Korean Job Discussion Forums

[McNasty]

Day 1

The arrival of all the teachers was wonderfully misguided and confusing but it all worked out in the end. 100 teachers is challenging to organize, but for crying out loud!!! shouldn't someone know what the hell is going on?!?
Sorry, had to vent.

After meeting my ride at the designated time of 1 pm, I was on time and they were 45 minutes late, we had to pick up another teacher at one of the schools(another 40 minute wait...no comment). Once everything was in order we headed off to the mysterious training session known as GEPIK.

The ride down was uneventful(mostly rice fields) however, it was scenic with the mountains in the background.

The hotel arrival

We arrived at around 3:30pm and attempted to check in to our rooms. There was 1 person in charge at the desk that could communicate in English with little if any knowledge of what was going to take place at the training. Long story short we got our key and dropped off our luggage.

Then we decided to go for a stroll and check the area out. For those of you that know and those you you that don't, Pyongtek is in the middle of a gigantic rice field. There were no stores that we could see, so we just wondered around until we stumbled upon(after asking several of the locals) a store and a chicken hof. I'll let you do the guessing as to which establishment we entered...

The return to the hotel

We got back around 9:30 and thought it was time to meet some of our fellow trainees. So we checked out the ����Ʈ(hotel bar) and met some of the teachers. All went well except for an older guy, who appeared briefly and then was convinced to leave, who started fondling a couple of the women at our table and a guy too!! Everyone freaked out a bit at everyone scattered shortly after that.

I wonder how many more freaky people I will come across at this training conference.

And for those who are wondering... yes we chased the guy off and made sure the girl was ok.

Day 2 to be continued...

[inkoreaforgood]

Please keep it coming.

[pecan]

If you maintain your current attitude and perspective, I fear for your ability to make the most of your experience.

Nut

[igotthisguitar]

[McNasty]

Pecan,

Let's put things into perspective... I have been in Korea for a number of years so I don't expect a lot. However, I am always amused by the disorganization that occurs in this country in general.

I appreciate your comments and opinion, just trying to keep it light and interesting to read.

[McNasty]

Day 2

The day started off light with the introduction of the program and a booklet for the itinerary. We went for a tour of a public school, but it was simply a walk through to give us an idea of what our schools would look like.

The principal of the school gave a speech(in Korean) that was translated to us into English(with a few mishaps). Such as, the translator said," We hope that the children can survive... that was followed by chuckles from the crowd.

Anyway, it was interesting to see and compare Korean schools to what we(all the teachers from various countries) are used to. They had a surprisingly large number of computers and the size of the school was quite large as well.

Next we returned to the hotel for lunch(getting tired of the buffet style meals), and then we headed to the Korean folk village.

I look forward to day 3, as it gets a bit intensive in regards to our actual positions, so it should prove interesting.

As far as the training booklet is concerned, grammatical errors aside, it is really quite informative.

comments are more than welcome...

Day 3 to be continued...

[prosodic]

Not nearly as interesting as Day 1.

I find myself strangely impressed by how organized this sounds. I mean, I wouldn't have expected them to have an interpreter for the director's speech. Yeah, he made mistakes, but they actually had somebody. Much better planning than I would have expected from a Korean organization.

[Grotto]

Who could it be?

As I am also at this training seminar I wonder who McNasty is?

I have narrowed it down to 4 guys as they are the only ones that were hear before the rest of us trudged in.

Day 3
Boring...got taken to a Teacher training seminar...beautiful facilities, grass lawn, gym, ping pong tables. Some of the teachers (4 are staying here in the dormatories and the rest of us get to stay at the hotel.

It is an interesting and diverse crowd here. There are 39 canucks a fairly good section of yanks and the rest are either Irish, English, New Zealand, Aussies or????

Everybody seems pretty intelligent. There are alot of very beautiful teachers here(the female ones anyway). It is interesting talking to the new teachers and asking them how much they know about Korea.
Telling them about dong-chim and a few of the other idiosyncrasies.

Everybody looks like they are looking forward to getting into class.

[McNasty]

Day 3 has been pretty boring with the lecture style presentations.

Oh well, I guess it will be a learn on the job kind of situation.

Thanks for filling in the day 3 details Grotto.

But... you missed the part about our last presenter. She had a good sense of humor with her broken English, and comments about Russian ladies. The icing on the cake was her repeated suggestions to go to a sauna here and get naked. She also claimed the sauna was very exciting. Maybe they have limbo contests?!?

The best presentation was Alex. He gave a great presentation about classroom management and lesson supplements. By far the most informative of all the days lectures.

Buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner has lost it's appeal.

[igotthisguitar]

[Gollum]

[manlyboy]

Must admit I'm impressed with the whole thing so far. Hosts have been very gracious. Facilities top-notch. I'm in a 100 000 won a night hotel room (except I have to room with McNasty who was rather upset about being woken last night when I farted in my sleep).
I'm wondering if hagwons in Gyeonggi are going to take some big hits in the near future because of this program. Economy is tanking, household finances are getting tighter. Mothers will see their kids getting daily access to native speakers in the public schools (including after-school programs), and may start to question how much they really need the hagwon. Just a thought.
Time to go to the chicken hof for more cultural training.

[McNasty]

Manlyboy wrote:

[McNasty]

Day 4

We had the morning off for good behavior and "worship service" as they called it. Then after lunch there was a traditional Korean music performance and a Korean movie called 'Chiwaseon'. Both were optional so Sunday turned out to be a nice break.

So far all has been going well with only minimal inconveniences such as time delays, and having to commute to the language center for meals.

2 more days to go...

Finally decided I had enough of the buffets and treated myself to breakfast at the hotel. It was a bit pricey but worth it.

[Grotto]

day 4

Off to the institute...be in lobby at 7:20..why? Because the bus is going to leave at 7:45....tomorrow I will head down at about 25 to.

Breakfast, dokbokki soup, cereal, oranges, grapes, milk, bagette and bun and jam.

Lectures 3 hours.....first Culture shock interesting for new teachers no surprises there for us that have been here a while.
Second teaching to children...interesting, some good ideas but no break during a 2 hour lecture that went 20 minutes over time.

Lunch fried chicken, kimchi, rice, apples, some kind of mushroom dish(deliscous)

Now back to the lecture hall for some on team teaching, then a group discussion...then???

Dinner and party tonight...could be interesting