I have been battling to get the boys to focus on the work in front of them instead of falling asleep on their tables. I can understand it to a certain degree, the average high schooler arrives at school at about 7 in the morning and only leaves at about 11pm at night. As a student, I would probably also have taken the opportunity to sleep in the one class I didn't get graded on.
Yesterday, I was teaching a particularly unruly class, when one of the male teachers snuck in quietly and flicked two of the sleeping boys in the face. The teacher, smiled at me before grinning down at the groggy students in sort of an evil Disney character way and pointed to a set of chairs in the corner. I momentarily stopped instructing being far too interested in what was happening. I felt like nudging one of the students and saying "Hey.. look at that ". Without a word, the boys got up, put the chairs on their shoulders and began doing 100 lifts. The teacher satisfied with his punishment, gave me a quick thumbs up and left. No one in the class seemed to be remotely phased.
On a lighter note, I was asked to judge an English debate on plastic surgery last week, It was very entertaining. One of my co teachers asked me to be a part of the debate that he was filming. What I found hilarious, was the way in which the entire lesson was engineered to seem perfect. The often lazy and asleep second graders, were all of a sudden well groomed and enthusiastic. It was like stepping into the Korean high school version of the Stepford wives.
"Good morning Class, How are you today?"
Every student shot back in an almost sarcastic unison, "We are great teacher"
"Do you love English class?"
"Yes we do!!!!"
If only it was like this is real life. The naughty buggers would laugh and roll their eyes if I dared to ask how much they loved English class. As the hours went on, the debate seemed to become more and more ridiculous. It was like watching a comedy show unfold. Everyone would converse in formal English and sit perfectly upright saying things like, " Yes and one of the determining factors of the this study suggests..."
This was all until the boy behind the camera, said "cut". A sense of immediate relief would sweep across the room and the boys and teacher would start nattering frantically in Korean and laugh. My teacher finally told me, just to make it look like I was writing something important down about their work. There was one section, where the boy behind the camera was told to zoom in on me while I pretended to look deep in thought.
One of the things I really like about the culture in Korea is the way the students clean up after themselves. I come from a country where it is perfectly normal to have a set of cleaning staff to pick up the kids rubbish. In Korea, janitors and domestic workers don't exist. And I suppose I can understand the reasoning - why should an adult have to pick up after a lazy littering child? At my school, the boys actively volunteer to be assigned to a room to clean. And they are happy to do it. Originally I thought that they were being punished. I asked my co-teacher Erica, "So what did they do wrong?"
"Nothing. They are just cleaning our office for us"
I am slowly figuring things in Yeongju out.. here is a few pictures of how my apartment block looks.
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| As soon as I turn the lights out to better see the projector - its time for students to sleep. |
Yesterday, I was teaching a particularly unruly class, when one of the male teachers snuck in quietly and flicked two of the sleeping boys in the face. The teacher, smiled at me before grinning down at the groggy students in sort of an evil Disney character way and pointed to a set of chairs in the corner. I momentarily stopped instructing being far too interested in what was happening. I felt like nudging one of the students and saying "Hey.. look at that ". Without a word, the boys got up, put the chairs on their shoulders and began doing 100 lifts. The teacher satisfied with his punishment, gave me a quick thumbs up and left. No one in the class seemed to be remotely phased.
 |
| The chairs the boys lifted. |
On a lighter note, I was asked to judge an English debate on plastic surgery last week, It was very entertaining. One of my co teachers asked me to be a part of the debate that he was filming. What I found hilarious, was the way in which the entire lesson was engineered to seem perfect. The often lazy and asleep second graders, were all of a sudden well groomed and enthusiastic. It was like stepping into the Korean high school version of the Stepford wives.
"Good morning Class, How are you today?"
Every student shot back in an almost sarcastic unison, "We are great teacher"
"Do you love English class?"
"Yes we do!!!!"
If only it was like this is real life. The naughty buggers would laugh and roll their eyes if I dared to ask how much they loved English class. As the hours went on, the debate seemed to become more and more ridiculous. It was like watching a comedy show unfold. Everyone would converse in formal English and sit perfectly upright saying things like, " Yes and one of the determining factors of the this study suggests..."
This was all until the boy behind the camera, said "cut". A sense of immediate relief would sweep across the room and the boys and teacher would start nattering frantically in Korean and laugh. My teacher finally told me, just to make it look like I was writing something important down about their work. There was one section, where the boy behind the camera was told to zoom in on me while I pretended to look deep in thought.
 |
| Filming the debate. |
One of the things I really like about the culture in Korea is the way the students clean up after themselves. I come from a country where it is perfectly normal to have a set of cleaning staff to pick up the kids rubbish. In Korea, janitors and domestic workers don't exist. And I suppose I can understand the reasoning - why should an adult have to pick up after a lazy littering child? At my school, the boys actively volunteer to be assigned to a room to clean. And they are happy to do it. Originally I thought that they were being punished. I asked my co-teacher Erica, "So what did they do wrong?"
"Nothing. They are just cleaning our office for us"
 |
| The cleaning crew in our office. |
I am slowly figuring things in Yeongju out.. here is a few pictures of how my apartment block looks.
mwaahahahah. I can't stop laughing at the teacher coming to punish your students
ReplyDeleteI always have a grin on my face when I read your posts haha! Keep them coming :)
ReplyDelete