My new MacBook will be on its way to Jeju-do very, very soon. I’ve come to peace with it. My father, he has deep-rooted, principled objections to Apple Computers Inc., and I understand them; anyone can make a PC or a PC part or a PC program, but if you want something for an Apple, well, you have to go through Apple. But I’m really, really excited. It’s like a toy. Have you seen iLife ’08?
Today I taught my kids the word for “flood” (hmm), ate a yogurt popsicle, and had one new boy show up to choir and two girls quit. Cool, whatever, we didn’t want you anyway. I also saw the student body president being a jackass in the special ed classroom – it appears that all student body presidents everywhere are alike – and told ACT that I’m down for yoga and pottery classes. I really want to take up cello again too, but they’re telling me that a used one costs around $400, so I have to think about it. I think I need some extracurriculars, though. I’m ready to do more on my own, to get more involved in this city, to be less reliant on others. And in that spirit, even though I don’t really feel like it, I’m going to go walk around Hwabuk and see what I can see.
Filed under: ACT, life in Jeju, miscommunication, music, PCT, pipe dreams, skool, teaching
So my room is filled with decorations from last year’s ETA, including class projects, English concepts, and signs that say “Happy Times with Jullienne” (sic). Monday, after many promises of redecoration, PCT and ACT offered to take me to the stationery store for room supplies the next day. The next day (yesterday), however, it was raining, so PCT came into my room and was like, “What I mean to say is I think maybe it is bad idea to go because the rain is so heavy.” And I was like, fine, whatever, and we made plans to go today. And they went anyway, because the rain stopped, and failed to call me. Although they bought me Post-it bookmarks. Which – granted – I needed. But still. And now PCT says she is too busy to help me make new signs for the classroom, which is fine, but I would be willing to do all the work – I just need to know what to do. I already tried emailing her documents she could print out and I could laminate (again, I would do this, but I don’t have access to a computer with a printer) and she told me that they were too small, or something. I don’t even know. And now ACT just came in – apparently we ARE going to the stationery store today, and I feel really bad, because I would have gone last night had I known, and thus avoided making them trek twice. Sometimes it just feels like there is a lot of stuff that they think/say in Korean and just, you know, forget to translate.
Also: first a cappella practice this morning. Students did NOT like “Lean on Me.” Which I was going to say is positively un-American, but then I remembered I am not in America.
PS. I am debating giving busted laptop to Candace for college, since Acer will take approximately six years to fix mine, and investing in a new one. And – I hate to say this, but I was looking at Glypie’s MacBook Pro, and it is so pretty. But a Mac? Really? In my family, that is akin to buying a Chevy, making cake from a mix, or voting Democrat. In other words, it means admitting the defeat of your convictions. Never mind that I don’t really want to vote Republican or Democrat or Green or Constitution, lately.
I’ve been watching this music show thing with HS – maybe it’s an awards show? – and for lack of a better word, it’s awesome. A few observations:
- We just saw the lead singer of this band called Banana Boat prance around on stage in a tailcoat
- Um, I just saw a band called Banana Boat
- All of the bands seem to have at least seven members
- Maybe “bands” isn’t the right word?
- No one can sing – at least in America our production values take care of singers who go flat
Anyway I’m about to call Tony and head out to Hallim for the evening, but I think I have to spend a little more time with HF, since I just got out of bed, you know, an hour or so ago. I actually woke up at 8 AM (thanks, school), watched an episode of Cupid, talked to Glypie, and generally was unproductive before falling back into a hangover-induced stupor around 11. I was working under the (erroneous) impression that my host fam was also asleep, so my sloth was acceptable. Actually, my host family was doing things, like normal people do on Saturdays, and they just didn’t happen to be in the apartment.
So now I’m sitting here in a shirt that says “What a Lovely,” thinking about what the rain means for my plans tomorrow with HB and HS, and about last night. I’m still not worried about the island – I think we’re all settling in, trying to establish our places with our families. I can see how one might be concerned. But I’m not, yet. I’m still happy.
What I am concerned about, though, is Monday. If my class of obnoxious eighth-grade girls yesterday reminded me of anything, it was that I really do need to come up with some sort of disciplinary policy and a set of rules – even if there’s another teacher in the room with me. I wish I’d established this routine earlier. Why did I just assume that they wouldn’t be needed? The educational system is different here, but kids are kids are kids. Even if it seems like only in South Korea would I find a student reminiscent of a small, Korean Eugene Levy. Why are the only resemblances I find obscure ones?
I think – I think – we’re having our first a cappella (aka “English pop song? Do you want to join English pop song club?”) practice on Wednesday, where I will begin the process of whipping these children into singing shape. I want to start with “Lean on Me,” because it’s easy, and who doesn’t like it? Co-Teacher has been incredibly supportive of this endeavor, and she also wrote me a really sweet letter the other day that basically told me to keep on truckin’. It made me glad I spent a lot of money to take a taxi to buy us frozen yogurt.
Actual names my students have requested to be called, male edition:
Wonder Woman
Raccoon
Mr. Kim
Superman
Dog Baby
Also, I have a student whose name is – no joke – Yoo Suk.
The English teacher dinner meeting tonight was held at a Japanese restaurant – I guess the fact that every English teacher has seen the Powerpoint slide that says “Hillary’s favorite Korean food is raw fish!” has finally sunk in. Not that I was dropping hints or anything. At dinner, I started telling them about my pipe-dream extracurricular – an a cappella English singing group – and they all got really excited. The Korean Lori Hartmann-Mahmud even asked me if I had seen “Freedom Writers” and told me I reminded her of Hilary Swank’s character. If she only knew. It seems to be a bit of a hasty judgment if you ask me, especially given the fact that, despite my vow to abandon Korean in the classroom, I ended up screaming, “Iyagiheyo? Fun OPSOYO!” (lit. “Talking? Fun DOES NOT EXIST!”) to a classroom of rowdy low-level eighth-grade boys. But it is flattering. I’m just not sure how to explain that it’s not that I’m actually a good, passionate teacher; it’s just that I’ve seen Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit five too many times.
I’m going to ask my students about it tomorrow, but I’m not banking on anything. That wasn’t even my original plan, honestly; my first goal was to have some sort of English newspaper or drama or something, but the one thing that my students seem to be unified in is their love of “POP SONG!” (One girl even wrote on her paper that her favorite place in Korea was “Super Junior’s house.” It seemed irrelevant to remind her that because there are maybe thirteen people in Super Junior, it is highly doubtful that they all live in one place.) I can’t even get them to shut up, so I doubt I can get them to voluntarily write about stuff. I might, however, be able to convince them to sing, although not having any choral conducting experience, and not having been in any sort of choir for the past five years, it won’t be easy. I just want my students to do something fun. But half of them go to hagwon (supplementary academy – like Sylvan Learning Center, but for everyone, not just kids who need special help) directly after school anyway. I guess I can dream, right?
Yesterday’s teaching was terrible, honestly. Today’s went much better, but I ended up crying at a teahouse with three of the other English teachers anyway, because they asked me about my plan for the semester and I tried to explain it and they all got this sort of look on their face like “Weeeellllllll…” I felt a lot less frustrated today with my students, but I’m still really aggravated – reading other blogs, I know that a lot of other ETAs have students coming up to them saying they are beautiful and have small face and blah blah blah. My students absolutely, positively do not care. My job is to make them care, of course – not that I have a small face (I don’t, anyway), but enough to pay attention in class, to want to learn English, to not leave me up there alone and pouring sweat in a room with no air conditioning. If I don’t want to be alone, I have to take them with me. And my co-teachers keep giving me advice, but I have no idea if it’s good or not – they have a lot of experience, but at the same time the Korean educational system is very different from the one I’ve learned, and so my instinctive reaction to a lot of their suggestions is, “Are you sure about that?”
Andy says it’s culture shock. It might be. I hope so, because it’s too early to let this get me down.
Intrepid Girl Reporter 
