Wow! I've been in Korea for half of a year! Where does time go? Well, my update isn't much different than the post a few weeks ago, so let's move on.
First week of teaching.
My first day of teaching was a blur. I arrived at my desk to a big stack of papers that the previous teacher had left me, and an unreadable class schedule full of school codes that I had not yet learned. I met the other teachers in our school shuttle on the way to school, but it was was still awkward. There English level was lower than I had expected considering we all work at an English language school. One of the teachers grew up in America most of his life so he was my go-to man for everything.
My first class was terrifying. I don't really remember the age level...maybe 3rd grade. I spoke fast because I was nervous and they looked at me with blank stares. I tried to slow it down a bit, introduced myself, asked names and let them ask me questions. One kid said that I looked like an elephant. I laughed and told him that I don't have a trunk or big ears and wear cltjes so I couldn't be an elephant. After that it was fine. We talked about rules and played games for my elementary classes.
Middle school was frightening but most kids just asked me questions about myself...my age, did I have a boyfriend, was I married, and other lovely personal things about myself that you would never ask a teacher back home. It was fine. I was prepared for it and I made sure to share with them about my interests and things we haf in common. I only had 1 class that week that kept on talking in Korean. That was frustrating but I survived. I made many mistakes and felt like my head was going to explode from information overload and exhaustion.
2 days of that first week consisted of Halloween parties for the elementary kids so I did face painting.
That's all I can write for now!
