Yedea English Academy

The entrance to the school has these large, scary Snow White figurines.

My slippers I wear everyday. All shoes must come off at the entrance.

A typical Korean lunch. Rice, soup, vegetables and some type of meat. It's not the best food, but it isn't horrible. Plus it is free. 

Where some of the people, who work at the school eat. They sit on the stools and use the blue

cushion as the table. I opt for my classroom, when I eat.

My classroom. It might be changing next week, when the new school year starts. Kindergartens schools go year round. The new school year starts in March for every school.

I use the computer screen to teach from a selection of English programs. 

The mini sinks. 

The mini toilets that never seem to get flushed. There are adult sized toilets, too.

We keep a roll of toilet paper in the classroom. You take what you need before you go. It also doubles as tissues, just like home. We never had tissues growing up, we just used rolls of toilet paper.

These are sanitizing, toothbrush holders. The kids brush their teeth after every lunch. Korean food usually leaves you with bad breath.

All the kids share one cup at the water fountain. Its always the same orange cup. I have never seen it get washed. 

The cups the kids use for lunch in a sanitizing holder.. Every kid has their own cup and bring their own tray and chopsticks from home.

Another classroom.

One of the shelve areas for the kids shoes. Also, the fish tank is one of the many school pets, which also include ants, lizards, turtles, frogs and hedgehogs.

Hongul, Korean writing.

Jisu, one of my favorite students, but he is now going to elementary school.

This is my favorite class, white class.

Jisu, Bryan, Billy and Eric. Jisu is the trouble child, but is adorable. Bryan helps me and tels Jisu to be quiet. They get English names, when they are five years old. I have one class of elementary kids and the one boy still didn't have an English name. I was told to name him. I tried to name him Max, but he didn't like it. I think we settled on Bryan, but he still doesn't respond to it.

Isabel, Sarah and Monica. These girls are really smart and their English is impressive. They are seven in Korean years, but they are actually six. Koreans consider that they are one years old at birth. And birthdays are not a huge deal here. Everyone gets older basically at the same time at the start of the new school year.

The other day all the new students and their parents came in to be introduced to the teachers and the school. A couple of the mothers and aunts came up to talk to me. They told how thankful they are for me to be here. They wanted to make sure I liked Korea. One mother with her newborn strapped to her, was telling me how she studied English in Australia for two years. She wish she could speak English more, but now she feels useless cause she is just with the baby all day and doesn't talk to anyone. I told her how being a mom is the most important job and she replied,"I tell myself that, but I don't always believe it."  It was kind of sad. In Korea, most everybody gets married by thirty. If you aren't you are looked at funny. Most women don't work because they stay home with the children. Even though most women don't pursue careers, they still intensely study and go to college.