This week just seems so damn long, longer than last week. Because of the cold, I have been feeling pretty lethargic, and at work, I'm just extra tired. It also feels long, coz I know that I'm going to Japan. Another factor, is that I've decided that I'm gonna leave in October. Mentally, I'm prepared to leave now. I just have to live out the next 140-something days, get paid, and organise a flight home.
A lot of times, when I speak to Korean people, I find that I have to explain that I didn't come to Korea for the job. The job here wasn't the priority. The experience was. The job was just a way for me to stay here. If the job was the priority, I wouldn't have chosen to live in the countryside, in a place where I am getting a little less money than other people (who have less qualifications/experience than me, for example). I came for the experience - to learn new things, not only about another culture, but about myself. I came for a challenge. Deciding to be in a small countryside town, where not many people speak your language fluently enough, and where everything is different, is a challenge. In my opinion, people show their true character when they are faced with difficult challenges - challenges that they have expected and ones they haven't expected.
This week has just been mentally draining. I've had random class changes again and haven't been sleeping well (mainly due to the cold).
I also have suspicions that a co-worker is bulimic. I was going to go to the toilet, but i heard someone in their gagging a lot. At first, I thought it might have been someone having a fit or seizure, because some people do make a gagging sound before they start, but after it stopped, i heard the toilet flush and someone walk out. The person then closed to door, but not fully. I could see the basin, and the person only washed the ends of their fingers. If you are naturally sick, you normally keep your hands away from your mouth. I have noticed that this person does clean their teeth a lot at work, but also eats some kind of snacks during class, but also shares it with the students.
I got my friend in Japan to book a hotel room, at a hotel close to the airport I'm leaving from next sunday for me. The English part of the Hotel's Internet Site didn't have a place to make booking, but the Japanese site did. I ran the site though the translator, but I could only go so far with that. My flight leaves at 9:50am on Sunday morning, so, even though its a little expensive (almost 10,000 yen), it means that I have time to get to the hotel on Saturday evening, and don't have to rush Sunday morning, to get the train to the airport, and hope that nothing happens to me so that I miss my flight.
My friend has some ideas on what to do, and where to go during my time in Japan. I also have some things that I want to see. I will just be happy to see my friend again. *^^*
Something from work, out of a book the boss made. Every time I see this, it gives me mixed feelings. Its funny, but it's a little too direct to say in English. Most of the Elementary kids in my hagwon are going to have a "competition", which by the boss' defenition, means "test + winnter gets a prize". Mainly, the kids just have to memorise stuff out of the book.
The sections are:
1: Remembering the Korean and English meanings of certain phrases. Here is an example:
They are students. 그들은 학생들입니다.
Are they stduents? 그들은 학생들입니까?
They are students, aren't they? 그들은 학생들입니디. 그렇지 않습니까?
Yes, they are students. 예. 그들은 학생들입니다.
No, they aren't students. 아니오. 그들은 학생글은 아닙니다.
Students have to remember the Korean and English. The boss or myself will say one, and they have to change it to the other. There are 11 of these types of passages.
2: Basic question and answer.
15 questions (like the picture above). Students have to regurgitate memorised answers. I give them the same points if they give the exact answer, or an answer that makes sense. For example, with the question above, if a student answered with "No, she is thin." Instead of "No, she is not fat, she it thin." I would give them full marks. I don't see the point in repeating what was already stated in the question.
3: Remembering a passage.
Student have a passage which they need to remember and regurgitate.
4: Basic verbs and changes.
Students need to remember verb changes in Korean and English. For example, the boss might say "TV 보다" and the students would have to change it to past tense (TV 봤다) and then say "watched TV" in English.
For my 학원, and many others in my town. This is English. Remembering stuff. Why? Because when they get to last year of Elementary school and Middle school, this what they need to do. Remember heaps of English stuff, to pass their written tests of multiple choice and close questions.
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