Yedea or Yedai?

My school uses both spellings for various documents and signs. It bothers me and I really want to say something, but graphically Korea just isn't evolved that way. In graphic design courses in school, we just learned about constancy, but I am sure anyone who majored in advertising, some form a business or just people with commonsense would tell you the same, "The spelling of your business should always be the same." Although my school lacks in constancy in its brand identity, on a constant basis my school never fails to provide stories day in and day out.

February 18, 2009

I have a twenty minute four year old class and its hell. The understand no English or at least they pretend they don't. They laugh every time I speak and the only English I can get them to repeat is the 10 Little Indian song. I  have this one little girl though who is the devil. She just won't do anything and is completely disruptive. This particular day she comes up to me and tugs at my shirt. I know she needed to use the restroom, but I wanted her to try to say the word bathroom. As I asked her she opened her mouth to reveal this green, mucusy lugy. It was gross and another little girl followed her lead and did the same thing.

March 2, 2009

It is the start of their new school year. There are no regular classes, just the new students and parents were invited to the school as a type of meet and greet. They had a singing magician that provided entertainment. He was very impressive by puling pigeons out of no where and creating balloon animals. He even preformed a puppet show. After the entertainment our principle, Mrs. Shin, introduced all of us teachers. When she got to me, she called me Kelly, the other American teacher who was not even there. I didn't bother her to correct her. Apparently, Koreans think Kelly and I look the same, even though she is blond and I am brunette. And as she introduced me to the audience I was expected to ramble off an introduction. Although I couldn't stop coughing or blowing my nose, the audience seemed to like my little speech. I just have already realized just to compliment them on their amazing country and that I am so excited to be here. 

Later that night, my boss took my whole work out to dinner to an authentic Japanese restaurant. Plates of sushi, vegetables, soups and duck were constantly being put down in huge platters in front of us. One of the platters was completely still moving; sea squirt, octopus and something else unidentifiable all chopped up, but alive. I did eat some still squirming octopus, but that's as far as I ventured. The other Korean girls didn't touch the other things, so I stayed away from it. Just the older man I worked with was eating it. i don't really know his whole job description, but I see him at the front desk, driving the bus and other random things.

March 17, 2009

During a typical class. The first ten to fifteen minutes is dedicated to talking and answering questions. After that we usually work in a workbook. At which time we go over each section and I walk around the class making sure everything is done correctly. Constantly, though I walk into walls of horrible, Korean gas. Which if you have any vegetarian friends I equate it with a smell like that. There Korean diet constants of a lot of leafy vegetables and these kids just let it go. I adopted this method with my own personal gas during, class. I don't do anything I would normally do; hold it, leave the room, etc. This is going to be the one thing I miss when I leave the country the ability to pass gas freely. 

March 20, 2009

Boogies. It is not uncommon to look around any of my classes at any given time and half the class having one or even two of their fingers half way up their nose. On this particular day this boy got a huge, moist green boogie and he wanted to show me. I gagged.

March 22, 2009

I was teaching my five year old after school class. You have to understand these children, who are either four or five, have been here since 10:00 am at the latest. There are no nap times and there are no half days like Americans experience with pre-school and kindergarten. These Kids are irritable, barely comprehend English and rather come up and poke me to see if I am real then repeat the words,"Good morning Mommy! Good Morning Daddy! Dog. Cat. Sister. Brother. Doll. Robot. etc." So in between getting them to speak we sing songs and watch animated stories about the topic we are going over. It is a rather small class, only four students and it is fifty minutes long. There attention span at 3:00 pm is about four minutes. Usually, two of the boys run around throwing there books  that go with the lesson that they can't even read. I don't mind, as long as when they are moving I here them repeat the words. This day however, thy were paying attention to a certain degree more so then usual. They had there tiny little chairs in front of me and were actually sitting. They were fidgety and hitting each other, but at least they were sitting. I looked down though and notice this one boy's penis was out and he was laughing. I was a little shocked, I haven't quite prepared for this moment and now they started video taping are classes. The feed streams live on a rotating basis through the classrooms on a screen in the lobby. That was the last thing I needed to get in trouble for some little boy flashing me. I immediately threw my forearms in an "x" and said, "Ani!" (which translates to no and crossing our arms enforces that). He pulled his pants up and laughed. Unfortunately, this was not my last little Asian penis encounter. 

Before the class had started, I was having a conversation with one of the Korean teachers, who teach the five years old. I was telling her how this class is my most difficult and was asking her if she liked teaching kids this young. She said in her accent, "They make me purer." She explained it as, they are uncorrupted and innocent. It makes her feel that way about life, while she teaches them. She is reminded of the innocence in the world. I guess it helps her not become so cynical. However, when the little boy flashed me, he knew it was wrong and funny. It's like they are knowingly abusing their innocence for their comedic advantage. 

Oh and in addition to seeing a kid's penis, I also got bit shortly after that. One of the boys was trying to make a run for the door and I put my arm out to stop him and then he bit it. He did not break the skin, but again I was shocked. A very fun filled fifty minutes.

The teacher and I were also discussing the difference between American schools and Korean schools. And all the hours Koreans spend going to school and studying. They literally have no life and no one in high school works. She said there is no other choice, but to study. In America I explained there are always choices. You can be lazy and get pushed right through the system and the amount of money your parents spend on your education can lead to even more choices. In Korea everyone goes to the same schools. No charter, religious or private choices are available. She said you are starting to see some choices, but not a lot. 

April 2, 2009

I have a ten minute break between my classes in the morning. I usually sit a bench outside the classrooms and near the bathrooms with a coffee. On this particular day a little boy runs to the bathroom door with his pants around his ankles and his shirt lifted up to his neck, his little wang hanging out screaming and crying. I couldn't understand anything he was saying an didn't know how to help. I went and got a Korean teacher. He was constipated and needed help wiping his ass. Yea, I definitely was not about to help with that one.

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.