Femalions

Picking up where I left off...I am now a teacher at on a total different end of the gender spectrum.


After tearing it up as a teacher at Yeonsu High School for one whole year, now I am ripping it up at...of all places...a girls' high school.


As I neared the end of my contract last term, I requested for a school transfer. Nothing against Yeonsu, because they gave me my start and I will be grateful for them for giving me the opportunity to teach there. Yet I desired a change of experience just to shake it up my here in Korea during my second year. Soon, I was placed at an all-girls school in Incheon.


Most high schools in Korea are still gender separated, while many more middle schools are becoming more integrated, like my friend James' school. I wasn't prepared for the change coming ahead...


So, the school is full of girls. Lots of em'. All of them! They all look like factory-engineered, porcelain dolls. Same hair, same uniform, many with the same looks, its like looking at a sea of barbie dolls. My boys grunt and fight, these girls giggle and scream. My boy students are loud and aggressive, my girls like to watch and giggle. They are a goofy bunch. The uniformity in their uniforms and hair styles just make it seems like they are all clones. Yet, that's the Korean system and that's what they go for: group unity towards higher learning.


I think giggle is going to be part of my vocabulary for a while. "Hee hee hee" this, "ha ha ha" that.


So far, the staff and students are kind of cool. My boys at the old school, at first, were really aggressive with me, but slowly started to warm up after a big thaw in frosty relations. The girls in Korea seem to be very docile, so it was very easy to start getting their attention from the get go.


However, there are some challenges that are presented to me. Being a young male teacher at a girls school, well you get the picture. They will be curious. There are other male teachers who get lots of attention as well, so the same treatment goes around. My biggest philosophy is to ask God to give me wisdom on how to be a friendly teacher without playing with the femalions' emotions.

Yet so far, I'm trying to downplay the barriers and just be a good teacher. Take the lessons I learned as a teacher from Yeonsu High and make them apply here, just take it from a different approach and be more sensitive to the femalions, whereas with the boys I was more direct and stern.

I learned today about my replacement at my old school. A Canadian man straight out of college like me, but with more credentials to teach. I hope to meet the guy and discuss the job with him.

So, that's pretty much it. I'm in a new neighborhood, the student body has changed, but the teaching remains the same. Its pretty cool to be teaching a Korean public high school. How many people have the opportunity to do that in their lifetime? Its unique indeed.