Well, on the school’s computer network at least.

In most (I hesitate to say “all” because though I’ve never heard of a school without it, who really knows) Korean schools there is something called “Cool Messenger.” It’s on every computer, and works as an inter-school messaging system. Random cancellation? Send out a cool message. 4th and 6th period classes are being switched? Send out a cool message. Need to talk to the 2.7 homeroom teacher about one of your problem students? Send out a cool message. It’s a great tool for spreading information quickly – but it sucks if you can’t understand Korean, or if your computer isn’t hooked up to Cool Messenger.

About a month ago when the computer teacher installed printer software onto my computer he noticed I didn’t have Cool Messenger, and checked up on why. Apparently the foreign-teacher computer has never been hooked up to Cool Messenger because since I’m F*bright and not EPIK, I’m not on the Board of Education’s “Teacher at CP” list and while there’s nothing illegal about me being here, they still don’t want to get into a strange bureaucratic tangle. I accepted that I’d never be cool enough to join Cool Messenger, shed a silent tear, and moved on.

Well, cry no more, foreign teacher! Today after my 2nd period class I came back to my desk and my co-teacher told me that the computer teacher had spent awhile looking into the regulations, and how Cool Messenger works, and because it’s just a inter-school system, there shouldn’t be a problem with putting me on it. So now there’s a little icon that says “Emily” on it that people can message at will! I still haven’t gotten a message, but, it’s nice to know that I could. Potentially. Possibly. Perhaps. Probably not though.

I think the students are enjoying Teacher’s Day more than the teachers are! I just saw some of my favorite second grade male students get into a cake fight in the hallway. That’s right. A cake fight. Messy and delicious however you slice it.

Today is Teacher’s Day, which means that unlike childrens’ day (where children don’t have to go to school) we go to school and do our thing as per usual. However, since I arrived this morning there have been random bursts of song coming from various classrooms, cakes produced out of thin air, and flowers arriving in the teacher’s office. Probably the cutest thing I’ve seen today was when a bunch of male third grade students came back into the second grade building to give their old homeroom teacher a present.

First period I taught 2.2, and they were very sad because they had bought their homeroom teacher a cake, but though he was very flattered he wanted them to eat and enjoy it and so wouldn’t touch any of it. They then asked me if I wanted some, and I tried to give them the same reasoning that their homeroom teacher gave them, and they wouldn’t take no for an answer, so we finished class 10 minutes early and ate cake. Then fourth period I taught 2.4 who told me it was Teacher’s Day (but didn’t wish me a happy Teacher’s Day) and when I asked if they got something for their homeroom teacher they responded “no,” so it’s not all cuteness and cake over here.

Neither American nor  Korean education is perfect, but in my opinion if there’s one thing that Korea does unequivocally better it’s acknowledging and respecting teachers. From my experience this is shown internally (how students and teachers interact, how the administration deals with teachers) and on a broader scale (in terms of salary and prestige being a teacher is a highly sought-after job).

So, to all my fellow teachers out there, happy Teachers Day!

I feel like I always blog about 2.5, and with good reason, because there’s so much ripe comedic material to choose from. However, today’s post isn’t going to be about something funny that happened in class, it’s going to be about one of my favorite students – Hongdae.

Now Hongdae isn’t actually his name, it’s just what I’m choosing to call him as it’s actually somewhat similar to his name and because whenever I think of Hongdae, I’m reminded of him.  Hongdae is most famously known among the native English teaching community as a partying, clubbing, and live music district, but it’s also named after Hongik University (University in Korean is 대학교/dehakgyo, so HongDe) which is the most famous arts school in Korea. Why does this university remind me of my student? I’ll get to that in a second.

Hongdae (the student) is every teacher’s dream. He’s bright, pays attention, and is funny without being disruptive. He helps control the class, and helps translate for other students when they need help but doesn’t yell out all the answers. He’s a good participant during games, and pays attention during the more boring parts of class. He’s just an all around sweet kid, in a class full of (also sweet) crazies.

A few weeks ago after I finished teaching class 2.5 I left the second grade building and paused on the steps. I saw Hongdae come out after me, but decided not to call out to him, because it was his break time and I didn’t want to force him to come talk to me. He ended up calling out my name anyway. I asked him what his plans were for that weekend, and he said “drawing.” Intrigued, I asked if art was his hobby, and he replied that his dream was to be an artist. I asked if he wanted to go to art school, and he told me that he wanted to go to Hongik, and asked if I knew it. When I replied that I did know Hongdae and that it was a very famous art school, he beamed.
“Do you have any of your drawings with you? I’d love to see them.”
He blushed. “Ah no, teacher, not now. But maybe later?”
“Okay, I want to see them later. Promise me.” And we promised.

Fast forward to today. I finished teaching class 2.5, hung around to chat with some of the boys, then on my way out I ran into Hongdae on the steps again.
“Bye, teacher. Have a good week.”
“Thanks! Ah! Your drawings, how are they going?”
“Good! I… have them with me now, if you want to see them?”
“YES.”

I then followed him back inside class 2.5′s homeroom, to the confusion of all the students there, and he grabbed a tube from his cabinet and from it pulled out his drawings and started to explain them in English, and my jaw just dropped. The first (and my favorite) piece had been divided into four parts and each part had a BEAUTIFUL image of a water drop, hitting the water’s surface, done in varying shades of blue. The second piece was of a cat, about to attack a ball of yarn, and the third was a drawing of different types of cracked glass.

Hongdae is smart. He was in one of my advanced first grade classes last year, which makes him one of the top students (at least, in terms of English) in second grade. The fact that he’s at Changpyeong means that he’s smart, period. He could probably get into any number of prestigious academic programs at most universities, but I’ve never seen him look happier or more proud than when he was showing me his drawings.

…

(To help me remember students' names, I had students write their names on white boards and then I took pictures. This remains one of my favorite pictures, because everytime I got ready to take a picture, these two students would bust out laughing, so I finally just took the picture mid-laugh. Hongdae's the one on the right, and I erased the students' names for privacy reasons).

I’ve had two really fun interactions with my second grade boys today.

This week as a post-midterms fun class in second grade we’re playing Chalkboard Scrabble (and they’ve been killing it – the last class had teams that created the words “candidate” and “zebra”). At the end of class I was putting away all of the letter tiles and a student came over to help me.

“Oh! Thank you! You’re so sweet.”
“I cannot be sweet. I am not a candy.”
“Ah, but we can use ‘sweet’ to describe people too.”
“오 진짜?”

 As if on cue my second grade boys started running around the classroom and yelling in their friends’ faces “You are so sweet!” and proclaiming “I am SWEET GUY.” So cute. Then it got kinda not cute.

“But you must be careful with the pronunciation. It’s swEEt not swEAt.”
“아, Yes, and it is not SWAT. Special Weapons Attack Team [Before you correct me, yes, I know that that's the wrong acronym]. I wish I was SWAT. Give me a machine gun please!”
“… Never.”

I also taught Bad and BAD’s class today. After class I saw Bad in the hallway.
“Teacher! BFF.”
“Ah, you mean BAD?”
“No. YOU!”

Yesterday after school I was exhausted, went on a youtubing spree, and ended up watching all of season one of “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl” which is absolutely hysterical, and the “Awkward Hallway” episode got me thinking about my own awkward hallway. Which is to say, all the hallways at my school where I might run into people.

When you meet people, even in passing you should 인사 (insa: greet) them and bow. Not like, a colonial-style hand-in-the-front-and-knees-bent-like-a-fop-type bow, nor is it a complete 90 degree plank (well, unless it’s a more formal occassion than a happenstance hallway meeting), but nodding your head and a little bit of movement at your waist is generally fine.

You see, what makes this so awkward is that I’m the youngest teacher at my school, which means that I should greet people first when I see them. Now, this isn’t always the case, and some teachers will preemptively greet me (probably out of pity), but for the rest it’s like an awkward game of bowing chicken. 

When do I bow?-Where do I put my eyes?-We’re the only people in this hallway, is it rude to not make eye contact?-Is it rude to MAKE eye contact?-Oh god it’s like I’m staring her down.-Look away LOOK AWAY.-Oh no, now that teacher probably thinks that I’m being rude and not acknowleding her presence.-Look back.-Smile.-What an idiot she can’t see you smile from here.-Stop smiling.-Oh wait, you can see her mouth so she can see yours, so she just saw you stop smiling and look awkward.-Okay okay okay I’m just going to do it.

–BOW–

I should’ve waited, we’ve still got like half this hallway to go.-When I pass her do I bow again?-What on earth is the etiquitte for hallway bowing?- Oop here we go, aaaaand we’re passing.

“안녕하세요!”

Why did I do that?-Why did I say anything?-That was so awkward.-THAT WAS SO AWKWARD.-Well, at least I’m done-Oh.-Here comes another teacher.

AND repeat.

There’s no air conditoning in the classrooms, and the ceiling fans are haven’t been cleaned and are an allergy attack waiting to happen, so it’s unbearably hot in the homerooms. Thus, students have been leaving the windows and doors open to try to generate a breeze.

I was standing in front of the chalkboard during my sixth period class (2.7) when I noticed that two of the girls in the front row were staring intently at the slope where my shoulder meets my neck. I assumed I had had some kind of wardrobe malfunction, and as I moved my hand up to my neck to check, I felt something small and hard beneath my fingers. I had no idea what it was, so I grabbed it in between my two fingers and flung the object away from me.  Turns out it was a wasp, and I somehow neatly managed to throw it so that it went straight out the window from the middle of the classroom. Without acknowledging the wasp or breaking my stride, I continued to teach my lesson.

It is incredibly hot today. Korea seems to think that regardless of its position compared to the rest of the calendar year this week deserves to be a part of summer and has ramped up the temperature to 80 degrees. Apparently next week it will go back down to 70, and that can’t come soon enough because my apartment doesn’t have air conditioning.

This week we had midterms so I didn’t go to school Wednesday and Thursday, and I went today because it was the teacher’s sports day. Teacher’s sports day is a once or twice-a-year event at CPHS and though the two teachers at the school I’m closest with weren’t able to go, it was still fun interacting with the non-English young female teachers, and my favorite older co-teachers. It was also fun watching the middle-aged men at my school regress to their high school ages and kick ass at a sport I didn’t even know existed (foot volleyball. It’s like soccer meets volleyball – there’s a net but you can’t use your hands).

I went to the Bamboo festival with some of my friends on Wednesday and Thursday and I’m supposed to take a bus to Mokpo, a city further south, to meet them but I’m stalling because I don’t want to go back outside in the heat. While I cool down, drink my iced tea, and prepare myself for the weather, I’ll tell you about what happened to me on Wednesday afternoon.

…

I have quite a few Bad students (students who either don’t study or do poorly on tests, or students who Do Bad Things like break curfew or even smoke). That being said, I rarely come across any BAD students. BAD students are those that are just bad people. Not those who’ve had bad days or a few behavioral problems, and maybe they’re not even BAD to everyone, but those where they’ve decided that they Just Don’t Like You and have No Interest in Pretending To.

I tend to get along with the Bad students rather well. They tend to range from shy and embarrassed about their ability to rip-roaringly exuberant. It’s not easy, but if you give the loud ones a stage and coax the shy ones to speak you can create some really deep relationships. The shy type generally get ignored, and the exuberant tend to be labeled as delinquents, so in putting in that extra effort to really see them as not just students but young adults, personalities, people, they appreciate it. However, the BAD students, well… that’s another story.

Now, I never want to label a kid as BAD, because once that label sticks in my mind, once I associate a face with BAD, it’s hard to approach them the same way. A warning siren goes off in my head when I see them and it’s difficult for me to judge what a good reaction to the things that they say and do are. I had an unreformed BAD at SGHS. He would sleep, swear at me in Korean and English during class, and try to stare me down, but other than him I’ve been pretty lucky so far. Most of my BAD-to-bes have redeemed themselves in my eyes at least (though, maybe not in the eyes of the school).

Fast-forward to Wednesday when I was waiting at the bus stop to go to Gwangju. I was wearing a shorter skirt than normal (which, by the way, followed the fingertip rule and I was wearing opaque leggings and a long sleeved high-necked baggy shirt – what more can you really do) when I heard a “whoo-hoo.” I assumed it was a middle-aged man or a soldier commenting on my outfit so I steeled myself and turned around, and saw a Bad and a BAD.

The “whoo-hoo” had come from the Bad, who was trying to get my attention, and who had immediately followed the whoo-hooing with frantic dual-arm waving, which was unnecessary as he was only about five feet away from me. The Bad’s an identical twin, and his brother’s also a Bad. A few weeks ago they were caught smoking and drinking in the dormitory and were temporarily kicked out, so they now commute to school everyday. I really like both boys – they’re exuberant, fun, try really hard in my classes, and quite a handful.

I have a long and complicated history with the BAD, and other teachers have had problems with him as well. Last year after I had lectured his class on being chatty and asked why they were so unfocused, he stood up and said that it was because my class was more boring than the previous ETA’s class and that I expected too much of the students. We had a one-on-one talk afterwards about his concerns about my class and appropriate venues for airing these concerns, but since then he’s been on my radar. His actions in class are strange – sometimes he’s focused and volunteers, and sometimes he tries to derail me or other students. He’s kind of spacey, but also he can seem really sincere about what he says,which causes other students to laugh, and I can’t tell if his spacey sincerity is genuine or if he’s putting on a front to amuse the other students and make me lose face by taking him seriously. Evidence from one class will point to the former option, but then the next week I’ll think it’s the latter.

Back to the bus stop. The Bad goes to chat with another student who’s waiting for the same bus a little further down the road and I steel myself for a confrontation with the BAD. Instead, we had a conversation. He asked me where I was going and said that he was going to Gwangju as well for music academy, and that he plays guitar. We then saw his father who works in Changpyeong and he asked if I thought they looked alike. I said “a bit” and he then went to go talk to him, and came back with two drinks – a coke for him and mango juice for me. I was so surprised that I practically shouted thank you, and he slowly smiled at me.

At this point the Bad (who is much less spacey, much more talkative, and basically demands attention) comes back to chat and tells me that the two of them are BEST FRIENDS. I teach him the term BFF (“Oh. Ok ok we are BFFS!”) and then the Bad questioned me about the American school system. He then mentioned that he wanted to be a doctor, but his friend (the BAD) didn’t have a goal. I asked the BAD what he wanted to study in college, and he said that he wanted to be a musician and do Christian music – like gospel. This causes the Bad to interject and state that since he (the Bad) was a Buddha (read: Buddhist) they were no longer able to be BFFs but only Just Friends. As I’m clutching my sides laughing at the turn this conversation has taken, the bus rolls up, we get on, get separated by people, a little while later get off the bus in Gwangju, and I wave goodbye as they troop off to the stationary store.

Maybe the BAD isn’t so bad after all?

http://koreanstudentsspeak.tumblr.com/post/22136127888/we-know-study-is-important-but-we-use-what-we

This. This right here. I believe she was referring to all subjects, but a constant worry of mine is that what I end up teaching  is not valuable or useful, and is a waste of their time.

Alright, it’s lesson planning time.

Today at lunch we ate churros. I asked the teachers next to me what they call them in Korean, and apparently they’re called “churros.”

Today is an exceptionally boring day.