Accidents Happen!

Well, I've made it through another week of teaching!  And even though we had one blessed day off for Korean Independence Day, I think that this week I started to feel the hagwon stress for the first time.  However, I ended my Friday feeling entirely too giddy.  I'm still in the experimental phase, but I think that my favorite mood, which is "giddy," tends to visit me after eating lots of raw vegetables...

The weight of Monday was certainly lightened due to the fact that Tuesday was going to be a holiday.  About 10 minutes in to our 15 minute walk to school, Rebecca and I happened upon a young man who was lying on the sidewalk with his bicycle twisted between his legs.  He was grabbing his leg in obvious pain...his cringing face was beet red.  Above him stood a small woman taking pictures of him with her cell phone. It was quite apparent, even though she was speaking Korean, that she was urging the boy to stay still while she finished photographing.  Directly behind both of them was a van, still running, with the driver's side door ajar.

"Oh my God, that guy totally just got took out by that huge van!" I noted.  Yes, accidents happen here in Seoul.  Cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians are all vying for the same narrow streets and sidewalks at all hours of the day and night.  This wasn't the first collision I'd seen since I've been here, but it was definitely the most dramatic.  

"I almost got taken out by a motorcycle while getting out of a taxi once," Rebecca informed me.  I really gotta watch where I'm walking!  "They don't even call the police, they just take pictures for their insurance."

Apparently if you are walking and a car hits you, it's your fault.  That woman photographing the man she almost vehicular-manslaughtered didn't even look nervous.  Maybe she wouldn't even have to suffer any consequences!  It might not have even ruined her entire day.  Perhaps incidences like these are nothing more than a minor setback to your morning and something to share with your family over dinner.  

Anyways, back to my week at school.  Parent-Teacher conferences began this week and it's thrown everyone off a bit.  The conferences take place during teaching hours...each foreign teacher is pulled from his or her class while one of the other Korean supervising teachers takes their place.  Then the teacher and his/her Korean supervising teacher go into a classroom set aside for the conference and the supervisor serves as a translator between the parent and teacher.  

The classroom they set aside for conferences happened to be my own.  It didn't matter in the mornings, when I teach music and science in Jess's old classroom.  She's gone now.  I miss her, but, I'm doing okay on my own!  But, then in the afternoons, I have my ESL classes.  Not being in my own classroom is stressful because their books are in there.  I had to send 7 rowdy boys down the hall to carry 4 textbooks and 4 workbooks each back down to the temporary class.  Then I had books EVERYWHERE.  It's been a big mess of, "TEACHER!  I CAN'T FIND MY WORKBOOK!" ever since.

I must point out here that my stress level doesn't compare to that of some of the teachers at my school, or teachers in general, I'd say.  It's just that I was tired, and yesterday when I couldn't use either of those classrooms for my other Tues/Thurs ESL class, I was pretty bummed.  We switched rooms several times trying to dodge conferences and other classes being taught at varying times.  Luckily, my Tues/Thurs class is only 2 boys and they are older and more chill.  But after teaching Music/Science to a couple of our wilder Kinder classes, being in charge of the Nemo class for activity time, and having issues with lesson plans and kids cursing in Korean, I was beyond useless by 7:30pm when I get to go home.  I'm like a little kid when I'm tired...I feel like crying.  Sometimes, I do cry!  But I like to keep as much of the little kid in me as I possibly can.  It helps me see the world as one big playground!

Today my extremely kind Korean supervising teacher pulled me aside.  She is so nice when she delivers criticism.  It's not even really criticism, it's more like, guidance.  That's how she makes it seem.  "They are pulling one of your students from your Grade 2 class (that's my Mon/Wed/Fri rowdy boy class)," she told me.  "One of the other students was speaking Korean in your class (I'm supposed to strictly forbid all Korean speaking, but I've been lax) and he told him 'his dick is burning.'"

"He said what?"  

"His dick is burning."  

That's what I thought she said he said!  Uh-oh.  

"We are going to have a talk with the boys today but his mom decided she wanted him in another class.  But if there is ANY Korean spoken in your class, you have to let me know right away."

She also let me know the other reason he was being pulled from my class.  Apparently I had written "Excellent!" on a spelling practice sheet where he had actually written a sentence incorrectly.  His mother could no longer trust me as a teacher.  

Now, this child isn't my most advanced student.  He's not the least advanced, either, but, I was trying to give him some healthy encouragement.  And the sentence in question was, in my opinion, too complicated for his level of English.  I had let it slide.  

His private English tutor had not.  

Yes, that's right.  Many of the kids, apparently, have private English tutors to help them do their English homework from English school.  No wonder these kids know almost as much English as American kids their age!  They spell better than most American adults, too.  Since spelling involves rote memorization, they all do really amazingly on spelling tests.  Their parents make them practice their spelling words over and over and over.

Like I said...these kids do not know what an X-Box is.  They've heard of Nintendo, but they don't own one.  Not a single one of them.  And these are good kids.  They deserve Nintendo in my American opinion.  

On Wednesday I asked my boys "What did you do on your Tuesday off school?"

"Worked!" was their answer.  

Do you blame me for trying to be a bit relaxed with them in the classroom?  I hear a Korean word here and there, I let it slide.  Not anymore!

Obviously, I want to make the parents happy.  They are the reason I have a job.  I like my job.  I like Korea, and I want to do things as close to their way as possible.  It's just a matter of figuring out what their way even means.  That's why I'm getting guidance from my supervisors.  And they are so friendly--they don't want to scare me off.  The school spent a lot of money getting me over here.  It would cost them a lot more to replace me.

So, like I said--accidents happen here in Seoul!  But as long as I don't get hit by a van, I think I'll be just fine!

Whiteboard drawing by one of my students