Filling You In...Part One

Hey guys:

Sorry for the long time, long wait policy when it comes to this blog. Two major factors have prevented me to make meaningful entries: 1. I have been busy at work/school, no joke. Classes to do, lessons to plan, and an English club to do has kept me on my toes alot. And 2. the Incheon Metropolitan School Board, or least some unknown entity, has blocked blogger.com from its domain. I can't bypass it, it sucks.

In fact, the IMSB has blocked three websites, two recently. When I started, they blocked YouTube.com, which I can see why because they do not want students to be watching videos when they should be studying. But, they blocked this website (I don't know why), and they blocked one very important website that is universal now: en.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia is one of the best websites out on the Internet, because it is a user-made online encyclopedia which is for the most part reliable in reading very user-friendly catalogs of information about almost anything, and now I cannot use it for the information I need for reference.

As for blogger.com, this means my blogging will be infrequent, but I will try to update as much as possible on a computer that is free from these dumb censorship things. Yet for now, I will update what is going on so far in my tenure as the English Language Instructor at Yeonsu Boys' High School:

1. Teaching. I teach 22 hours a week, and I teach only Freshmen classes. The classes are not that bad, and the Lord has been teaching me wisdom about how to be firm, yet fair, and also how to bring enthusiasm to the room when things are out of hand. Sometimes there are classes where I learn some lessons from my mistakes, and then there are classes that go really well because I learn from those mistakes (such as how to make a language activity game more interactive, and how to deal with students who keep talking). I have 15 different homeroom sections to teach (from 1-1 to 1-15), so I have at least 8-9 co-teachers whom I work with. Chemistry is important, and depending on the teacher, I usually get different results. With Mrs. Ha, my original co-teacher, she is helpful that she explains alot in Korean what I say, but her class tends to be out of control just because we have a class of some misfits. Then, Mrs. Gina's classes are the more fun classes because I have kids who are more smarter and interested in English. Then, working with the younger female teachers like Su-jong and Hyun-mi can sometimes be a hassle because the students think they do not have to listen to both of us because of our youth. However, its been an enjoyable experience, with some funny moments in between.

2. Teachers' classes: I have been teaching Teachers' Classes, which are more of a discussion than teaching them. Most of the Korean-English Teachers are fluent in English and speak at a really, really high level, in other words, you can meet them and have an English conversation for hours with them. Then, there are a few who are not confident in their conversation skills just yet, so they tend to be quiet. The way I do these classes is simple: we talk about just a current issue in the world today, using a handout, and we talk about American contemporary issues as a way for them to see my world and hence the English-speaking world at a more deeper level. My philosophy is that they should start grasping more cultural themes of America as a way to enhance their worldview of English, and perhaps take that to the classroom.

3. Other weekend activities: as another ESL teacher told me one time: "To make the most of your time in Korea and to escape school antics, you GOTTA do alot of stuff on the weekend." That statement is true. There is no point in staying where you live on the weekend, which most likely has nothing much to do. Most ESL teachers like myself go to Seoul on the weekends, the bumping city. I go to a weekly Korean class at Sookmyung Women's University, a huge university in the center of Seoul. I am in a Level 4 Korean class (the highest), where I struggle to speak the language. They placed me in Level 4 because I took one year of Korean language at Maryland. However, let me tell ya, Korean is a difficult language. This is simply because its difficult to understand a language that is the opposite of English and the other languages we got to learn in high school. Also, its vice versa for Korean students when they learn English, especially when it comes to speaking, because Asian languages emphasize tone. So, I understand how my students feel when they look at me like an idiot when I'm blasting them with an English bomb of phrases that is flying over their head like a C++ lecture in a room full of blondes. But, the class is fun and it gives me a humbling experience of re-learning this language over again, because I felt my Maryland classes did not immerse real life Korean in our curriculum.

Also, I hit up my aunt's house in Anyang City, which is right below Seoul. She lives in a really nice condo, with her 25 year old son and 26 year old daughter. Her house is conveniently located right on Line 4 of the Seoul subway, which is a good entry point to the major locations of Seoul such as my university Korean classes. Also on the weekends, I hit up major shopping spots of Seoul such as Yongsan, which is the largest electronics market, in my opinion, in the world. They have every electronic device your heart desires, and for really cheap. Electrono/videogame/DVD philes beware, your pockets full of gold will be sold to these merchants. Also, I have been hitting up Myeong-dong, which is the hip shopping center where EVERYONE goes on the weekends, it is an endless crowd of people that does not stop. I just go to look because the prices are too rich for my blood!

4. Co-workers: I have great co-workers, which is a blessing. They are all kind to me, especially the Korean-English teachers, who ably talk to me frequently. The other non-English teachers are also nice, even though many are shy to talk to me because of their limited English, yet me knowing some Korean helps break that. We had a huge Friday night "New Teachers' Party," and I got to meet some really nice new co-workers, and again, my limited knowledge of Korean helps me to at least introduce myself and get to know them somewhat.

5. The students: I am a celebrity. As an ESL teacher, you are the closest they get to know a Westernized person, so give it all you got. However, I now see how celebrities feel sometime! I walk through the hallways, and I get "Hi teacher!" 10000 times. I don't mind it, but the enthusiasm from these students can get a little overbearing: 'HI! HOW ARE YOU!?', then when I try to speak to them in English, they run off giggling...and this is a boys' high school. But, the Freshmen classes have at least some admiration for me, as I try to bring the energy and make the class at least worth their while.

For the most part, the students are on auto-pilot in-between periods, and they more disciplined, way more disciplined, than American students. They study all day, from 7:45AM to 4:30PM, then from 4:45PM to 5:00PM they clean the school...that's right, they clean the school. They clean my classroom every day, and they do a great job of it too. Then, they head back for self-study in their homerooms from 5-6PM, then they have a dinner break from 6 to 6:50PM, where they can go anywhere to eat, then they have to be back in their classrooms by 7PM for study until 9PM. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Korean high school life, study, study, and more study. For the seniors, its worse because they have to prepare for the College Exams, which are very rigorous and life-threatening. More on that later.

The student body is a bunch of hard working kids who try their best at studying, but just like any high school in the world, there are those who care less about school, but that is a minimum problem in most schools in Korea because parents pressure their kids to succeed, lest they get the axe.

So, that's pretty much up to date for now. More on the intricate details in part two of the "Filling You In...," but now I'm trying to adjust to a new groove of learning to be a teacher and learn how to be these guys' mentor, because not only I'm in it just for a job, but I'm here to touch lives. These guys, and my co-teachers, are placed in my life for a reason, because God wants me to share the Gospel with them, albeit any way possible. Let my light shine before God, so that all men may look to Him.

Your prayers are much needed. Also, if you want to see pictures of my new life, go to www.myspace.com/markos24. That is the easiest way to see pics right now, because I can't translate the Korean writing on this page (its all in Korean).

One,
Mark