Why I Love Teaching

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Believe it or not, but we love teaching. Love it. Teaching English in Korea isn't just a job for us. It's our careers, and it's something we're really passionate about. But it's hard to explain to people why we like teaching so much, especially since teaching can be such a challenging job. So, Simon decided a year ago or so to start collecting clips of why he loves teaching in Korea so much. He'd walk around the hallways with the camera and get the students just being themselves. Now, finally, we've finally put together the clips into a video, and we hope it conveys how fun the students are and why we like teaching so much. Really, interacting with our students is the best part of our jobs, and it's what makes teaching so enjoyable. Sounds sappy, we know, but this video's really special to us, and we hope you enjoy it. So click here to see Why I Love Teaching. And, if you're a teacher as well, we hope you can relate.

Another Korean Middle School Lesson

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Now that March is around the new school year has started, and with it has come a lot of new English Conversation Teachers. Hopefully you've seen our ESL Resources already so you can have an idea of what it's like to teach in Korea. The videos we made from our classes, though, make it seem as if the lessons require huge amounts of prep time. This isn't always the case. So what we've done is uploaded another lesson plan, only this time it's really easy to prepare. In fact, it should take you probably ten minutes to prepare this lesson, and it will have your students speaking in and listening to English for the entire class. Check the new video of Simon Teaching in a Korean Middle School, and if you like it, download it in either Mac or PC format. If you do decide to use it, please let us know how it works!

Teaching a Lesson in Korean Middle Schools

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We have received a lot of questions about teaching in public schools. If we don't speak Korean, how do we communicate with our students? What do we teach them? What do the classes look like?

We decided to start taping some of our classes to show everyone what they're like. This video here is of Simon's Middle School classes. Here you'll see the students come into class, sit down, Simon instruct for a bit, and then the students play the game. Finally, a lot of your questions will have been answered!

Simon's situation is a bit unique, though, so don't assume that all classes are this way. For starters, Simon teaches half of his class one week, and the other half the other week, meaning, out of a class of 40, he teaches 20 while his co-teacher deals with the other 20 in another class. As well, some schools expect their teachers to be teaching for the entire class. Simon's school - thankfully - believes that students should be given as much opportunity to speak in class. Less lecturing, more participation. And so, Simon usually explains the rules for some English speaking activity for the first few minutes of class and gives the remaining time for the students to partake in that activity. There's more facilitation than dictation.

So, without further ado, here is one day in Simon's classes. Click on the picture above to see the video, or click here to see a Korean Middle School Class. If you like the lesson, and want to teach it yourself, head over to the ESL Resources page to download the handouts and the presentations.

Korean Trick or Treating

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Halloween is not celebrated here in Bucheon or the rest of Korea, so I - Simon - tried to teach my middle school students about Halloween and Trick or Treating. I did not teach it well. The only thing they learned was that strangers will give you candy once you demand it. Some thought that the louder you demand it the more candy you will get. This turned out to be terrible, terrible for me. I have documented it all: the horror, the terror, the rage. Click on the picture above for the movie, or view it in the sidebar here for different versions (YouTube and QuickTime included).

Note: If you can't tell from the movie, then please understand that these students were acting. They were given their lines, given their pay (lots of candy, of course), and fully consented to the making of this movie and the way in which it will be used. The students who did not want to participate were free to go. I have 920 students - here are not even one fifth of them. Yeah.

Korean Fitness Tests

This Friday I - Martina - had no classes because it was Fitness Test Day in Bucheon All Girls' High School. I wasn't sure what this was, as the closest equivalent we have to this in Canada is track and field day where students compete in different sports, but I was told that in Korea they also have a track and field day. Fitness Day is different; the students are rigorously tested to see how healthy they are, and in the past, Fitness Day was part of a final mark. If you weren't in shape you could receive a failing grade, but one of our our Korean friends told us that some students in the past died trying to get high marks, so they got rid of the mark factor. Click on the picture above for the video, or click here to see our video on Korean Fitness Evaluation Day.

"Work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger, more than ever, hour after, our work is never over...." - Daft Punk

Bucheon High School Festival

The day after we sang our hearts out in a Bucheon No-Rae-Bang was a Saturday, which, as you may recall, means fun times around Bucheon City Hall area. This week we were surprised to find another high-school event of sorts. Last week there was a high-school Karaoke festival, with a stage set on the street. This week there was an all out talent show, with a pretty big stage set up right at the steps of Bucheon City Hall. The talent show was for more than just singing, though. We saw some full-out bands playing, yeah, but we also saw two beatboxers, and a group of 20 people or so doing Taekwondo or some other martial art in a synchronized dance to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. All around the place were concession stands set up, where you could buy food made by Bucheon high school students, or buy a polaroid picture of yourself acting goofy, or get your face painted, bid in a charity auction, or whatnot.

As well, in the center of City Hall's grass was a huge white mat with a bunch of paints and paintbrushes bundled to the side of it. People were encouraged to write a message on the mat, or leave hand or footprints. Martina was dead set on writing something as well, even though nothing was written in English. Thankfully, we know enough of the Korean alphabet to be able to spell out phonetically. And so, with green paint, Martina smeared on the mat "Ma-tee-na" [heart] "Sa-yee-mohn." That's as good as it gets when it comes to spelling out our names, by the way. For Martina's name, the R-T combination is impossible in Korean, so we just have to drop the R altogether. Anyhow, we're proud of being able to show off our skills in writing Korean; kids around us were staring at Martina with their mouths open, shocked to see that a foreigner knows the secrets of their script. Click on the picture here to see Martina's writing in all its glory.

Altogether, the event was loads of fun, and even though Simon's first Korean cold was just starting to gain strength (we'll write about Korean medicine soon), we both still had a good time. What makes the event even better is that Martina saw a bunch of her students there and some of them even served us food. We made a movie splicing all of our short clips from the event together, so click on this picture or click here for our movie on Bucheon's High School Festivities. Sure, it's nothing special, but you'll get a sense of what the day was like. We're just surprised that the city of Bucheon is so heavily involved in high school activities. For two consecutive weekends these streets were shut down for school festivities, and we can hardly ever recall anything like that happening in Canada. Kudos to Bucheon for being so involved.

Simon's Summer School

On Tuesday I - Simon - finished teaching my last day of Summer School. Now I just sit in the office from 8:30-4:30, doing nothing. One of those nothings for me to do is make a compilation clip of a game I used to play with my students in Summer School. They really didn’t want to be there, but had to be there because of forceful parents. So, in between classes, I would try to play a game with them that would make them laugh. The game is called “Flip Flop Kick” (yes, I know it’s not all too creative). Instead of wearing shoes in the school, I wear flip flops, because I take off my shoes from outside as a form of respect, and use the flip-flops that I bought exclusively for use at that school. One of those uses is kicking it as far as I can. Click the picture above to see it in action, or just watch the movie here if you feel like it.

Martina's Summer School

So you’ve seen a lot from Simon’s school and his students. But what are Martina’s students like, you’re sure to ask. How much different are they from Simon’s students? Well, for starters, Martina’s students are cool, and can talk to Martina about fashion and music, while Simon's students are not all too interested in talking about anything at all. You’ll be surprised to find out what they listen to - stuff that’s even older than the two of us. Anyhow, they’re a lot of fun, and a real pleasure to teach - even though there’s only four of them in the class. Click on the picture above to see what Martina's Summer School is like, or just click here for our video on Martina's Summer School Classes

Huge Glasses

See, I grew up in a generation where big glasses were a bad thing. If you had big glasses you were a nerd. Pepsi can lenses were not cool. They made you wimpy and dorky, and would make you lose out on any potential friendships. Here in Korea, though, big and ugly glasses make you cool. So here’s a video of a student in Simon’s class who wears glasses unlike any we’ve seen before. They’re distractingly gaudy. And her wearing them is not a mistake; she’s one of the cool kids in the school, so it’s not like her grandmother bought them for her and she has to wear them. If that is the case, then she’s done a great job of pulling them off - you’ll just never catch Martina wearing glasses like these. Click the picture above to see the video of them, or just click here to see our video on Huge Student Glasses if you’d rather.

Supercool Phone

This is a student in Simon's Extra classes. He's in this class for no good reason. The class is full of students with very weak English while he got a 90% on his English exam. He's bored as hell in class and so he fiddles around with his supercool phone, and I don't blame him. In fact, I encourage him to do so when he's done the classwork. I made a video of his phone because it's got something I've never seen before in Canadian phones. Here's the deal: take an antenna (a short and small one that comes with the phone) and stick it in the side of the phone. Wait for a minute or so while the phone's application kicks in, and - voila - you've got yourself free to air Korean Television. Sure, it's not useful to us because we don't watch Korean TV, but, maaaaan that's still pretty cool. Click on the picture for the video, or just check out these Supercool Korean Phones here.

Korean School Pillow

Students always find different ways of slacking off in class. It's the same in Canada as it is in Korea. In both Canada and Korea students will secretly use their cellphones in class, or play their PSPs under their desks, or write notes to other students, so on and so forth. In both countries students lay their heads down and take naps. In Korea, though, students have perfected the art of nap taking in class. I have never seen anything in Canada like what you're about to see here. I was so shocked that I made the poor girl stand up and, instead of scolding her, made a video about it. Click the picture for the video, or just click here instead.

Class Control

I had to take a movie of this, even though it’s not that exciting. I have a class of students who are rowdy as all hell. Sorry, I meant to say I have 22 classes of students who are rowdy as all hell. And so this is a video of my crowning achievement as a teacher in Korea: getting everyone to sit down and shut up. Click here if you'd like to learn my secret and see just how I did it. It's much easier than you probably expected.

Student Glasses

This is a student in my - Simon's - class. This student has something special about him that I felt I had to share. He's a trendsetter. What he has started has been copied by many students at my school, so kudos to him for being so cool. Why he started this trend I don't know, and I tried asking him about it, but neither of us have enough language in common to figure it out. One of these days I'll make a weird fashion trend of my own. Anyhow, click here for the Student Glasses video and see what I mean.

Simon's New Office

Today started off pretty poorly for me. To begin with, I forgot my Starbucks Double Shots at home. I usually pack two in my bag to make through the day. Without them, it’s a wonder how I survived (actually, as I write this now after lunch, I feel like I am going to collapse). Secondly, I forgot my keys at home. These were the keys to the English Room, my classroom, and my desk. I borrowed a set of keys off someone else (the lady who took us out on Sunday) so I was able to get into his class. Unfortunately, this set of keys could not unlock my desk, where I had all of my handouts for the day and cables for my computer. So, there was only one thing left for me to do: rip open the bloody desk. It turns out that the desk offered little resistance. A good, solid tug at the drawer popped its plastic lock off, shown above.

Anyhow, the rest of the day worked out perfectly well. I had a pretty rough day on Monday, and Tuesday was pretty bad as well. Today I tried something new, and the students loved it, and every class went by swimmingly. Good for me! Now if I could just not fall asleep, everything would be ok. Anyhow, I also made a new video of my new office. I have a room all to my own, and this is where I teach. I even have my own desk. They just bought it for me this week, and I just broke the lock on it today! Click here for the video to see what all the fun is about.

The School System

Today is the first of three days that I (Simon) have to spend in an empty school. The entire school is away on a three-day field trip. Each of the three grades have gone to different places. For some reason, even though I don’t have any students, I still have to come to school. I am in an empty office. My co-teacher is in it for maybe five minutes at a time, then goes away for an hour or two. This is not fun.

In my excessive spare time, I am lesson planning. I was able to grab my co-teacher in her brief stint here, and asked her about how to plan lessons. Here’s something absolutely shocking that I learned: My class will be split up into two halves, like I mentioned before. One week I will get one half of the class and the next week I will get the other half. This means I have to make one lesson plan per level for two weeks of class. Technically, since I teach two grades, I will be teaching two different lesson plans for two weeks. That is absolutely shocking. In Canada, I had to make a new lesson plan for every class, three classes a day, every day, which means 30 lessons for two weeks, worst case scenario. Here, I have 2 lessons for two weeks.

What’s even more shocking - and this is where I get a little bit upset - is that I am not supposed to give the students any homework. Majority of students go to an after school academy, which means they are swamped with homework there. And so, I don’t have to mark anything, ever. I’m surprised that their after-school academies have an impact on their regular schools, and makes me question which one takes precedence. The reason why I am upset is not because I am stupid and want more work. I’m upset because I would like to have a bigger impact on these students. Really, I teach them for 45 minutes every two weeks. I can’t monitor or evaluate their progress. I don’t do enough to have an impact on them, compared to the many times I would see my students in Canada.

I’ll say more about this when I learn more about it. For now, I’m just very, very surprised.

Simon's School

So Simon finally has made a video of his school. In it you’ll see screaming kids and lavish basketball courts. The kids never seem to shut up, and shout at me every chance they get. Hi Simon! Nice to meet you! They’ve said that many times after meeting me, fyi. As well, you’ll be stunned when you check out the basketball courts. They’re completely awesome, and unlike anything we’ve ever seen in outdoor Canadian basketball courts. Altogether, the Korean schools seem to have a much bigger budget than any of the schools we've seen in Canada. Click on either the picture above to see the video, or click here for the Video Tour of Simon's School.

Martina's School

The following videos are a tour of my school. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2. I’m at an all girls school which is about 15 - 20 minutes away by foot, 7 minutes by bike, 5 minutes by taxi, 2 seconds by Startrek transporter. My school is surrounded by gates and fences of red roses (apparently that is the school’s symbol). The school is in two different buildings. My office is in the main building and my classroom is in the second building. When you walk into the main building you have to remove your outside shoes and so there are little cupboards with all the teacher’s shoes in it. You switch into “comfy shoes” (as they call it) but really they mean slippers or plastic slip on shoes. What I find strange is that you walk from building to building with your comfy shoes on, thus defeating the purpose of keeping the school clean from mud and dirt...or maybe it’s just me that thinks that’s weird.

My office is a big open room with desks and little mini-cubicle like dividers for all the English teachers. My desk is beside my co-teacher (who speaks English) and she is very sweet and very helpful. The office has a hot and cold water machine and above it is bags of green tea and coffee sticks. These coffee sticks are awesome, you can get all flavours (including with or without cream/sugar) and you just rip the top and dump it into a mug of hot water. If you want cold coffee they have special ones for ice coffee and iced tea. Everyone has their own mug, and at the end of the day around 4:10pm all the girls clean the whole school. Sweep the floor, mop the floor, pick up garbage, everything. When they clean the office they take your mug, clean it, and put it back into the UV ray sterilization box located in the office. Crazy huh?

The Vice Principal is also in our office and he has a little rug and leather chairs in his giant cubicle. The Principal has his own office downstairs and it is the biggest Principal’s office I have ever seen in my whole life. It has a small forest worth of plants and about 16 big leather chairs all facing each other. His desk is huge and has a big beautiful rug underneath it. Pretty different than North American school offices.

My classroom is in the building which houses art, dance, music, science labs, and singing. I have quite a colourful atmosphere around me! If I leave the door open I often get swarmed with 1st year students coming in to say “hi” or ask if I am teaching them next year. I’m hoping to get a video of this swarming one day. My classroom is big because I have classes of 35 - 40 students. My students are very easily excited, but otherwise they are well behaved... besides chatter. Lots and lots of girly chatter and giggling. I will also try and video tape the chatter and giggling.

A few strange things Simon and I have both noticed is that the schools tend to keep the lights off. You’ll notice in the video the hallways are very dark. I’m not sure if it is an energy saving thing or a way to keep the heat down. It isn’t hot here yet, but we have been forewarned that it will be very humid eventually. That’s it for now, pictures of coffee sticks soon to come!

Our First Day

So here’s the update from the first day of school. To begin with, we are very tired right now, and we want to go to sleep, so this will have to be short. Korean schools are very odd compared to Canadian schools. What you see in this picture is Simon’s schedule. Every blue box is a class I have to teach. I have 23 classes to teach per week. I teach 40 students per class. I see each class only once a week. That means that every week I teach 23 x 40 = 920 students...EVERY WEEK. I thought I might be able to memorize their names if I tried really hard, since Korean names are so odd to me. Now I know there’s no chance in hell of memorizing nearly 1000 of them.

Here’s the plus side, and it’s a great, great plus. I have to make only two lesson plans per week, one for each level I teach, but I have to teach it 11-12 times. As well, classes are only 45 minutes long, so if I run out of material in class the wait won’t be as excruciating.

There’s a lot more to write about, but we’ll have to save it for tomorrow.