9 years ago
Daejeon Science Museum and Expo Park
Pictures from last weekend in Daejeon (대전) - National Science Museum and Expo Park
2012
Went to see this on Sunday in Daejeon. 2 things stood out for me.
1: They mentioned the East Aea, not the sea of Japan. It looked like they were forced to say it, instead of saying "you should visit your son in Japan", when his son actually lived in Japan.
2: When a grandfather, in which his son had moved to Japan, married a japanese woman, and had a child, called his son in Japan, he pulled out a picture of his granddaughter, which of cause looks asian. A lot of the audience laughed at that moment.
1: They mentioned the East Aea, not the sea of Japan. It looked like they were forced to say it, instead of saying "you should visit your son in Japan", when his son actually lived in Japan.
2: When a grandfather, in which his son had moved to Japan, married a japanese woman, and had a child, called his son in Japan, he pulled out a picture of his granddaughter, which of cause looks asian. A lot of the audience laughed at that moment.
It's been a while...
Well, I've been in Anseong for 2 months now. I'd say that I've adjusted pretty well. I just wanna write an update to let people know what's going on.
1. The job.
I thought it would be different (in a good way) to my old job because it was in a public school. It's not. It feels worse. I feel that I have less support in my current job, than I have ever had as a teacher. I had more support from my hagwon boss back when I was in Korea the last time - and a whole lot more support from schools/teachers when I was in australia.
My co-teacher, who doesn't co-teach, has approached me twice and said that he wants to be included in the lessons, and wants something to do rather than just stand around (and he just spaces out - a few times i've seen him just staring into oblivion, so I've just done behavioural/class management myself in Korean, which I can deal with, because I was working in a hagwon for 3 years, where I had to do it myself). But, when it comes to actually planning together, he never shows up, and the one time he did, all he said was "Is there anything I can do?". If he had shown some initiative, and picked up a book and said "I'd like to look at the lesson for tomorrow, so we can plan something together.", I'd be a lot more impressed. He's a nice guy... but... yeah...
So, I have 6 classes with the co-teacher. They're the official curriculum classes. Then there are "bang-gwa-hu" classes (방과후 means the dismissal of class for the day), but these classes are basically after lunch anywhere between 1pm and 4pm. I have 2 of these with every class, and 1 with kindergarten. They're basically hagwon-style classes, where I'm by myself doing my own thing. Which I'm also used to doing, because of the hagwon thing. At first, I had behaviour issues with Grades 1, 2 and 3, but grade 1 and 2 have settled down, and are getting better, but there are some students who have some issues, and are really testing the limits of my patience and my skills. Still have a few things up my sleeve, it's just a matter of finding out what what's gonna work.
I also have a teachers' class on Friday afternoon. It's meant to start at 4pm, but if they turn up, it's between 4:10 and 4:20. Last Friday, only my co-teacher turned up and after seeing that he was the only one to turn up at 4:20, he thought that he should call the other teachers that normally come and remind them. I told him not too, that it's their responsibility to come on time (and gave him a bit of a look, since he turned up 20 mins late).
I've also got 3 mornings of no class, so I'm very bored at times. I've been using a bit of that time to study Korean.
2. The lifestyle
One of the first things I did was join a Gumdo place, and started doing Gumdo again. I'm in the 6:40pm class, which a good bunch of kids (and a couple of adults). It's my winding down from work time, where I can get a bit of exercise, and enjoy Korea. My teacher is pretty cool as well.
This week, gumdo is closed for the week, due to the paranoia around swine flu (and that the teacher decided to close for the week, since Anseong Elementary is closed for the week as well).
I've been travelling around to see old friends, which is nice, and have made some new friends here in Anseong too. Since I'm living in another place in Korea, I'm able to go to places that weren't easily accessible compared to where I was last time in Korea. The plan is to travel to a few of those places to check them out.
3. The future
I've got 10 months to go in my job, and I'm considering what I want to do after that. I don't think I can stay for another 12 months, if I'm offered. The plan is to save a lot of cash, and maybe even study Korean for 6 months at a uni here in Korea. Or, go home and get a "real" teaching job. I am starting to regret giving up the teaching job I had before in Mildura, to come here to work here.
Just gotta seriously think what I wanna do, and the means of which to do it.
I like Korea, just not the work.
1. The job.
I thought it would be different (in a good way) to my old job because it was in a public school. It's not. It feels worse. I feel that I have less support in my current job, than I have ever had as a teacher. I had more support from my hagwon boss back when I was in Korea the last time - and a whole lot more support from schools/teachers when I was in australia.
My co-teacher, who doesn't co-teach, has approached me twice and said that he wants to be included in the lessons, and wants something to do rather than just stand around (and he just spaces out - a few times i've seen him just staring into oblivion, so I've just done behavioural/class management myself in Korean, which I can deal with, because I was working in a hagwon for 3 years, where I had to do it myself). But, when it comes to actually planning together, he never shows up, and the one time he did, all he said was "Is there anything I can do?". If he had shown some initiative, and picked up a book and said "I'd like to look at the lesson for tomorrow, so we can plan something together.", I'd be a lot more impressed. He's a nice guy... but... yeah...
So, I have 6 classes with the co-teacher. They're the official curriculum classes. Then there are "bang-gwa-hu" classes (방과후 means the dismissal of class for the day), but these classes are basically after lunch anywhere between 1pm and 4pm. I have 2 of these with every class, and 1 with kindergarten. They're basically hagwon-style classes, where I'm by myself doing my own thing. Which I'm also used to doing, because of the hagwon thing. At first, I had behaviour issues with Grades 1, 2 and 3, but grade 1 and 2 have settled down, and are getting better, but there are some students who have some issues, and are really testing the limits of my patience and my skills. Still have a few things up my sleeve, it's just a matter of finding out what what's gonna work.
I also have a teachers' class on Friday afternoon. It's meant to start at 4pm, but if they turn up, it's between 4:10 and 4:20. Last Friday, only my co-teacher turned up and after seeing that he was the only one to turn up at 4:20, he thought that he should call the other teachers that normally come and remind them. I told him not too, that it's their responsibility to come on time (and gave him a bit of a look, since he turned up 20 mins late).
I've also got 3 mornings of no class, so I'm very bored at times. I've been using a bit of that time to study Korean.
2. The lifestyle
One of the first things I did was join a Gumdo place, and started doing Gumdo again. I'm in the 6:40pm class, which a good bunch of kids (and a couple of adults). It's my winding down from work time, where I can get a bit of exercise, and enjoy Korea. My teacher is pretty cool as well.
This week, gumdo is closed for the week, due to the paranoia around swine flu (and that the teacher decided to close for the week, since Anseong Elementary is closed for the week as well).
I've been travelling around to see old friends, which is nice, and have made some new friends here in Anseong too. Since I'm living in another place in Korea, I'm able to go to places that weren't easily accessible compared to where I was last time in Korea. The plan is to travel to a few of those places to check them out.
3. The future
I've got 10 months to go in my job, and I'm considering what I want to do after that. I don't think I can stay for another 12 months, if I'm offered. The plan is to save a lot of cash, and maybe even study Korean for 6 months at a uni here in Korea. Or, go home and get a "real" teaching job. I am starting to regret giving up the teaching job I had before in Mildura, to come here to work here.
Just gotta seriously think what I wanna do, and the means of which to do it.
I like Korea, just not the work.
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