Bedlam at the office

I'm still far from being caught up, so I'm going to continue where I left off and dedicate the majority of the next entry to my job.

So when my first weekend in Seoul wrapped up, it was time for me to button my collar, do up my tie and head into my first day of work at ECC Ssangmun. Monday was pretty easy. I went in for 9 and observed a couple of classes before being let off the hook sometime around noon. I got to meet some of my coworkers but didn't really get to know them that much. Of the five guys that worked there, three were leaving and being replaced by girls which meant that myself and two other lads would be the only ones representing Y chromosomes in the whole office of about 25 people.

So if the first day was a breeze, then the second day could only be described as Tsar Bomba. The semester had just changed over and every teacher was scrambling about like a mad mole trying to get their lesson ready for the next day. Problem was, myself and the three other new teachers had no idea what the hell we were supposed to do. Sometimes a schedule would show up on my desk showing me what books certain classes needed, but even then, trying to find said books in the flop house of a library was near impossible. Also, the three guys leaving hadn't actually left yet which meant none of us new teachers had desks, which meant we had to plan and organize our lessons on any surface we could find. And see, this is where I wish I had a picture of the office because if I did, you would clearly see that there were NO SURFACES anywhere. Also, everyone was too busy scuttling about to help any of us out at all. At one point I stopped trying to meticulously arrange a solid lesson plan and just slapped together a crude outline of what resembled a lesson plan for each class and called it a day.

I was seriously questioning what kind of racket I had gotten myself into at that point. I went back to my apartment and nursed the monster of a stress headache which slowly cultivated during the anarchy that was my first real day of work.

Wednesday was showtime. I had seven classes of kids ranging from age 4 to 12. I thought they would sense my apprehension and walk all over me, but it was surprisingly easy to get them to focus and pay attention. Since then I have only been getting better and devising more clever ways to get the kids to bend to my will. Some classes were a sheer joy to teach, while others were outright pandemonium. Here's a brief summary of my monday, wednesday, friday classes:

Neptune: My first class of the day. Kindergarten kids, very little English and tons of blank stares.
Washington DC: My next kindie class. Not as many blank stares, but a bit more unhinged.
Pluto: Smart class wish one little guy who steals the show constantly.
Washington DC: Another DC class who absolutely adores me. One girl gives me sweets before almost every class.
Paris: A whip sharp class where I teach geography. Basically my favourite class.
Canberra: Hell on earth class. You know how there was always one kid in elementary school who was a complete hellspawn? This is a whole class of them.

My last class ended up being cancelled entirely for the semester because there was only one student in it. Best news ever because it meant that I got to go home early every monday, wednesday and friday. Tuesday and thursday are a bit shorter, but the classes are a bit more trying:

Neptune: Same as above.
Washington DC: Likewise.
Library: I only do this class on tuesday which means I really could care less about learning the kids' names. It's a pretty lousy class anyways.
Paris: Hands down my worst class. While Canberra is loud and disruptive, they are at least smart and speak fantastic English. This class is filled with little reptiles who refuse to work and are light years dumber than my other classes as a result.
London: Pretty OK class. Usually when I go in, I'm so angry from my previous class that they all become afraid of me and behave.
Mercury: Nice class with one real class clown. Really easy to teach though.
Saturn: Boring as spit class because they are the lowest level doing the hardest book. Blank stares abound.

I also do phone teaching monday, wednesday and friday where I have to call the students at home and ask them questions about what they learned. Kind of ridiculous really and at least once a day when I call I get a shrill Korean grandma on the other line sounding like she's trapped inside the phone. Language barriers, ugh.

One fun thing about my job, is that once in a blue moon I get a new student who I become tasked with giving an English name to. The Korean teachers always always always give the kids the most BORING names too, which means that when it's my turn, I try to give them a name that shines! I named one kid Donnell and another one Gary, but a Korean teacher quickly renamed him Kevin. BORING!!! I really really want to name a kid Jamal. Also, there's a kid in the school named Moses and I really want to high five the teacher that named him that.

So I've been working for about three weeks now and I've definitely gotten the hang of teaching. It came pretty quickly and I don't worry about planning a perfect lesson anymore. Most of the time, I grab the textbooks and do the whole lesson right off the dome. Apparantly a lot of the kids love me too because I like to end every class with a game. The kids are starting to grow on me too, and I joke around with them now more than ever. Even the little bastard Canberra class has grown on me a bit.

Around the office things are calmer than ever. The Korean teachers were really scary the first day because they were all stressing out over the new semester, but now they seem a bit friendlier. Also, I finally learned all their names. At first it was tough because they all have really plain Jane names beginning with 'J', (including Jane) and I kept screwing them up. Now things are peanut butter smooth.

OK that's it. I have tons of funny teaching anecdotes but I'll save them for later. No pictures today, sorry...:(