Typhoon Kompasu was supposed to hit us last week, but it managed to miss us entirely. We were a little disappointed. We were hoping school would be cancelled. Lots of schools in Seoul were cancelled and they had lots of rain, flooding, loss of power, and trees down, but no destruction here.
On Friday, September 3rd, Kyle and I celebrated our 6 month mark of being in Korea. Hopefully it’s all down hill from here, but as Gregg wisely put it, it’s been downhill since we got here. :/
Last Saturday we went into Seoul to visit my Aunt, Uncle (Dad’s brother), and cousin, who are now here living on the military base in Yongsan. It took us an hour and a half to get there by subway, but it was well worth it for the delicious pot roast dinner that awaited us. Mmmmm… We had a nice visit and it was great seeing everyone since it’s been 3 years since I’ve seen them.
This week’s post:
Kwon seems to hate the Daehwa school (Kyle’s school) even though she owns both it and my school (Baekseok). Ariel told me that she has a 4 year old cousin and her aunt was thinking about sending him to Baekseok. I told her that I would strongly recommend her NOT to send her cousin to my school because he won’t learn any English. (I’m the only English speaker that teaches the 4 year olds, and it’s only for 20 minutes a day). I then told her that Daehwa would be a much better option because the class is much smaller and her cousin would practically get one on one English lessons with Kyle since they only have two 4 year olds. Apparently her aunt called and talked to Kwon, who refused to answer any questions about Daehwa. She kept saying, “We have a bus that will pick him up if you don’t want to drive that far” (her aunt lives in Daehwa), “Oh, but Baekseok is a much better school” [hahahahhaha, Don’t make me laugh Kwon], and “Baekseok is bigger.” More proof that Kwon hates Daehwa is because Baekseok is the largest kindergarten in our area, therefore Kwon gets money from the government to help her with the school. This past week Baekseok has been painted and fixed up; new sinks in all of the classrooms. But is Daehwa getting fixed up. Why of course not! Because then Kwon would have to spend her own money to fix up Daehwa.
On a more depressing note, Ariel is no longer coming to Baekseok. She lasted a week. That’s how terrible my school is. I guess Kwon was trying to get her to teach classes, but didn’t want to pay her and Ariel said no. Ariel also said that the students were all too crazy and out of control that she didn’t want to deal with them so she’s found a new school to go to. L I also found out that the part time English teacher who has been working at my school for a little over a month is leaving next Friday. He’s done dealing with the unorganized and corruptness of Kwon. Kyle and I are hoping that this won’t affect him because I can see her trying to move Kyle to my school full time. But what about Daehwa? Don’t they need an English teacher? Psh…remember, Kwon doesn’t care about Daehwa.
The government is coming next Thursday to inspect Baekseok school. They’re coming to see what their money is being spent on. I would love for the government to realize what an awful place Baekseok is; how I have classes with no books, no curriculum, etc. However, we’re stuck in a bit of a catch-22. While I would love to see Kwon crash and burn, she also needs to stay in business until March so that she is paying for our plane tickets home, severance, etc. Oh well. I think karma will get her come end of Feb-beginning of March when she realizes that very few of her teachers (both Korean & foreign) are signing back on for another school year.
My students have been terrible recently, but today took the cake. I was teaching my 20 minute class with the 30 four year olds, my least favorite class because it not only cuts into my lunch time by 20 minutes, but the students are dreadful because they’re so little. There is a Korean teacher who sits in on the class, who is supposed to help control the children because they really don’t understand me and their attention span is pretty damn short, but instead she sits on her computer and enjoys her 20 minute break. There are about 10 kids who I can tell want to learn because they listen to me, they remember stuff we’ve gone over, and they are well behaved unlike the rest of the class that prefers to just beat each other up. One of these kids in particular is the worst kid I have all day, I will refer to him as Butthead from now on because he doesn’t have any English name. It was Friday and I was feeling generous and decided to give the students who were good during class a stamp. The kids all sort of line up when I get out the stamps and I have to weed out the ones that were bad. Well, Butthead was too busy trying to dislocate another child’s arm during class, so I deemed him unworthy of a stamp, but he tried to get one anyway. I told him that he didn’t get a stamp because he was not good (he should be used to this by now because he rarely gets a stamp from me since he’s always causing problems). Butthead then decided that it would be wise to spit on me. Stupid little shit. Class ended right after that so I grabbed Butthead’s hand and walked him to the Korean teacher in charge of his class. I told her that he is always bad in my class, hurting others, and that today I had reached my final straw when he spit on me. The Korean teacher speaks a little bit of English, but I didn’t get the reaction I had been looking for, so I then mimed spitting for her just to make sure we were both on the same page. She suddenly looked appalled and smacked Butthead on the head and then starting berating him in Korean. I then told her that I refuse to teach him because he can’t behave. Maybe my 20 minute class will be better now. Doubtful, but here’s to hoping.
Also on Friday at Kyle’s school, Daehwa was dealing with a very sad Danny (the cute little boy I posted a picture of when we went to Paju’s English Village). Apparently Danny cried all morning and no one could figure out what was wrong with him. Danny’s aunt is Julie A, who works at Daehwa. She suggested calling Danny’s mom to come pick him up and take him home. Later in the day, the school got a call from Danny’s mom saying that Danny had broken his arm. Poor little guy. He’s always getting injured at school. L
We went into Seoul last night for a friend’s birthday (Ivan’s brother). He wanted to keep it low key and watch Commando & Predator at his place. After seeing his apartment, Kyle & I are feeling pretty happy with our place.
Christianity is the #1 religion in Korea. We've seen "recruiters" several times before handing out tissues and pamphlets trying to recruit one to come attend their church. Kyle and I went downstairs to get pizza for dinner and the little pizza place is very small and there were 2 Korean women sitting on the only chairs. After a few minutes, they stood up and offered us their seats. We should have suspected something was up then because Koreans never give up their seats. We sit down and find ourselves trapped for 20 minutes while our pizzas are being made. The women start jabbering in Korean to us. We try to explain that we don't know any Korean other than a few words, but they don't seem to care or understand and continue trying to talk to us. Finally Kyle realizes that she is trying to get us to go to their Church. Kyle then tried to play the Jew card, but they didn't understand. I don't think there are any Jews in Korea. The woman then found a pamphlet and was telling us about the special service they have at 10am where we can wear headphones that will interrupt for us. After telling her again and again no thank you, our pizzas were finally finished and we ran away quickly. Stop forcing your god on us! We're not interested.
Christianity is the #1 religion in Korea. We've seen "recruiters" several times before handing out tissues and pamphlets trying to recruit one to come attend their church. Kyle and I went downstairs to get pizza for dinner and the little pizza place is very small and there were 2 Korean women sitting on the only chairs. After a few minutes, they stood up and offered us their seats. We should have suspected something was up then because Koreans never give up their seats. We sit down and find ourselves trapped for 20 minutes while our pizzas are being made. The women start jabbering in Korean to us. We try to explain that we don't know any Korean other than a few words, but they don't seem to care or understand and continue trying to talk to us. Finally Kyle realizes that she is trying to get us to go to their Church. Kyle then tried to play the Jew card, but they didn't understand. I don't think there are any Jews in Korea. The woman then found a pamphlet and was telling us about the special service they have at 10am where we can wear headphones that will interrupt for us. After telling her again and again no thank you, our pizzas were finally finished and we ran away quickly. Stop forcing your god on us! We're not interested.
That’s pretty much all that is new with us. We miss you all! Only 175 days!!!! J Love, K & M