Heart Stopped Beating

"EW!  Did you see the way that man was looking at you?" asked Meredith.  She's our new teacher from the US.  We were walking home together Friday evening with Jonathan.  I hadn't noticed the man staring at my chest, but I wasn't surprised.  You know it's bad when the friends you're walking with are getting traumatized by the looks people are giving you!

"Girl, I'm telling you...I'm a walking freak show here."  She was so disgusted, I had to one-up the scenario by telling the two of them about my cab driver yesterday.

"So, yesterday I took a cab home alone on my break," I began.  "The driver was really smiley and friendly and kept talking to me in Korean and asking me to give him a thumbs up."

"'I'm sorry, Darlin', I can't understand you!' I told him.  He turned around and held out his  hand for me to shake.  I shook it.  He wouldn't let go.  Then he started to poke my palm repeatedly with one of his fingers as he held on to my hand tightly.  'Let go of my hand!' I said nervously.  He just kept smiling at me.  Finally he let it go, after the situation had become beyond awkward," I continued.

"Then he kept motioning with his hands a big belly, like he was asking me if I was pregnant.  'Aniyo, aniyo,' I told him.  Next he started making kisses in the air while touching his cheeks on both sides.  I started to catch on.  He was asking me if he could kiss me!  Then he pointed at himself, then at me, and made the pregnant sign again.  I realized he wasn't asking me if I was pregnant--he was asking me if he could get me pregnant!  'Aniyo, aniyo!!!' I shouted at him.  I took his picture for being such a perv.  Soon, we were stopped by the apartments, so I paid him.  When he handed me my change, he lightly brushed my boob with his fingers!  I reached for the door to get out.  It was locked.  Cabs never lock their doors!  Luckily I found the lock and opened it and jumped out!"

"Are you serious?" Jonathan asked incredulously.

"100%."  I said solemnly.

BIG SICKO

What a week I've had!  My supervisor came in yesterday to tell me Mr. Cho is thinking about firing me.  The reason is that I'm a first-year teacher.  Also, a parent complained that her son's handwriting is not getting any neater when she looks at his workbooks.  And while I was in parent-teacher conferences the other day, another boy threw a tack in the classroom, so they are questioning the safety of the kids in my class...even though I was not in charge of them at the time.  The other reason is that one of the parents asked her son a question from the Language Arts book, from a lesson we'd already covered...and he didn't know the answer.  One question.

I immediately contacted my recruiter to let her know about the threat they were giving me, and the reasons.  She wrote back and said she was shocked, and she would call the school and see what the deal was.

On one hand, I think they are just trying to scare me into becoming a "better teacher".  That seems to be their method of making teachers do what the parents want them to do.  But I am under contract and they can't fire me without three warnings, unless I engage in criminal activity.

On the other hand, it's very scary.  I am in Korea.  I'm alone here.  If they fire me, I'll also be kicked out of my apartment.  Will I be able to defend myself if I suffer some injustice?  Will other Koreans be on my side, or on the school's side?  I'd really rather not find out.

What's it like for first-year teachers in the US?  I think they actually observe them teach, and give them lots of advice and helpful hints.  They don't do that here.  No one has ever observed me teach.  I'm not even sure if any of the Koreans I work with are actual teachers themselves.  I know the principal isn't.  He's just a business man.  So even though they have never watched me teach, and aren't teachers themselves, they are still judging me as being a bad teacher.  And what am I supposed to do about it?  I feel totally helpless.

Friday morning I teach the Nemo class (3&4 year olds) Science.  They're the only class I still teach Science to.  The lesson today was "Balancing an Airplane."  It was basically a cardboard airplane with two wheels.  The kits came with four magnets the same size as the wheels to attach to them.  Then you "balanced" it on a little plastic post.  Their teacher, Martha, had suggested before class that I also teach them how to make paper airplanes.   First, I had the kids draw lines matching the vocabulary words to their pictures in their practice books.  Then I had them play with the cardboard airplanes with magnets.  Next, I had them clean those up and we made paper airplanes.  I let them play on the mat with the airplanes for a couple of minutes before having them sit back down again to color them.  Then it was time for them to leave.  The silly little lesson had gone excellently!  I was very happy.

The next 40 minute block on my schedule is set aside for office work.  I sat at my desk with the Korean supervisors and vice principal and worked on writing a test for the seventh graders.  The next 40 minute block is my prep time.  I walked to my classroom.

The Moose class was in there waiting for me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked their teacher.

"Oh--they didn't tell you?  I'm supposed to bring them to you for Music since we missed it on Monday."  she explained.  I was still teaching the Beaver class on Monday, but the other Music teacher had taken all the kids, so I thought.  Apparently, though, she leaves after lunch.  The Moose class had not gotten to have Music.

"No--they didn't tell me."  I said.  I was pretty mad--but not at the teacher.  It wasn't her fault because the supervisors should have been the ones to tell me.  And why didn't they tell her to bring them at 10:40 when I have office time?  Why did they want to steal my prep period?

I had nothing planned for them.  Here I was, trying to do my best job possible as a teacher, and they decide to just take my planning time (as opposed to the office work time) and let me go unprepared for a class.  I was beyond aggravated.

I put on a happy face for the kids, and played musical games with them the whole time.  I sure wished I had been able to prepare the "Make your own pretend guitar" lesson for them like I had the other classes that week.  It was a lot of fun.

It's a good thing I had decided to go ahead and grade my afternoon kids' homework earlier that morning.  To the Koreans, proper grading is just as important...perhaps even more so...than actual teaching.  They want a check mark by every single answer, and corrections made if something is wrong.  Then a comment has to be written on every single sheet or page.  It's quite tedious.  They are so concerned with proper grading, they have us grade their workbooks during class time.  It takes away quite a bit from the teaching...but they don't really seem to care.  It has to look pretty for the parents.

I was so happy it was Friday today!  Tonight, I took a cab with Kim and Erin to our favorite restaurant, Mad for Garlic.  I was psyched to get a friendly cab driver who didn't try to mess with me...and even more psyched after I had a belly full of sweet potato pizza!

We got home well after 10pm.  Kim and I decided to stop by the market before going upstairs.  We're supposed to get a typhoon tomorrow...not even sure what that is, exactly!  Time for Wikipedia.  Kylie said that last year they got one and the subways were flooded!  We can't imagine what would happen if the subways stopped running.  That's like asking what would happen if your heart stopped beating!