Day 30 January 17th Friday
It was snowing on my way to school today. I didn't even know snow was in the forecast. I think we probably got about 1-2 inches. not much. Everything doesn't shut down over here for that little bit of snow. we still had all of our normal classes. I took some pictures and now people back in South Carolina are jealous because they don't have any snow.
We went into school at 10:30 am. One of the other foreign teachers said we needed to get our bank accounts changed over today so we left school to go to our bank. One of the Korean teachers went with us. Its a long process. Lots of paperwork-everything in Korea comes with lots of paperwork. We were in there close to an hour. We got our accounts switched over reflect the new information on our ARC. We also signed up for online banking. The ARC is our new ID. we don't use our passport for things now-we use our ARC.
When we were walking back to school with the Korean teacher he asked us what level our first class was today. I told him what level and he says "You've got the stupid boys." Thats not very nice to say they are stupid-they are learning a foreign language. Learning English is hard!
The other foreign teacher didn't come to school today. They asked us where he was and we hadn't seen him since last night. He didn't let anyone know he wasn't coming to school today. The other teacher knocked on his door in the morn and he didn't answer. One of the Korean teachers went to his apartment to see if he was there and he didn't answer.
Our recruiter is going with us on Sunday to Itaewon to attempt to get cell phones. He thinks it will be easier there since there are more foreigners there.
Today we have our special Friday class which focuses mainly on writing.
The material is too short in my first class. Some of my students work ahead and they are trying to ask me directions for an activity that's 2 pages ahead of what we are doing. Some of them are already finished by the time I get past the 2nd page. I wish they would do the work as a class but I don't want them to get bored because its going to slow.
We got name tags yesterday and I wore mine to class today. The 2 girls in my 2nd class wrote down my name in their textbook. They looked at my name tag and then wrote in their textbook "Valerie English teacher name". My 2nd class wanted to be rowdy today. the 2 girls were good but the boys wanted to play around and not pay attention. Then when we were going over the material they kept saying "I don't understand". I wanted to say "if you would pay attention maybe you'd know what is going on" but thats not very professional. I explained the directions but they still didn't understand (because they were playing around and not listening). Some of them weren't even doing their work. Today our topic was apology notes. We were learning how to write an apology note. First I described what an apology was. Their final assignment was to write an apology note. One guy said he didn't know how. I said "have you ever done anything wrong?". He said no. I wrote an example on the board "Dear Valerie, I am sorry that I didn't pay attention in your class." They didn't even understand that. What does it mean to pay attention?
I think my 3rd class is a waste of my time and theirs. All we do in that class is go over a student newspaper. Today our topics were Actor Jang DG, diary, and the expression "beauty is only skin deep". I don't think they understood the expression part. They werent even writing in their books. I tell them to write a diary entry and they just sit there like they can't find anything to write about.
My 4th class is a challenge. One of my students loves to learn and the other one is smart but he loves to cut up in class. His English is great for a 2nd grader. He likes to read too loud and he keeps getting out of his seat. today he was playing with his eraser. he was throwing it around watching it bounce. Then he panicked when he couldn't find it. I told him we'll find it later but he wanted it then. He keeps coming up to the board to write on it. I keep telling him to go to his seat but it doesn't really help. One minute he is good and the next minute he is out of his seat and wont listen. I just hate that he is going hinder the other girl from getting all she can from the lessons because I spend so much time trying to get him to sit down. I think I might ask the Korean teacher if she has any problems with him. One of the other Korean teachers told me "he has a problem with his character" so I'm guessing they already know about his behavior. Its just frustrating.
One of the Korean teachers (the same one who took me snowboarding) wants to go to a movie tomorrow that should be fun! The movie theater THC9 is near the subway station.
I finally cooked for myself tonight! I made rice. I also cooked some smoked ham to go in my rice. it was very delicious. I didn't have any salt to add flavor to the rice so I just used butter. turned out well.
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