Tuesday 23 March 2010
Monday 22 March 2010
Updates for all those non-Facebook cool/underground/hipster types.
Here is the lastest info!
Day-to day
This is my third week in Yongtong, working at EIEL. The school teaches Kindergarten and Elementary children English. The days are pretty long, it’s no holiday, it’s about a 50 hour week. I hear some teachers have it pretty easy and literally work 30 hours (or less) teaching and that’s it. At EIEL you are responsible for creating the class timetable, marking work, and putting together collateral for the classes. This means when I finish at 2.45pm on Tuesday and Thursday, when the kindergartens go home, I stay at school until 7pm doing prep. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I teach Elementary from 2.45-6.45pm. I find that the hardest part of the job. Some of the children (aged 8-11) are really hard work. I much prefer kindergarten as you have much more fun with the kids and they speak less Korean to each other. I send kids out the class a fair bit and I’m learning to bellow. I’m so glad I’m not working in a public school with a class of 30! I reckon I would go insane! So as you can guess I’m knackered at the end of the day, so Monday to Friday I don’t go out much-maybe for dinner, which is very cheap. I’m not sure I could handle mid-week drinking. Teaching elementary without a hangover is hard enough!
St Patricks Day
Who knew Koreans loved St Patrick’s day! It’s not even like there are many Irish teachers out here. Me and a group of about 20 other teachers made our way to Seoul to see the parade. It was a pretty strange affair. There were majorettes, men riding Harley Davidsons, bagpipe playing, people promoting a hash bar …all those quintessentially Irish things… It rained all day pretty much and they sky was a weird dark yellow colour the whole day. It felt like there was going to be a typhoon. Sacking off the parade when we could no longer take the crap weather we started drinking at 5pm and I think I got through my door at 5.30am on Sunday after spending 80,000won…that’s about £40. Not much considering..
No Tv. No Phone. No Internet.
So, despite my contract stating I would have a TV, internet, cooking utensils. I was greeting by the monstrosity that is the 70s porn dungeon. I eat off plastic Mickey Mouse plates the school kindly donated from the children’s kitchen and I also have a half-melted spatula. Useful. I have one saucepan and a frying pan that I fear is riddled with E coli. I was supposed to move into a nicer flat but another teacher decided to nab it before I came as she could no longer take living within the 4 walls of the dungeon, where no natural light strays.. The window is about 7 inches from a brick wall. Belgians would love it.
On the upside, another teacher is leaving after 2 years and I’ve already said I’m moving into his nice, light, spacious and non dungeon-like flat. By that point I should also have an alien card, allowing me to get internet and hopefully in 2 weeks the school can manage to scrape together some money to get me a tv and furniture (as the new flat’s furniture all belongs to the resident)…Watch this space. If I don’t get a bed, tv and table during this time I’m going to have to put the smack down. Hard! I want cable goddamnit!!
Soju….
Makes you crazy!! I never learn. I either end up having it because it’s a third of the price of vodka or it somehow works it’s way to me in the form of shots, which nice Koreans eagerly feed to you. I think the reason why it’s so famous for inducing horrendous hangovers is the fact it’s laced with sweetener to make it taste “nice”. However, the taste is still not so sweet. I may complain, but I know next Saturday I’ll do it all over again.
Galbi
Is the equivalent of our Sunday Roast…or that’s the impression I get. This is a special meal that Koreans love. I’ve had it about 3 times now and they vary in quality. Your waitress brings hot coals to your table, these are put under the barbecue rack, which is set in the middle of the table. You are then bought various dishes ( I find the quality really varies from place to place). I had a really good one with about 14 dishes including spicy octopus, fish cakes, potato noodles, kimchi, corn etc, salad, beansprouts, rice etc…These are eaten with the meat (pork or beef) which is bought to your table raw, in a marinade. You cook your meat and many eat it rolled up in lettuce leaves. It’s really tasty. I’m really picky about meat so I found some of the pork ones too fatty, but the Galbi place near Now Bar in YongTong has been my favourite so far. It’s kind of like Korean tapas.
Day-to day
This is my third week in Yongtong, working at EIEL. The school teaches Kindergarten and Elementary children English. The days are pretty long, it’s no holiday, it’s about a 50 hour week. I hear some teachers have it pretty easy and literally work 30 hours (or less) teaching and that’s it. At EIEL you are responsible for creating the class timetable, marking work, and putting together collateral for the classes. This means when I finish at 2.45pm on Tuesday and Thursday, when the kindergartens go home, I stay at school until 7pm doing prep. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I teach Elementary from 2.45-6.45pm. I find that the hardest part of the job. Some of the children (aged 8-11) are really hard work. I much prefer kindergarten as you have much more fun with the kids and they speak less Korean to each other. I send kids out the class a fair bit and I’m learning to bellow. I’m so glad I’m not working in a public school with a class of 30! I reckon I would go insane! So as you can guess I’m knackered at the end of the day, so Monday to Friday I don’t go out much-maybe for dinner, which is very cheap. I’m not sure I could handle mid-week drinking. Teaching elementary without a hangover is hard enough!
St Patricks Day
Who knew Koreans loved St Patrick’s day! It’s not even like there are many Irish teachers out here. Me and a group of about 20 other teachers made our way to Seoul to see the parade. It was a pretty strange affair. There were majorettes, men riding Harley Davidsons, bagpipe playing, people promoting a hash bar …all those quintessentially Irish things… It rained all day pretty much and they sky was a weird dark yellow colour the whole day. It felt like there was going to be a typhoon. Sacking off the parade when we could no longer take the crap weather we started drinking at 5pm and I think I got through my door at 5.30am on Sunday after spending 80,000won…that’s about £40. Not much considering..
No Tv. No Phone. No Internet.
So, despite my contract stating I would have a TV, internet, cooking utensils. I was greeting by the monstrosity that is the 70s porn dungeon. I eat off plastic Mickey Mouse plates the school kindly donated from the children’s kitchen and I also have a half-melted spatula. Useful. I have one saucepan and a frying pan that I fear is riddled with E coli. I was supposed to move into a nicer flat but another teacher decided to nab it before I came as she could no longer take living within the 4 walls of the dungeon, where no natural light strays.. The window is about 7 inches from a brick wall. Belgians would love it.
On the upside, another teacher is leaving after 2 years and I’ve already said I’m moving into his nice, light, spacious and non dungeon-like flat. By that point I should also have an alien card, allowing me to get internet and hopefully in 2 weeks the school can manage to scrape together some money to get me a tv and furniture (as the new flat’s furniture all belongs to the resident)…Watch this space. If I don’t get a bed, tv and table during this time I’m going to have to put the smack down. Hard! I want cable goddamnit!!
Soju….
Makes you crazy!! I never learn. I either end up having it because it’s a third of the price of vodka or it somehow works it’s way to me in the form of shots, which nice Koreans eagerly feed to you. I think the reason why it’s so famous for inducing horrendous hangovers is the fact it’s laced with sweetener to make it taste “nice”. However, the taste is still not so sweet. I may complain, but I know next Saturday I’ll do it all over again.
Galbi
Is the equivalent of our Sunday Roast…or that’s the impression I get. This is a special meal that Koreans love. I’ve had it about 3 times now and they vary in quality. Your waitress brings hot coals to your table, these are put under the barbecue rack, which is set in the middle of the table. You are then bought various dishes ( I find the quality really varies from place to place). I had a really good one with about 14 dishes including spicy octopus, fish cakes, potato noodles, kimchi, corn etc, salad, beansprouts, rice etc…These are eaten with the meat (pork or beef) which is bought to your table raw, in a marinade. You cook your meat and many eat it rolled up in lettuce leaves. It’s really tasty. I’m really picky about meat so I found some of the pork ones too fatty, but the Galbi place near Now Bar in YongTong has been my favourite so far. It’s kind of like Korean tapas.
Friday 26 February 2010
Day 1- Graduation
Got up at 7am just for the hell of it. My jet lag has put me out of sync and I'm definitely not one to get out of bed early!
I have entered the Disney World of Schooling. Yesterday was my first day at the school and it was graduation for the 8 year olds. The kids all donned their baby blue graduation gowns and hats, sang Auld Lang Syne and the Grease song We Go Together to a backdrop of images from their Grease show and various outings to the zoo. There were speeches from some of the Korean staff and parents and each child got a trophy and a present along with their certificate. There were bouquets of sweets from the parents and a lot of photography!
I'm in school today (Saturday!), as the new children and their parents are coming along to the school to meet the teachers. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not as nervous as I expected to be. Having spent some time in a couple of classes yesterday, I feeling more confident. The children are a lot noisier and cheekier than I thought. Whoever said Korean children are shy is wrong! This is a good thing, as I was worried about that.
Every child in the school is given a western name when they start-so I was introduced to various Eric's, Mavis's (!) and Alice's. I was told by one teacher that at one point a teacher had given some of the children farm animal names, and taken it upon themselves to name one child Cock. Harsh!...but amusing.
Everything at the school is very "cute". All the classrooms have ice cream or teddy bear wallpaper. The children have their own mini kitchen and each class is named "Space World", "Nature World" etc.. and matron's room is simply, "Sick World".
The other English teachers seem really nice. I was taken out for a traditional Korean lunch, which was delicious. Apparently they're not really into eating gross things, and intestines are really only as bad as it gets. We had a barbecue in the middle of our table and were given a big dish of raw, marniated prok, which you cook at your table. This was accompanied with about 10 dishes which varied from Octopus, Kimchi, potato noodles (which were amazing) and some weird dish where various scraps from the kitchen just get thrown into a mayonnaise-like sauce..this was also pretty tasty, if a little wrong.
I underestimated how little English was spoken out here...only people in their 20s will speak a bit of English, but that's it. Walking down the street, there's so much signage. I don't understand any of it, which is a weird feeling. When you're in Europe you can at least make out what things mean..here, no way. Looks like I better start getting friendly with the Korean dictionary, although it's the symbols I actually need to learn, as nothing is really written in the romanised alphabet.
Better get ready for work now..
I have entered the Disney World of Schooling. Yesterday was my first day at the school and it was graduation for the 8 year olds. The kids all donned their baby blue graduation gowns and hats, sang Auld Lang Syne and the Grease song We Go Together to a backdrop of images from their Grease show and various outings to the zoo. There were speeches from some of the Korean staff and parents and each child got a trophy and a present along with their certificate. There were bouquets of sweets from the parents and a lot of photography!
I'm in school today (Saturday!), as the new children and their parents are coming along to the school to meet the teachers. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not as nervous as I expected to be. Having spent some time in a couple of classes yesterday, I feeling more confident. The children are a lot noisier and cheekier than I thought. Whoever said Korean children are shy is wrong! This is a good thing, as I was worried about that.
Every child in the school is given a western name when they start-so I was introduced to various Eric's, Mavis's (!) and Alice's. I was told by one teacher that at one point a teacher had given some of the children farm animal names, and taken it upon themselves to name one child Cock. Harsh!...but amusing.
Everything at the school is very "cute". All the classrooms have ice cream or teddy bear wallpaper. The children have their own mini kitchen and each class is named "Space World", "Nature World" etc.. and matron's room is simply, "Sick World".
The other English teachers seem really nice. I was taken out for a traditional Korean lunch, which was delicious. Apparently they're not really into eating gross things, and intestines are really only as bad as it gets. We had a barbecue in the middle of our table and were given a big dish of raw, marniated prok, which you cook at your table. This was accompanied with about 10 dishes which varied from Octopus, Kimchi, potato noodles (which were amazing) and some weird dish where various scraps from the kitchen just get thrown into a mayonnaise-like sauce..this was also pretty tasty, if a little wrong.
I underestimated how little English was spoken out here...only people in their 20s will speak a bit of English, but that's it. Walking down the street, there's so much signage. I don't understand any of it, which is a weird feeling. When you're in Europe you can at least make out what things mean..here, no way. Looks like I better start getting friendly with the Korean dictionary, although it's the symbols I actually need to learn, as nothing is really written in the romanised alphabet.
Better get ready for work now..
Monday 22 February 2010
The Day Before D Day
Soooooo, I was expecting to fly today but the recruiter contacted me at the last minute to say my accommodation would not be ready. I finally booked my ticket this morning for my flight tomorrow night at 8pm from Heathrow. Nice and last minute.
Flying with Emirates via Dubai, I have a 21 hour stop over, so I've decided I'm going to get a hotel room when I arrive. I plan to take in some of the sights (are there any?). Maybe I'll visit that hotel that looks like the sail of a ship or the tallest building in the world, or I'll just stay in my room and sleep (avoid harassment). Last time I was in the UAE I was 14, with my parents and felt very uncomfortable being ogled by the local men. Maybe it's different now, what with it being a popular destination amongst WAGS, chavs etc... ha, I'm such a snob!
I keep on thinking I should be preparing lesson plans, but I have absolutely no idea of the children's competency and what exactly I will be teaching (i believe it's going to vary from English to Art.. but again, I haven't been told anything). It's pretty pointless to second guess, especially when I could be watching Cash In The Attic or Loose Women.
Although I sound pissed off (and I am a bit) I can't wait to go! I'm just bored of waiting now...Well, The Alan Titchmarsh Show is on. Better go.
Flying with Emirates via Dubai, I have a 21 hour stop over, so I've decided I'm going to get a hotel room when I arrive. I plan to take in some of the sights (are there any?). Maybe I'll visit that hotel that looks like the sail of a ship or the tallest building in the world, or I'll just stay in my room and sleep (avoid harassment). Last time I was in the UAE I was 14, with my parents and felt very uncomfortable being ogled by the local men. Maybe it's different now, what with it being a popular destination amongst WAGS, chavs etc... ha, I'm such a snob!
I keep on thinking I should be preparing lesson plans, but I have absolutely no idea of the children's competency and what exactly I will be teaching (i believe it's going to vary from English to Art.. but again, I haven't been told anything). It's pretty pointless to second guess, especially when I could be watching Cash In The Attic or Loose Women.
Although I sound pissed off (and I am a bit) I can't wait to go! I'm just bored of waiting now...Well, The Alan Titchmarsh Show is on. Better go.
Wednesday 20 January 2010
Countdown.....
4 weeks to go until I get on a plane to and take that carefully planned leap of faith. It's been 6 months in the making... I have yet to hear any details about the school other than it's a Hagwon (private) English language school for children of elementary age...I've signed my contract and I hope for the best. I'm getting a little frustrated with the lack of organisation and information, but that's just me being my usual anxious self...although I really think I should at least be getting my working visa by now..(the school haven't sent me my visa number to take to the embassy yet..)
Currently just kicking back in Charlotte's flat in London...killing day time hours at the moment is a little weird/lonely. I'm so grateful to have kind friends/a sister who have put me up in the week and allowed me to carry on working at the Tate, in the last few weeks before I go. God knows my bank accounts needs an injection of cash...!!!
I'm mentally going over what I need to take when I go, (Marmite always springs to mind!) and the kinds of things I want to do when I go over there..like yoga, saunas, learning the language. I really want to submerge myself in it all. I've been chewing the ear of Young Kim, a Korean I work with from time to time at the Tate. She's been giving me the low down on life in Korea and it's only made me more excited!! I've got 3 books on Korea which I have poured over for some time, so hopefully I should avoid any social faux pas, like pouring my own drinks and blowing my nose in public!
Can't wait. Pretty scared. Fidgety!
Currently just kicking back in Charlotte's flat in London...killing day time hours at the moment is a little weird/lonely. I'm so grateful to have kind friends/a sister who have put me up in the week and allowed me to carry on working at the Tate, in the last few weeks before I go. God knows my bank accounts needs an injection of cash...!!!
I'm mentally going over what I need to take when I go, (Marmite always springs to mind!) and the kinds of things I want to do when I go over there..like yoga, saunas, learning the language. I really want to submerge myself in it all. I've been chewing the ear of Young Kim, a Korean I work with from time to time at the Tate. She's been giving me the low down on life in Korea and it's only made me more excited!! I've got 3 books on Korea which I have poured over for some time, so hopefully I should avoid any social faux pas, like pouring my own drinks and blowing my nose in public!
Can't wait. Pretty scared. Fidgety!
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