I had to work overtime today, much as I was in need of a long lie-in. It was the school’s open day, where parents of potential new pupils came in to be persuaded that this was the best school for their children – presentations, guided tours, brochures, that kind of thing. Alex, Clare and I [...]
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My first week of teaching has had its ups and downs. The pleasure of imparting knowledge to little creatures who are so eager to learn. The initial nervousness caused by being at the front of the classroom. The satisfaction when they finally “get” what I’ve been explaining. The impatience when they repeatedly don’t. The giggles [...]
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Ah, Dr. Seuss. Once a week, I have to do “story time” with each of my two main classes. I was a bit apprehensive when I went along to the first one. I wasn’t entirely sure whether they’d listen, or what I was meant to do other than just read. And for them, it was [...]
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My legs are killing me. I am the English School’s gym teacher. Yes, snigger all you like. It’s true. There are 8 kindergarten classes (6 and 7 year olds – although I suppose they’re younger than that in Western age reckoning, probably 4-6), the top two of which are “mine” – I have them for [...]
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I’ve had to change my accent. I’ve always been a bit of an accent chameleon. It subtly alters to mimic the speech patterns of whoever I’m with, as I mentioned in this post a long time ago. But this is the first time I’ve ever done it consciously, moving from simply enunciating more clearly to [...]
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Yesterday, I took a wander down the street, which seems like an adventure in itself just because of how completely foreign everything is to me: This probably sounds a bit weird, but every single building looks like a takeaway food place to me. It’s because the only knowledge my brain has of these brightly coloured [...]
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Every workplace that I’ve ever been employed in has been somewhat nuts. I used to think that it was me, I explained to Steve and Clare after classes, as we topped up on water (the Koreans are all wearing three layers and complaining about the cold. We are wearing shorts and sweating a lot), but [...]
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At my school, all the teachers eat lunch together, which means that every day I get to take part in a real Korean dining experience. We sit at a low table with tiny seats – partly because the children use the same room for their cooking lessons, but I think also partly because it’s fairly [...]
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Today I had to go for my pre-employment medical. I can’t say I’ve ever particularly thought about what a Korean hospital might be like, so it would be wrong of me to say that it was nothing like I expected. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it was like nothing I had [...]
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Lesson number one about Korea seems to be “be pushy”. I am unspeakably grateful for the other foreign teachers at my school, who double up as my neighbours. They’ve been there and done it all before, and so they’re able to provide a sort of cultural buffer zone – without which I would no doubt [...]
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You Say Goodbye, I Say… Historical Snapshots It Just Makes Me Happy
