December 18th--Thursday--Day 1 of training
I got up and got ready for my 1st day of training. Then I just sat on my bed and cried for about 30 minutes. I was thinking "what the heck am I doing?" I knew the anxiety wouldn't hit until I actually got here. Everyone kept asking "Are you scared to go?". I kept saying no. Now I am!
I'm very thankful that I have 2 other North Americans on my floor in my apartment. If I were alone I'd probably be on the next plane home!
I had to be at the school at 11am so I got out about 30 mins early because I wasn't exactly sure how to get to the school. I knew I could see Home Plus from the school. So I stood at Home Plus and looked around. I finally decided to try going one way and I found it. I got there right on time. When I got there they told us. Go eat lunch and be back at 12.
I work in this building. We are on the 5th and 6th floors.
There were 2 other teachers. James, 28, from Canada and Andrew, 22, from Charlotte. Me and Andrew were on the same flights from Charlotte and San Francisco. We met at the airport in Seoul. He was also in Atlanta the same day I was.
We decided to try out Lotteria. That was my first meal in South Korea. Lotteria is a fast food restaurant. We were glad they had picture menus cause I dont think they speak any English. We just pointed to what we wanted. I got a chicken sandwich combo. It came with a small pepsi and a small fry and it costed $4,300 won. It wasn't great but it was a decent meal.
Then we went back to the school to start our training. The training person from Avalon came down to our campus today. She said she lives 90 mins away. We watched a few videos to learn about Avalon. Avalon was founded in 1997 and started out as CIE=Center for International Education. The name was changed to Avalon English in 2005. Its a franchise and they have campuses all over South Korea. Avalon is a Hagwon which is a school but also a business. The kids go to public school during the day then they come to Avalon at night for private study for 2 75 minute classes. One class with an English teacher and one with a korean teacher. We teach various levels of Elementary and Middle school students. Our lowest level which is basically a beginner is called the Leader level. Then The Dash level--which has 3 sub-levels--Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Then there is the middle level-Jump with basic, intermediate, and advanced. Then the high level--Glide with basic, intermediate and advanced. they are placed into the levels by doing a speaking test and a placement test to see how much they already know. Then they move to the next level by passing that class. They also have a really advanced program but I dont think we teach it at our campus. We also have 3 levels in middle school. The lowest is Mountian-basic, intermediate and advanced. Middle level is Horizon-basic, intermediate and advanced and the highest-Pinacle-basic, intermediate, and advanced. We have 4 semesters-Winter, Spring, Summer, fall. The winter semester begins on December 22nd.
After learning the history we learned how to teach the students. The elementary level is pretty easy. Its basically a lot of listening and repeating. We'll give them a quiz everyday on what they read. We will also grade them on how much they participate. We have to follow a syllabus. Everything is planned out for us. We just teach what lesson they tell us to teach on what day. Im glad we dont have to make up our own material. The trainer, Gina, taught us how to teach the material and made us get in front of the other 2 teachers and do a pretend lesson. We didn't know what we were doing! Then she would give us feedback on what we should change.
We trained on Elementary all day long. we only briefly touched on middle school. We were not happy that we didnt really get a formal training on middle school.
We got out of training around 7pm. Then we decided to try pizza hut. The waitress spoke a little English. They had Mountain Dew! Pizza Hut over here is way overpriced!! A small pizza that would feed one to two people was 13,000 won for a pepperoni.(around $9.00 usd). (You can get a large pizza for that price in America) This one was more like a personal pan pizza. The guys got that one. I was trying to get something cheaper so I got a mini pizza which had 4 small slices. I decided to get a bbq chicken pizza. It wasnt that good. I don't even know what the yellow stuff on my pizza was but I cut it off.
It was cold in my room and I don't know how to use the thermostat! Its in Korean! I'm glad my blanket on my bed is pretty warm.
Day 2--December 19th-Friday
I used the shower for the first time today. Yesterday I just washed off. The shower is definatly a new experience. No shower stall or shower curtian. The whole bathroom got wet!
I went to Dunkin Donuts today. The girl at the counter spoke English! I had a donut for 1,000 won (less than a dollar) and a can of pepsi for 1,000 won (less than a dollar). It tastes different but it was okay.
We had to be at school at 11am I think. For lunch we went to a korean restaurant near the school. The koreans ordered for us. I had no clue what it was but I liked it. (now I know it was Dook bae gi bulgogi). We went to a restaurant where you take off your shoes at the door and sit on the floor at a low table. Ouch! It was so uncomfortable. Our legs were going numb. We didn't sitting on the floor. It doesn't seem to bother the koreans. The meal was free during our training so I got a free meal for lunch that day. My first korean meal.
we didnt really do much training today. We just sat around and watched videos on the computer. They gave us supplies for our classes--stapler, tape, markers, eraser, paperclips-stuff like that.
We had to model teach in front of the Korean teachers. I didn't like that! We would do a lesson then they would give us feedback. Its different when you are teaching in front of your peers. I'm not scared when teaching in front of kids but I'm always afraid of doing something wrong in front of my peers.
I think we got out around 7 or 8pm. We decided to go to Outback Steakhouse tonight for dinner. We loved the bread!! That was the best part of the whole night! The menu was in Korean and English and our waitress understood us when we spoke in English. Outback is also way overpriced over here. I wanted steak but all the steak dinners were 25,000 to 30,000. I didn't want to pay that much-plus I think I only brought around 25,000 with me that day. I decided to get something called Alice Springs Chicken. It costed 16,900 and the drink was 3,200.
Afterwards I went to Home Plus. I bought a transformer for 29,000 won. Its bulky and heavy. You can only plug in 2 things at a time.
Day 3--Saturday--December 20th
We had to work on Saturday. We didn't have to go in until 1pm and had to work till 8:15pm.
I pretty much did a whole lot of nothing! played on the internet and I did 2 lesson plans for Monday.
Today we got our schedules. I was only teaching 7 Elementary classes. 4 on MWF and 3 on Tues/Thurs. I'm teaching 3 different levels. Dash-Intermediate and Advanced and Jump-Basic. We also got all of our books that we will be teaching out of. The schedule was all messed up. Mine was fine but the other guys had some times when they had conflicts--two classes at the same time. So the schedule was changed around a lot.
That night they ordered pizza from Dominos and had it delivered to the school. Most of it didn't look appealing. I only ate one piece because I had no clue what was on it! The piece I got had shrimp and brocolli. I didn't like it.
I ate at burger king today in Home Plus. I had the chicken sandwich combo for 5,400 won. Thats actually about the same price as home and it tastes almost as good.
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