beautiful eyes

I think so many Koreans have such beautiful eyes. For the most part, they are all very dark brown. When asked what color their eyes are, they always say black. I love my students' eyes. Their eyes always have such a shine to them.Gracie (She is my student at both the kindy and LCC... she's now 6/Korean 8)a girl in the roe deer class (now 4/Korean 6)a girl in the hippo class (now 4/Korean 6)Brian, one of my students at LCC

my classroom at LCC

the doorthe windowmy deskhall window, propane heater and storage corner

English educational posters

These are pics of a couple of the posters on the walls in at LCC.[a poster that is both in my classroom and in the hall][a poster in the hallway]

hagwons and school in general in Korea

Most of the English schools that foreigners teach at in Korea are actually hagwons (private academies). Many have an English kindergarten in the mornings and then have other students in the afternoons. It seems to be a rule that Korean kids have to spend their afternoons and evenings studying either at a hagwon or at home studying with a teacher/instructor.
All of my students go to at least one other hagwon, and most also have teachers or instructors going to their homes for other things. There are hagwons for almost anything here. The most common are the English hagwons, but you can find hagwons for everything from math, to piano, to Tae-Kwon-Do to ping pong/table tennis (yes, they even have hagwons for that). After the students finish their regular school, their entire evening is filled with hagwons and private lessons. I know that some hagwons are open quite late. Some English hagwons are open until after 10 pm. A math etc. hagwon across the street from where I used to live was open until 1 AM. I think it was mostly middle school students going there. They all then get up very early to be at school at around 7:30 or so. I cannot imagine.
One of my students is going to hagwons for English, Math and Baduk (Korean chess), and has an English teacher and a piano teacher going to her home to give lessons.
Another student, Lia, is my student at both the kindy (Korean kindy, not English hagwon kindy) and at LCC (English hagwon). She is 6 years old and carries 2 bags that combined weigh more than my university backpack weighed (I carried several text books with me). She has English books, piano books, and I'm not even sure what else, but she carries them all every day. She is such a sweet girl and one of the smartest in the class (and she is at least a year younger than the others in the class).
In addition to their school homework, many students also get homework from their hagwons. For the younger kids it isn't so bad, as they aren't loaded with homework yet, but every year, their load gets bigger. When they get to middle school is when the pressure really starts to build. Then they reach high school. I have been told by many Koreans that high school is harder than university. High school is where you have to have the top marks in order to get into the top universities. Which university you go to is VERY important. Those that graduated from the better universities are the ones that get the jobs. And, or some reason, a doctor graduating from a lower university is not as important (makes less? or ... or I'm not really sure exactly what it is) as a nurse graduating from one of the best universities (or so I've been told).
One student told me that some high schools have mandatory study hall after school, sometimes until quite late. Then they have to go to hagwons to study some more. High school is all study, sometimes eat and sometimes sleep.
Oh, and they also go to school on Saturdays (starting in elementary). I am starting to hear now that some schools only require them to go every other Saturday, and some don't have Saturday classes. I think they are starting to get out of the Saturday classes. I hope so.
I always make a point to tell my students that I've never gone to school on a Saturday in my life... and I didn't take any lessons after regular school. Usually I just went home and watched TV. I love seeing their eyes pop out and their jaws hit the floor. :P
Poor kids.

Richie

Richard/Ricky/Richie (he's liking Richie right now) is one of my students at both the kindy (Jin-da-lei class) and at LCC. He is 6 years old (Korean 7 year old). At the kindy, every couple of months there is a big birthday party for those students whose birthdays are in the two month period. The birthday students usually get dressed up for the party day: sometimes in traditional Hanboks, sometimes in party dresses or suits. Richie was part of this past week's party. He is one of my favorite students because he is ALWAYS smiling, and he is such a sweet kid (and smart, too).

Frankie

Frankie, or Frank-sausagE, as he sometimes calls himself, isn't the brightest of the bunch, but he is cute.

(He is one of my students at LCC.)

some of my students... cleaning tables

This was supposed to be punishment!!! Tim (orange shirt) got an 'X' and so was supposed to clean one table. David (blue coat) and William (green coat) thought it looked like fun and so joined in. They were using little disposable disinfectant cleaning cloths. Kelly took the video with her camera. For some reason, the sound didn't upload. I'll have to try it again to see if I can get it to work. It just isn't the same without the sound.

YAY!!!!! and ARGH!!!!!

YAY!!!!
Today I found out some GREAT news. I get October 4th off. October 3rd is a holiday in Korea. October 5-7 is a holiday in Korea (Chusok - Korean Thanksgiving... yes, it is a 3 day holiday). As it was, I would have worked on the Monday and the Wednesday. I had been trying to get the 4th off as well. My boss said it wasn't possible. But today, I guess things changed and my school will be closed that day. That means I have a 6 day vacation!

ARGH!!!
I am stuck in Korea for my 6 day vacation doing nothing. It is now basically too late to book any trips anywhere. Every single flight out of Korea and back again are fully booked. Almost every single train to anywhere else in Korea is sold out. What a waste of a good holiday. And after this one, I will only have my winter vacation and then one 3 day weekend in late winter/ early spring. If I had known before that I would have the extra long vacation now, I would have already booked a trip somewhere. Back to China (Xian) or to Vietnam maybe. But NO... Things just don't work out that way.
What really sucks is that because the entire country has the vacation (at least the 4 national holiday days), everyone is going places. Chusok is a bad time for being stuck here, as everything is closed.
once again... ARGH!!!!

Sorry... needed to vent.

Yay for summer intensives!!!

Summer and winter vacations in Korea often mean longer hours and more work for the foreign teachers that work at hagwons (English after school academies). For me, on the other hand... it means that I start at the same time, work less, and finish an hour early. At my kindy school, instead of teaching ten 15 minutes classes, I have two 20 minute classes. I have a nice long lunch break and then I start my hagwon classes an hour earlier than normal, and so finish an hour earlier. Also, I found out today that my kindy summer classes don't start until next Tuesday, meaning I have tomorrow morning and Monday morning off. It's all good.

One of my classes at LCC

Lucas (a trouble maker), Celina, Christy, Joy, Mark, Billy

There seems to be an over-abundance of twins in Korea. I always see twins where ever I go, and I teach several sets at the kindy and one at my hagwon (LCC). And, yes, the twins here are always dressed the same. Doesn't help when trying to figure out which is which.

kids and their teeth

One thing that I have always noticed in Korea is how bad many of the kids' teeth are. They range from spaced out, to black, to completely metal mouths (fillings). The kids are all so cute... but their teeth leave something to be desired. Once they loose their baby teeth and their adult teeth grow in, for the most part, all is well. I have heard that the problem stems from the fact that Korean women don't drink enough milk, or get enough calcium when they are pregnant, resulting in very weak baby teeth. It could also just be due to the huge amounts of sugar that the kids are ingesting. Everything for kids here is super sweet. They eat a lot of junk food and sweets. They are constantly eating candy and ice-cream and super sweet yogurt drinks. As a rule, the kids have to brush their teeth after lunch at the kindy school, but by they time the start going, their teeth are already shot. It is kinda sad, actually.

This is Andy, a student at LCC. Cute kid, but a troublemaker!!!

Harry

Harry is one of the sweetest kids ever.

ballet slippers, smoking grannies, etc

Yesterday when I got to work, one of the Korean teachers gave me a pair of ballet slippers to wear around the school. Real ballet slippers. I think there is something to do with ballet somewhere in the school (it is on the website). How cute.
Last night after sitting in a PC Bang (net cafe) for a while, I went for some kimchi bokumbap (kimchi fried rice) and outside the window there was a little old granny (think... posture is bent over at a right angle) smoking on the street. In Korea, that is not a normal thing... in general, (Korean) women don't really smoke in public. They smoke in the bathroom if they do. To see a little Korean granny smoking is quite an oddity.
When I arrived in my home my first day here, my bosses asked me if I needed a new fridge. I said if the one there worked, I didn't care, that was fine. I spent a while on the weekend cleaning it out (it was pretty gross inside). Today, when I got to work, Jennifer, the boss, said she ordered me a new fridge... a very nice fridge. Yay!!! They also ordered me all new bedding when I got there. It arrived the end of last week, so up until then, Jennifer lent me some of their bedding.
The number of students at LCC (my hagwon) has gone up a lot since I got there... I think it is higher than it has been before, or at least higher than it has been in a long time. Jennifer is very happy. Last week there were 79 students (I think). New students keep arriving. Kelly (the main Korean English teacher) and I interview each new student and decide what class to put them in. There are only 7 English classes at LCC.

cleaning??? Ugh.

At my hagwon (my afternoon school) I have my own classroom. What that means is that I have a desk in the corner and I start out each group of classes in that room. It also means that I get to clean it every Tuesday: vacuum, mop, dust, etc. fun stuff.
I taught my first day at the kindy school today. It went okay, but I still don't quite know what I am doing. No one could really tell me, because no one really knew. I am to read a book and sing songs with the students, but the book is to last a week, I think. The book takes maybe 5 minutes to get through... and that is stretching it. I don't know the songs yet, so that doesn't help. It is not actually all that easy to fill even 15 minutes. I had to improvise a bit. Really, though, it doesn't really matter what I do, as long as I am speaking English, and the students aren't falling asleep. I also wasn't at all prepared for today... I had the wrong books until about 2 minutes before I started, and I don't have any breaks until after I go through 8 classes.
Oh.. and there are classrooms on the 3rd floor as well as the outside (roof) playground. I will never remember all of the students names at the kindy, because there are so many in each class and I don't really have enough time with them (except for those that go to the hagwon afterwards). It is a good thing that they all wear name tags!!!!!

Immigration and such

I made it to Immigration this morning. It took a little more than an hour to get there (taxi, subway, walking). At least I only had to wait around an hour for my number to be called. It should have been less, since they were on 47 when I got there and I had 57. Sometimes the wait is a lot longer than that. I have to go again on the 23rd to pick up my Alien card and my Passport. Yes, they keep the passport. My school wants me to get a bank account this week but I will no have to wait until after I get my card. I can't do much with our my passport or my Alien Card. kinda sucks. I have my cell phone but have to wait another week and a half to actually get a number. Argh. I hate using pay phones, especially if it is windy and cold. Also, I can't phone home or anywhere using the pay phone because it is WAY too expensive. C'est la vie.
My first class today was 16 students!!! They were the lowest level and the youngest at the Hagwon. I think that a lot of the students in my first two classes at LCC are students that I also have at the kindergarten. I am told that that class will shrink a bit, as some of them will change to Tuesday/Thursday classes. Large classes like that are difficult, especially when they know almost no English. Today I was supposed to give most of them English names, but they just stared at me or at the table and said either nothing or "no". It is hard picking English nicknames for a room full of kids, most of which don't want one.

my life in Korea begins...

Well... I am finally back in Korea.
My home is quite nice. It is in a very old, more 'traditional style' building. It is not an apartment or villa (I was in a villa before) but rather, a "multi-family house". Basically, it is 3 floors. There is a business on the first floor, I have most of the second floor (there is a small one room deal on the second floor as well) and the owner is on the third floor. I have a bedroom with a double bed, dresser and closet. I have a very large living room with 2 dressers, a desk, a small table and a TV. My kitchen is tiny, though. My bathroom is very Korean... no sink, no mirror.... just the toilet in one corner, a washing machine in another corner, and a shower hose and tap coming out of the wall in between. The bathroom is not heated, so there is a little electric heater on the wall, above where the 'shower' is. I have A LOT of cleaning to do, as it wasn't cleaned by the last tenant. There are even dirty old shoes in the shoe closet by the door. Yuck!!!
I picked up Tokki yesterday. Tokki is a rabbit that I have adopted. His previous owner was the ex-girlfriend of a friend of mine. Tokki is so cute, but is a bit scared and nervous at the moment. I will take him to the Vet this week to make sure all is well. His toenails REALLY need some trimming. They are around a cm long!!! My friend, Anthony, has had Tokki in his apartment for the past week. He hasn't let the rabbit out, though, because Tokki really likes to chew things, and Anthony is not a big fan of little animals. As a result, Tokki has been very bored and restless.
My schools are great. Yes, there are 2, with the same owners.
At 10 am, I start work teaching kindy classes at a kindy school. There are up to 30 students and two Korean teachers in a class. There are several floors in the building. The first and second floors are all classrooms, each with a piano, TV, tables, play area, etc. The roof has a playground and a small swimming pool for summer. The basement has a larger playground/play area, and a Taekwondo school (part of the kindy school, or owned by the same people, I think). There is also a piano school within (also part of the same thing).
My job is to spend 15 minutes with each class, reading a book and then singing a song with the students. I go through 8 classes, and then there is a lunch break. The school has a kitchen and a couple of cooks. After lunch, I go to two more classes. I only teach at the kindy school 4 days a week. I get to choose which day I get the morning off.
Then I head down the parking lot to my hagwon, LCC. I start teaching there at 2 pm. I have 2 40-45 minute breaks there, and finish at 6pm. The classes are small and I am just teaching from books. (I have taught with most of the books already, my last time in Korea).
I have to go to the Immigration Office tomorrow morning to apply for my Alien Registration. I have to have my Alien card in order to get my phone and Internet set up.