change is in the air

I stepped out of my apartment this morning to welcome the smell of snow. Mind, snow has not yet fallen, it just smells like it is coming. Crisp, clean, and freezing the inside of the nose. I love the necessity of a heavier coat and the excuse for a scarf and gloves. And then there are the coloured leaves gathering in piles on the sidewalk. Let's just say that I have been in Southern California for too many "falls" and "winters".

Chaos adequately defines yesterday. After a full day of teaching (six classes), I had a short respite before heading off to Taekwondo for the most intense workout I have had since moving to Hongseong. I worked on a kick that begins as a front kick and then pivots partway through, turning into a side kick. For the whole hour. Exiting the academy happy but exhausted, I then hopped in a cab to attend my first Korean language class in Hongseong. But the driver didn't understand the address! I paid eight thousand won to be dropped off at my co-teacher's house so she could drive me to the language class. Em (my friend who lives in Yesan) joined me for the class, so at least I didn't walk in late alone. (Just as a general note, I would much rather skip out on any given event than walk in late). I was a little weirded out by seeing this high of a concentration of Westerners in Hongseong, but I am really excited to be able to meet other foreigners. The class went well and the journey home was uneventful.

Currently my days are busy but fulfilling, even though I am a bit more homesick than I expected. I keep wondering how cold it will get here this winter. :)

some days I just laugh...

Every once in a while, I just sit back and ponder the fact that I am in South Korea. The rest of the time, that detail hits me square in the face...generally during an awkward or random moment. The first of these moments (today) came when one of my second graders called me "omah" during class. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that he had just called his English teacher "mom". Then he just smiled. I thought it was rather cute.

The next "moment" occurred during Taekwondo practice. My Taekwondo teacher, changed the practice time from starting at 6.30 to starting at 8.00. This wasn't a big deal for me, so I headed to class expecting a room full of other Taekwondo students. Well....it was just me and the teacher for the first 20 minutes and then another student came part way through. It was great to have the individual instruction, but also a little weird to not have a class full of people kicking and screaming. Then the owner of the academy came along with the four Swiss students. For a good seven-and-a-half minutes, the were just watching me (YIKES!!). We then spent half an hour matching the English to the Korean to the various positions. The time for me to head back to my apartment was approaching when the owner of the academy asked me if I liked to drink soju (the Korean liqueur). I responded with my usual, "I don't drink alcohol but thanks anyway" and he ran into his office and grabbed several bottles of a Vitamin C drink (these four ounces literally contain 1000% of one's daily allotment of Vitamin C). We sat and toasted and talked about my Taekwondo lessons. The owner was unhappy that I will only be in Korea until next July and wanted to know if I wanted to learn Taekwondo with a group of students or have private lessons (remember: all of this is through Noel, the Swiss translator). I was leaning toward the group lessons, because I can watch others and have more interaction with Korean people. Then he started thinking that I should take ninety minutes of group lessons followed by a ninety minute private lesson five days a week (for those who struggled with math in school that is three hours of practice a day-once again: YIKES). With the help of Noel, I convinced him that group lessons would be great and if I was confused on any aspect of the lesson, I could stay after for a couple of minutes. I think we reached a satisfactory conclusion, but we will see how it goes tomorrow.

Just a heads up: I am getting sick with a sore throat again and would love prayer that this passes quickly and doesn't have a huge influence on my teaching. thanks!!

taekwondo

During Orientation, I had a fantastic experience in my Taekwondo course and thought that it would be something I would like to pursue during my year in Korea. Now that I am relatively settled in my placement, I decided to look for a Taekwondo academy near my apartment. The whole process was remarkable simple. On Monday, I asked my co-teacher how to go about taking Taekwondo courses, she took me to three academies within five minutes of my apartment and I signed up for the one I liked the best. On Tuesday, I came for my first session. Class was a congregation of nations. There were some middle and high school girls and boys as well as four guys from Switzerland. One of them, Noel, could speak both English and Korean. He had taken Taekwondo training in Korea for a year about a decade ago and has been coming back for two-month stints ever since. Noel helped translate the Korean to English for me and the Korean to German for the other Swiss guys. We could have formed our own UN chapter... The training was hard, but a great workout. I mostly focused on arm blocking positions. Apparently, I can come to the academy anytime after 1:00pm during the week, but my class time is from 6.30-8.00pm. I am excited about tomorrow's lesson.

so much to write, so little time!

Hello world! I promise that I am alive and well--I have simply been detained by an inordinate amount of paperwork issued by the Lesson Plan Monster. I am conquering these tasks, though, so hopefully life will begin to settle down some.

First off, I would like to announce that I am officially a teacher!! I have completed my first week of being in charge of my own classroom (from the writing to the execution of lesson plans) and while there have been several ups and downs, I have great students and awesome co-teachers.

After a couple of days of settling in to my new apartment, host family, and hometown I went with my host mom and Ho Jin to visit Galsan Elementary School. To get to school every day, I walk about fifteen minutes to the bus stop and then take a twenty minute ride to Galsan. From there, it is a two minute walk to the school. The commute is a little longer than I would have wanted, but I do not mind the extra time to read my Kindle. After arriving at school that first day, I immediately set to work cleaning my classroom. It had been used over the summer to teach math because there was construction in the other rooms and took the full day to straighten up. My first official day at school was on Wednesday, August 25th. While I did not teach, I got to give a small speech the students and meet the rest of the staff. The kids are adorable and I love saying "hi" to them in the halls.

My first day of actual teaching was on Thursday. I met the first and second grade classes. In Korea, English training is not officially required to start until third grade. But because Galsan is so small, I am able to teach all seven grades (K-6). There is no textbook for K-2, so I am currently working on phonics with them as well as introducing other simple topics. I am slightly concerned regarding coming up with enough topics to fill the year.

During the course of the week, I teach twenty different classes, each requiring its own lesson plan. This has been rather overwhelming, especially this first week, and yesterday I was not sure if I would be able to handle the workload. I want to teach high quality lessons, but if I were to devote two hours to the planning of each lesson, I would have at a minimum a sixty-hour work week. In addition, I am finding it difficult to effectively control a class when I cannot adequately express myself in Korean. Today, after a noisy group of first graders, I had a little heart-to-heart with God regarding my stress level and feelings of being overwhelmed. I was reminded of something:

This is my first time teaching on a full-time basis. I do not yet have the experience to automatically know what to do in each situation (if that ever comes). There will be mistakes and that is okay. The important thing is not to do this perfectly and spend every waking moment planning for the classroom. That is called burnout-in-a-month. The important thing is to take the time to figure out what works with this classroom, love my students, plan and prepare as much as is reasonable, and remember when a lesson does not go as well as anticipated that tomorrow is a new day.

After that, I took a new approach to writing lessons (writing all the lessons for a unit in one go) and was able to crank out eleven lesson plans in one afternoon. (Do I get a Klondike bar for that?) I feel as though the situation is more in control and that I will eventually find some sanity in my teaching.

Beyond teaching, here is some other news of what I have been up to:

I have sampled three of the coffeeshops in town and plan to become the local coffee connoisseur. I like two of them, both in coffee flavour and atmosphere.

I have not had a face-to-face conversation with a native English speaker in two weeks.

I just experienced my first typhoon (the worst typhoon in Korea in a decade) and as a result spent this morning without any electricity in my classroom.

I have been playing my host sister Jisu's flute and loving every minute of it.

Funny Teaching Moment #1: My awesome taekwondo skills came in handy when I was hanging out with some of my first and second graders. They were practicing kicks and so I decided to join them. I amazed them with my high kick. We then moved from martial arts to arm wrestling where I defeated half a dozen seven-year olds.

I went to Seoul with my host family for my first Korean wedding. It was fascinating to compare and contrast the differences of weddings in Korea v America.

There is a Baskin Robbins and a Dunkin Donuts in Hongseong, but I have only sampled the former.

I like octopus.

Well, that is all for the present. I will work harder at updating my blog more frequently!!

teaching!!!

Camp Fulbright, two weeks of English immersion for one hundred thirty Korean students, is now in full swing. On Monday, I taught my very first English lesson and I am both relieved that it is over and enthusiastic about my teaching position for the next year. It was an incredible experience to help a group of students comprehend a new aspect of English. The lesson began with very little enthusiasm from the class, and a scramble to draw the students into the lesson. But about halfway through, I changed tactics and watched the class respond. It was exhilarating. I hope that I can develop some great teaching skills during the duration of this year.

Aside from teaching, I have been attending Taekwondo (is it a problem that I am already addicted??), learning about Korean calligraphy, continuing with Korean classes, and doing an occasional round-off back handspring to keep life interesting (see picture below). I enjoy being busy, even if I end the day pretty tired.

taekwondo

I get to learn Taekwondo while in Korea!! Today I (along with about thirty-five other Fellows) received my Taekwondo uniform and my white belt. I already love the class. After changing into uniforms and learning how to tie the belt, we stretched, learned a few commands, and our first kick. I greatly anticipate participating in this aspect of Korean culture. Yesterday, I began my first calligraphy class. The instructor was extremely nice and gave us an overview of this art in Korean while a leader helped translate. The remainder of the day revolved around Korean language classes and practice. Construction continues outside my window, but fortunately I can block that with headphones.

Here are a couple of pictures of my Taekwondo uniform and in my first stance (next time I will smile :) ):