Jo Teacher Finishee!

I arrived in Korea on my 23rd birthday, extremely knackered and wondering whether or not I could jump on the next flight home. Throwing myself into the deep end of a new country, even one where English isn’t the first language wasn’t my biggest fear. It was more to do with coming to the other side of the world on my own when I have perfectly good friends and family at home in the UK who I know I will (and do) miss tremendously. It’s irrational and selfish, but coming away from everyone, I expect everything else to remain the same for when I get back, and a small part of me does worry about where I will fit when I come home next April.

My co-ordinator and his wife met me at the airport and got me and my luggage out to their car before breaking it to me that my apartment wasn’t ready and that I would be spending my first night in a hotel. That was a nice birthday present. As was experiencing Korean driving for the first time, it certainly explains why Korean road safety isn’t a global phenomenon. Essentially, anything goes, there is no fast lane so you can just weave through traffic while sending an email, talking on the phone and watching a DVD. Oh, and if you are in the outside lane and your turning is coming up, just cut across three lanes of traffic without indicating, or checking the mirror! I later learnt that scooters will use the pavements even when the roads are quiet, it certainly keeps me on my toes.

When I arrived in Hongseong all my senses were overwhelmed, the smell, the sights, the sounds, (ok you know the rest!) were all so foreign. The skyline was dotted with neon signs in every direction, even the crosses on the churches light up the sky in a sort of Vegasesque scene. New York may not sleep, but Korea does a pretty good job of staying awake too, with shops open until ten, and that’s just in Hongseong.

Nearly two months into my adventure and I am still discovering new things about my new home. I was broken into the whole teaching side of things gently, spending the first month shadowing the other two English teachers at my school. They work in the kindergarten, so I essentially had a month of watching very cute kids learning English, and playing football in the lunch break. Plus I had the freedom to learn how to use Korean chopsticks (they’re metal and flat) in front of children who can barely use them themselves, so no laughing at Jo Teacher as she drops half her lunch on the floor.

Now though I am teaching Elementary and Middle School level children (aged from 8-14), and the first task is trying to remove the bad “Englishee” they have previously been taught. A favourite of mine is finish-ee (it ends in a h, just add a whole bunch of eeeee’s at the end!) There is an advert on television for Rush Cash-which becomes Rushee Cashee…..even orange-becomes orange-ee. Watched becomes watch-ed….the list is never ending. When a Korean teacher teaches English 90% of the lesson is in Korean, when a TEFL teacher teaches English this generally isn’t possible which has both positives and negatives to the lesson. The Korean mentality seems to be learn as many words and their spelling as possible, these children know words like associate, preserve, band shell (aka stage to you and me!) but don’t know how to put them in a sentence. That’s where I come in, and it’s no end of fun. It sounds cheesy but it’s really satisfying to see one of the kids proud that they could express themselves in a foreign language.

There is so much more to tell, adventures in Seoul (from safety pin lady to malfunctioning toilets) and Busan (from a stalker taxi driver to a mountain top temple), my thoughts on Korean food, television, and culture, but that will have to wait for now because I need to get some sleep.