Lao-Tzu Knows Best

So you all know that Marisa goes to school and works hard and has lots of fun with her crazy students. But what do I do during that time? Do I really go to school at all? Or do I secretly head off to the singing rooms and karaoke all day? All shall be revealed in this thrilling new blog entry!

Let's see... I get up at 6:40am the same as Marisa (I originally tried sleeping a bit longer, but found that this didn't really work out so well), make toast (I am the official toast maker of our family, and make no mistake about the ease of making toast in a Korean mini-oven: it is difficult--but I am skilled, and swift with a timer and oven mit), we eat, I do a bit of reading, yada yada...

I get to Jayang (previously "Chayan," but Jayang is the preffered romanization) about 8:30, and currently teach two classes a day there Monday through Wednesday; there's some other stuff on my schedule which I think will kick into effect once the new year starts in March (the first schoolastic semester fall in the Spring, rather than the Fall in Korea), but for the moment I have it quite light. In the last couple of weeks all three of my classes at Jayang (grades 1, 2 and 3 as they say, which are equivalent to the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades in America) have completed their textbooks, so we now play games every day (which is nice, because the textbooks were pretty boring, despite my attempts to link in relevant videos, music, historical and cultural information, StarCraft, etc.).

There are some great TESL forums out there (specifically Dave's ESL Cafe) where I've found all kinds of ideas for games and such. Some popular choices so far have been Team Hangman, Constantinople, and various variations on 20 Questions, Charades, bracket tournaments and Bingo that place an emphasis on language aquisition. I decided to bring some candy for prizes one day but as I was going in to class I had second thoughts... the candies were pretty small, and how much of an incentive could a small piece of candy really be for a 14-year-old?

The answer is: Korean middle schoolers will grovel at your feet for a piece of candy. They will hop up and down and spin in circles while pocking themselves in the eyes for a piece of candy. They will abandon their families and crawl on their hands and knees up Mt. Everest for a piece of candy, content to freeze to death at the top as long as they can suck on a sweet ball of sugar. They will even be almost quiet for a piece of candy!

And so it is as master Lao-Tzu once said: at all times look as though you may have candies in your pocket, and your students will respect you; for such is the way of wisdom.

At Napo middle school I have a similarly rough schedule of two playtimes a day. The students at Napo are generally much better behaved, however, and with the exceptionally small class sizes things are more pleasant all around (I have less of the "I'm standing in a zoo and I think I'm the odd one out" sort of feeling). We've made name cards and I'm starting to get everyone down... especially "Monkey," "Chicken," and "Adidas" (nick names are really big in Korea -- everyone has a name that their friends call them, and some people, like Monkey and Chicken, go by their nicknames all the time. When I told my principal that I don't really have a nickname he looked shocked and horiffied, but then regained composure and said, "No worry no worry! I call you... Tall Joe!" Me: "Tall Joe?" Him: "Okay." Koreans use "okay" to mean many things, including "yes.").

Yesterday I taught about Thanksgiving; some of the students knew "turkey!" (or at least "chicken!") but not much else. I showed some video clips, and was surprised to find that everyone really liked the NFL highlights clip--wow, it's 3:55 and I have to head for the bus. Anyway, hopefully that gives you a bit of a taste of (and for) the craziness.