We met Lydia (her chosen English name) in the morning, but were told she was going to spend the day just observing a bit and learning her way around. We showed her our current lesson plans and told her what we knew about the schedule.
The tough thing is that Geoff is the longest-tenured teacher in the English Center, and he's only been here two months. Now, Geoff is a good teacher and knows what he's doing. But that's knowing what one is doing in Korea. Even for someone who's been in a place for years, knowing anything is tenuous at best. We find those changes out last minute and we're never sure what's happening.
Lydia hung with Geoff during his second class, and joined us both for our combined third class for the game. For the first time ever, a teacher commented that the students WEREN'T lively enough during the game. Now, this class was a little bit more quiet than others, but usually Korean teachers are terrified at how active the kids are when we play.
Lydia seemed to like what she saw of our lesson plans, and is excited to work as a team to teach the students the best we can. She said she really likes using games to help teach. I love that idea already.
We'll see what happens as the days goes on, but it was a good first impression for everyone.
One (very) small issue is that the parents class started today. I'm doing it Tuesday and Geoff takes it Thursday. We don't know for how many weeks. It's an hour each time.
Four women showed up with English levels ranging from one with about a middle-school level to one with no English at all. We made our lesson plans far too difficult, but it's better to do that than to make it too easy. We can lower the level and teach more thoroughly, rather than not having enough material.
On interesting thing is that Julie gave a small intro talking about communication and how we weren't in the class to become native speakers. So she had me introduce myself in Korean. She said it's all about being able to communicate with each other. So I guess I was a good example. I came to Korea with no background in the language, and now I do pretty well. I just talked about myself for about three minutes, and the ladies all understood just fine.
I'm curious to see how Geoff's goes on Thursday. Really, a parents class is just a hassle and adds more work to our day. But the school clearly is making money, or they wouldn't be doing it. The ladies are all very nice and we had a good time. They're looking forward to learning and I think they'll be willing to put a little extra effort into it.
The lack of information is still and always be frustrating, but if the class runs smoothly, I can be fairly satisfied.
No information ever? For the birds ...
Our dinner with Principal Kim got canceled. It was relayed to us that the reason is due to some type of flu. It's not H1N1, but it's flu-related. Again, no real information coming our way. At least they told us today, and not tomorrow at 4 p.m.
I'm actually relieved there's no dinner this week. When we go out, the administrators and fellow teachers expect us to drink a lot. "You're a strong drinker," they'll say. Or they'll tell you you're the opposite if they don't think you can handle it. Culturally, it's important to be a strong drinker. This week, I'm just tired. I'm not feeling that strong and I don't want to stay out late on a school night. So the postponement is good. Maybe when we have the dinner, I'll be feeling up to representing.
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