perhaps forcing the students to use English names is the wrong way to go, and thank goodness I didn't do that. When a student is serious about learning English, I think he would be capable of deciding whether or not to choose an English name. Otherwise, it might be best to just leave their names alone for the time being.

Memories of yesteryear, and that's the bottom line, cuz Stone Cold said so...

Why did it take me this long to find out that one hot topic of discussion among my senior-grade middle school students is... WWE pro wrestling?

I should've seen this coming, because back when I was their age, I was a fan of the (then) World Wrestling Federation as well. I've even met John Cena in person at an autograph session, before he became a household name in sports entertainment.

I was going down the hallway en route to the English classroom and a few students were playfighting, as is common at all-boys' schools here. One of them performed a pretend-wrestling move on another, and as I passed by, I gave the student a small tap on the shoulder and casually said, "No Rock Bottoms in the school, please." Both of them stopped in their tracks and went like, "OHHHHHHhhhhhh, Mr. Cheng knows WWE! Oh my God!"

After lunch, a bunch of students cornered me in the hallway and we had a nice little discussion about WWE -- and they actually used English and tried to use it to discuss pro wrestling! It was incredible how so many of those students who normally didn't participate in class are now eagerly displaying their English skills so we could both share our knowledge about the "Sport" That Vince McMahon Revolutionized.

I amazed them with my knowledge about the Radicalz (Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and Chris Benoit), the Dudley Boyz (Bubba-Ray and D-Von), the Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy), Edge & Christian, Degeneration-X, the WCW/ECW Alliance, nWo, and others. I impressed them with first-hand memories of the Brock Lesnar superplex on Big Show that broke the ring in an old episode of Smackdown. I wow'd them with the tales of the Triple H vs. Mick Foley Hell-in-a-Cell match at No Way Out.

And all this time, I've been trying to find culturally relevant names to use in my lessons that students would know and be interested in. I can't believe all this time, it was right under my nose in the form of World Wrestling Entertainment.

If you smell what the Hermit is cookin'.

Can't wait

This week, I booked my trip to Hong Kong -- the first visit to my birthplace since 1995. In fact, it's been so long that the last time I was there, it was still the territory of the United Kingdom.

About two months ago, I talked with a British guy at an English bookstore about Hong Kong (random conversations with other expats tend to happen quite frequently, I find). He told me that Hong Kong has changed a lot since its colonial days. I guess I'll finally see how much it has changed.

Above: Seoul's Incheon International Airport. I'll be seeing this place again in February as I leave South Korea for vacation.

I'll actually be leaving the same day as a fellow Vancouverite who's also stationed here in Seoul as a native English teacher, so that should be fun. I also have a Vancouver friend who's going to be in Hong Kong during the second half of my stay; there'll be no shortage of Vancouver representation this coming February, that's for sure.

I'm actually a bit excited about the trip. I've missed being in a place where I actually speak the language and where I'm close to people I know (besides the people I may have met during teacher orientation here in Seoul). I miss going out for dinner and not having to get Korean food all the time. It's interesting how at home, you don't realize that you're taking something for granted until it's no longer available. Some of you might know, but Vancouver is like a big Chinatown; visiting Hong Kong feels like visiting Vancouver in a way.

I was in Itaewon (Seoul's international district) last night to get a T-shirt printed, and there was a family there. They were obviously tourists, and were having a blast. But then came the moment where they had to ask someone to take a picture for them. Unfortunately, their English wasn't all that great and they couldn't speak Korean. However, they spoke a language that I understood -- Cantonese, the language of Hong Kong. So I offered (in Cantonese) to take the picture for them. They looked so relieved that someone actually understood what they wanted.

That look really reminded me of my first day in Seoul, before orientation started. That day, I was lucky enough to need help at Yongsan Station, which is one of Seoul's foreigner magnets (due to the nearby electronics market and US army base).

The Hong Kong trip will last for a while -- almost the entire month of February. The reason for that is because my school wanted me to shift some of my summer vacation days to winter. I get 21 days of vacation, and they wanted me to take 16 of them this winter (leaving 5 for summer). The winter breaks for schools are typically longer, and they didn't want to have to keep me around for such a long time in winter, deskwarming or "work from home" or otherwise. That allowed me to book a flight leaving on February 5 and a return trip on February 28.

I have no problem with that, because I need to get my Hong Kong ID anyway (since I was born there) and the processing takes weeks. And I think being in Hong Kong during the brutal winter months in Seoul could be a blessing. It'll certainly be a big savings in utilities, since I'll be unplugging everything and leaving the tap dripping (to prevent freezing) before I leave.

Six and a half weeks to go.

They just don't care

My third grade classes don't care anymore.

The third grade of middle school in South Korea is roughly equivalent to ninth grade back in North America. They are the seniors of middle school. A few weeks ago, they finished their final exams, leaving me over a month to teach them... whatever. And because they already finished their exams, anything that is taught from now until the end of the year isn't being tested on, and is basically meaningless.

So as a result, they don't really care if they do well now. And as a teacher, it's hard to teach a class where the lack of enthusiasm is that big of a problem. Sure, you are still obligated to cover the rest of the textbook, but no matter how interesting you try to make the material, it's probably not going to fly. It's frustrating.

(The reason why their exams are so early is because they have to have the grades determined before they apply for their high schools, which can get quite competitive.)

For the next week and a half, I was told to pretty much do anything. I think it's obvious, but when you don't have any new material to teach and the students don't really give a damn anymore, 45 minutes of class time can feel like 45 hours.

I can fill the class up with games (as most other native English teachers are doing, from what I've gathered), but my co-teacher is often saying that the games may not be age-appropriate and often ends the game much earlier than anticipated, catching me off-guard.

One and a half weeks of pure torment. Fun.

Aww, poor student

Sometimes I have great classes. Sometimes I have bad classes. But to simply label a class as completely good or completely bad would be simplistic and inaccurate. I found that out yesterday.

Usually, Mondays are lax in terms of classes but they are also a train wreck. My first class is so smart that they understand every concept right away, and I often end up blowing through the material with lots of time left over. Otherwise, they'd get bored. This earned me a comment from my co-teacher that I seem a little "disorganized" lately.

It also doesn't help that they are the senior grade, and the seniors have already written their final exams, which means that they're not really interested in learning anymore (since the time between now and the end of the year no longer matters) which, in turn, makes the whole teaching experience monotonous.

In contrast, my final senior grade class for Mondays is usually unattentive and more interested in talking with their friends. Yesterday, they paid no attention to most of my lesson, and even the co-teacher (who is different from my first class) didn't really care.

However, there was one student from the latter class who paid attention to everything I taught, and when I asked for an answer for a question after giving an example, he would often get the answer right; if not, at least he gave a shot at it.

Sometimes it's hard to keep tabs on all your students, especially when you have more classes than any Korean English teacher in the school, with over 30 students in most classes. However, that doesn't mean that good students aren't noticed. (On the flip side, if you're a bad and disruptive student, you tend to be noticed too.)

I actually owed this student a Choco Pie from winning a class game last week, and that nearly slipped my mind. He reminded me at the end of class, and I asked him to come with me to my office to get his reward. On the way, I told him that I really appreciated how attentive he was despite all the shenanigans going on around him, and how I really enjoyed seeing him give an effort even when his answer is incorrect. And to show my appreciation, he got TWO Choco Pies instead of the one that I promised him.

I could tell he was a bit frustrated with the other students' behavior in the class, and to be recognized really made his eyes light up. Sometimes it's a bit nice to see that even in the crappiest classes, there are a few good apples out there. Perhaps they feel lost in the hooligan crowd sometimes, so recognizing them for their efforts really does make a difference.

For once, I have school and don't want it to be canceled

(Warning: this post contains "Wikipedism.")

"Snow day." "Teachers' strike." "School shooting threat." Every kid dreams to hear these words. (Okay, maybe not the last one, but it did happen to me once back in Canada.) Why? Because that means one thing -- school is canceled!

My brand-new alarm clock radio (which also has an iPod dock... I love it!) awoke me yesterday. It was tuned to TBS eFM, one of the two English-language radio stations here in Seoul, and the morning news was on. The newscaster informed me that the South Korean government officials were meeting this week to discuss whether to raise the H1N1 alert level to "red" -- the highest possible level.

Sure. Okay. Even though I was a bit concerned, I didn't think too much of it. And then this morning, they repeated this information but said that the meeting has been pushed up to THIS MORNING (as opposed to tomorrow, as originally planned). If they decided to raise the level, it could mean nation-wide school closures. Okay, now this was serious business, even though I knew that students were scheduled to get vaccinated on November 20.

Apparently this country has been nearing 10,000 H1N1 infections per day, which led to this sudden urgency. As it turned out, the alert level was indeed raised to "red," which means schools and other public institutions and places may close. While I don't know if anything will happen at this point, it feels like school closures are imminent. For example, since September, my school had been checking everyone's temperatures before entering the school. Today, that didn't happen for some reason. It was as if they were expecting something to happen soon.

While students are probably praying for a "swine flu holiday," I really hope we don't get one. For the holidays, I have a vacation planned and I think if school was canceled, we might have to sacrifice some of the winter holidays to make up for the canceled classes. (The vacation is very important because it also doubles as an "ID card run" -- I need to apply in person for an ID card in that vacation spot because I was born there. This is the first real chance I've had to apply for it.) Also, the senior grades' final exams are next week, which complicates things.

But as I said, it feels like a closure is imminent. After work today, I stocked up on essentials such as extremely nutritious food. My monthly grocery budget has gone down the drain, but if the H1N1 danger is really getting worse this rapidly in this country, I might as well prepare myself to stay inside as much as possible until this thing blows over.

On the plus side, if this swine flu thing doesn't materialize but Kim Jong Il decides to invade instead, I now have decent survival materials.

What is that in your mouth?

Sometimes after work, I get the munchies. I'm lucky that it happens here because South Korea has street food everywhere you look. So sometimes I go to a vendor across the street from the school to buy a bite to eat. I have a favorite, and it costs me 500 won (which is about 45 cents Canadian).

Basically, most of the deep fried stuff you see from street food vendors need to be re-fried when you want it. So you pick one, give it to the vendor and he/she will deep fry it for you and put either sweet sauce or hot sauce on top after it's re-fried. My favorite snack has sweet sauce.

Since it's across from the school after classes have ended, some students have inevitably spotted me buying a snack once in a while. A few of them were amazed. "Teacher, do you know what's in that?" (quotes have been edited for grammar and clarity ;) )

I shrugged. "I don't know. But it's yummy, and that's all that matters."

The students then informed me that it was sticky rice mixed with pig's blood and cow lungs and intestines, all deep fried and put on a stick.

I shrugged again. "Oh well."

The students gaped at me. "I just told you what it's made of. Aren't you afraid?"

I looked at the students for the longest time. "Well... no."

"Why?"

I paused. "Well, first of all, I'm Chinese..."

Meeting your other half

I met my other half a few days ago. By "other half," I mean my counterpart at the high school that adjoins my middle school. My middle school's building is actually attached to the high school -- I'm the native English teacher for the middle school and the high school has its own native English teacher as well.

I knew it was a possibility that we would bump into each other at one point, but it was interesting that he sought me out specifically. I was busy planning my Alien Registration Card (the foreigners' ID card here in South Korea) stuff with one of my co-teachers when he came in.

He's a fellow Canadian, and a fellow western Canadian (from Saskatoon) to boot. Take that, Ontario. My guess is that the high school principal told him about me, because that morning, I had to arrive an hour early for a formal introduction to the adjoining high school's faculty. (The Koreans seem to be big on formally introducing people like that. They'll ask you to attend a meeting, and will ask you to go to the front and take a bow in front of the whole faculty.)

Coincidentally, I recognized him. A few days prior, as I was walking home, I saw a very lost-looking Caucasian guy at the corner of the street near the elementary school. I'm quite positive I was him, especially when he said something along the lines of, "Yeah, I'm usually the Westerner who's always looking lost."

I actually feel that this is a pretty lucky situation. Even if we don't see each other often outside of lunchtime, it can really give a great psychological boost to know that there's another "one of me" literally in the next door building. It's like the effect of me living only 4 subway stops from Itaewon, the international district in Seoul -- with Itaewon, I know if I'm craving some international flair or a taste of home (ie. Canadian brands), it's only a short ride away. It's a comforting feeling. (My other comfort is listening to my favorite radio station back in Vancouver, via the internet.)

Lucky streak in Seoul

I swear, I'm on a lucky streak with this Korea thing. I hoped to get Incheon or Seoul, and got Seoul. I read up on all the crap that other people have to deal with (granted, it's Dave's ESL Cafe, which is infamous for people with negative attitudes) and "what could've been" with the housing situation, and ended up getting a decent non-hotel place. I read about the evil co-teachers that are out there, and ended up with pretty cool co-teachers so far (as far as I can tell). While things could be better (*shakes fist*), it could've been a lot worse as well (like poor Eric with his shoebox).

In this entry, I'll talk mostly about the school. I'll get into the living quarters later.

Basically, my place is near Seoul Station (about a 15-minute walk) and the geographical center of the city, and about a 7-minute walk from the school (which is all boys). I'm their first-ever native English teacher. Something I was wondering was how the students will react to an Asian who is also a native English teacher; even if you're not the type of person to look into race, you have to admit this is an interesting predicament for a country that is largely homogenous (and prides itself in its homogenuity).

The result surprised me. At first, the students weren't sure who this new teacher-looking person was doing in the school. I was invited to observe a regular English class, and was introduced to the students. After that, word spread much quicker than I expected. Suddenly, students were bowing to me in the hallways and stuff. (Stewie: "You will BOW to me." One of my best friends told me on MSN that I'm going to let this bowing go to my head, haha.) A few students actually went up to me just to say "HI!!!" or "Hello!!!" just like what the Caucasian teachers described. I guess race doesn't factor in as much as I expected.

The school facilities are interesting. When they were giving me a tour of the school, I was wondering if I will have my own classroom and what it'd look like. The school looks quite old and is peeling a bit, so I was like, "Hmm. I guess I'm not getting my own classroom."

Boy, was I wrong.

Not only did I get a classroom, but it is the NICEST classroom in the school. I'm not even remotely exaggerating about that. As I said before, the school looks aged and peeling. However, the English room is spanking new and looks like it was renovated lately. It has a smartboard (a touch-screen computer on the board), new tables and chairs, its own library/reading room, a computer with new software, a webcam, and so on. I swear, my jaw dropped majorly when I saw it, because it was such a drastic difference compared to the rest of the school. Even the doors were high and made of glass (while the other rooms' doors are about 5 feet tall and are old sliding doors made of aging aluminum).

The co-teachers are also pretty incredible so far. One of them speaks English pretty well for the most part, one seems okay when teaching but has difficulty in producing speech in an actual conversation, and one is having no difficulty in producing speech but is good for the most part.

I also have to teach other teachers, and from what I can tell, they're not in it because the principal forced them to do it or anything. I may be wrong, but I think it was a voluntary thing and quite a number of teachers signed up. I wish we covered how to teach other teachers during the orientation, because I'm not sure what to do for it.

The dress code for the school is slightly bizarre as well. I was told to wear a neat shirt, dress pants and... slippers. Yes, you read that right. Slippers. Both teachers and students wear slippers in the school. I have to find myself a pair in the right size (since the North American shoe sizes are different and many slippers on sale on the streets are packaged).

Today, I mostly did lesson planning. A lot of time was wasted while I tried to figure out the Korean version of Windows, but it's going smoother now. I still need to pick up the pace for one class' lesson plan tomorrow though. Tomorrow is my first day of teaching. Originally I was told that I won't teach until after the first week, but they changed it on me today. First taste of the Koreans' "last-minute culture," I guess.

That's pretty much my school in a nutshell right now. I'll talk about the living quarters later.