The biggest dampener of the week was my co-teacher telling me that I had to attend a meeting at the Gunpo Education Office in order to take an introductory class for teaching the web-based broadcasting class. They had mentioned this last semester and it wasn't a mandatory thing, and I was teaching an after school class to my school's teacher (who never really showed up). But now to make up the lost hour, I'm supposed to teach adults online English conversation - out of a really crappy textbook. I think what annoyed me the most was the lack of information I recieved about this. All I was told was "go to the meeting," "here's the website, your webcam and headset" (no login or password yet), and "what class are you teaching?" I didn't even know what class I was teaching - the education office administrators had that all figured out. Apparently, I'm supposed to teach Wednesday afternoons, although my co-teacher thinks it's Wed and Fridays. (let's hope not!) After the first few classes I think I won't mind, but it just not the same being in front of a classroom with younger students. Adults are so much harder to teach, and the subject material has to be more serious and less interactive. My 2nd and 3rd graders love doing hangman and cryptograms. I don't think some "agemma" is going to want to waster her time and money having me teach her games.
I was pissed off about this whole thing all week, but was really looking forward to Friday afternoon. We were having an English speech competition, where students write an essay and present it to a board of judges. We assessed them based on pronunciation and presentation. Some students simply presented by reading their scripts, others brought props and memorized long essays, while the younger students acted out small skits. I was really impressed with a few of the high level students who's pronunciation was astoundingly good. There were many hard words that these students could pronounce easily. The 3rd graders were most impressive. One girl gave a speech on Plato's Allegory of the Cave - one of my favorites. Her twin gave a speech on George Washington's life and death....mostly it was about death... and one of the highest students in the school gave a very good presentation on the hopes of unification of North and South Korea.
One of the twins
I had to take a photo of this script as it made no sense to me, and is quite funny.
(to their defense, this is the 1st graders work though)
The 1st and 2nd graders were not as impressive in their pronunciation, but their presentations were very funny and creative. I took a couple videos to share with you all.
After the competition, Jordan and I had to run out to meet the male teachers for a meeting. (aka go out, eat great food, drink a ton of soju, makoli, and mek-ju). We had a pretty good time. Our sol-goggi (beef) dinner was probably the best one I've had in quite some time. After dinner the principal invited us out to the downtown area near my apartment to go get some more drinks. One of the teachers was a drunk and kept singing "I started a joke" by the Beegees --- and then would look at me and say "Nick, you're a homo!" I didn't think his 'joke' was funny as he kept saying it over and over all night in front of the other teachers. It was pretty disrespectful for a people who are all about showing their respect. Then again, this is the same guy who peed in the corner of our hotel room on the last trip....so I guess I shouldn't expect much.
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