Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

This is not going to be a rant about drunk ajosshis, but it is going to be a rant and there are two drunk ajosshis in it. If that doesn't interest you, fine. Go elsewhere.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning. Couldn�t get back to sleep. So I got up and made some tomato soup so I could save my Campbell�s for the days when I just can�t face cooking. You know how that is. Get to work and find out I don�t have to really work until 3:20. I have 3 classes before then, but this is the co-teacher�s week to do Game Day [the biggest waste of time in the history of ESL teaching, IMO].

I coast through the day checking e-mail 6 or 7 times, surf through Dave�s uncounted times hoping against hope there will be something interesting to distract me and generally avoiding doing anything productive. Aside from a couple of annoying posts, nothing. Other people are not holding up their end of the deal.

3:20 rolls around and I head up to class expecting to meet all 16 of my writing class for the first time in a month. (First week: 6 Grade 1 boys show up. They know nothing about any other students. Good class. Second week: the co-teachers have recruited 8 new students to go with the original 8. But this is MT week, so no one comes. Fine by me. Third week: I do a good lesson with Grade 1 boys and the newly signed up Grade 2 boys. They bow at the end and smile, smile, smile. The next week the Vice Principal says the Grade 3 boys who signed up don�t need to wait till after their uni entrance exam to start. I�m told just before class. I frantically run off extra copies. I get to class and only 9 Grade 3 boys show. The others are doing their practice uni entrance exam. I�m flexible. I pull out the previous lesson and repeat it with the new boys. Good class. ) So today I think everyone is going to show up in the same classroom at the same time. Foolish me. I get there and there are 4 out of 9 Grade 3 boys. �Where are the other 5�, I ask innocently. �They went home�, I am told. The 3 out of 3 Grade 2 boys are there but none of the 3 Grade 1 boys. �Where are they?� I ask. No one knows. I�m not a happy camper. It showed on my face. Koreans can read faces like the big print books for the elderly.

We do our first hour. It goes well. Would you have guessed that none of my guys knows that Italy is shaped like a boot? Or that the name of a language and a nationality is often the same in English? No one could come up with Julius Caesar, but one guy did guess J--- C--- was Jesus Christ.  And one kid knew JC�s girlfriend was Cleopatra. Taught the word �stab�.

Breaktime comes and only 5 come back. �Where are the other 2?� I ask. Not happy. �Another English class� I am told. �WTF?� I almost ask.

Tomorrow the Grade 1 & 2 boys have midterms. The boys are at an English review lesson before the big test. I could accept that, had I been told. What I can�t accept is that I knew nothing about it. Had I been told, I could have made a different lesson and it wouldn�t have mattered.

I stood there a minute or two debating whether I should have a temper tantrum or not. I gave in. I said, �This is not a school. I don�t know what it is, but it isn�t a school. I cannot teach a class of 16 when only 5 are here. Go home.�

I went down to my desk and decided I shouldn�t leave till regulation time�can way-gook saram just cancel a class? I don�t know. All the other teachers are munching on chicken and swilling beer(Wednesday is �exercise day� for teachers who don�t have a class at the end of the day.) and looking at me, like �Why the heck aren�t you upstairs teaching?�

Finally one of the 2 English speakers in the school comes out of the lounge. I say, �We have a problem.� He�s sympathetic, but I doubt he understands. Then another teacher comes over and says some boys are outside waiting to apologize.

They bow, but say nothing. (They can�t. They have no idea what they are supposed to say.) I�m not really angry with them anyway. I�m angry at the school for not making it clear that anyone who signs up for an elective class must attend that class. My class time is not the time for a haircut or whatever else someone comes up with.

I go home disgruntled with the whole Korean education system. I decide I don�t want to stay home and read.

I go back in town to Pelicana Chicken, the only place in town I can eat alone. Chow down and then the ajumma comes over and sits down. I ask about the baby the woman at the other table is holding and bouncing. I ask if the table full of people are her friends. She says they aren�t. They are her husband�s friends. I say, �He doesn�t do much work here except ride around and deliver chicken. You do all the work.� She agrees and says he likes to drink, too much.

Then two drunk ajosshis (you thought I had forgotten about them, didn�t you?) came over. One works in �agriculture�. According to his card, he has some kind of green house. Can�t tell what veggie he grows. His friend can�t speak a lick of English, but that doesn�t stop him from chattering at me for 3 minutes at a time, albeit in slow Korean. Don�t understand a word. In the end, they return to their table, but I know I have been told, �Welcome to Youngsan. We�re glad you are here to help our boys.�

And this is one of the things I love about Korea. You have a crappy experience that didn�t need to happen but did because no one bothered to tell the way-gook saram what was going on. Then you flounce off all hot and bothered and some character who can�t put a subject and verb together gets in your face and tells you he is glad you are here and are trying to help the kids out. How can you stay pi**ed off?

[fidel]

Just how many classes do you do Ya-ta?

[Mellovely516]

wow well for the parts I could follow your day sounded kind of comical. It is really so laid back in Korean school... I mean the adults can drink at lunch and use corpral punishment? And somebody was giving a haircut, what??