Day 286 "he is disgusting."

Tuesday Sept 29

Apparently the 'laundry engineer' came today, but the machine is still broken! And now I cant open the door. My clothes have been in there since Sunday. I'm running out of things to wear! I can't wash anything! Today I turned the machine on since they came. It ran for about 15 mins and then it stopped. I tried it again and it ran 15 mins and quit.

I gave speaking tests in my classes today. 2 students were absent so I'll have to make those up sometime.

My first class was good. I gave them time to study and told them about the test. They all did well on the test. After the test I let them have free time. While I was having class Johnny Depp came in the room to tell me that the 'laundry engineer' (everyone is an engineer in Korea) needed my code to get in my door so I gave my code to him. The girls in the class don't like him or they like to kid around with him. 2 of the girls kept sticking their middle fingers up and saying 'fuck you'. And he played right along with them and said 'fuck you' back. After he left one of the girls said "he is disgusting."

My 2nd class was good. I only had one student. One student was sick. I told him we were having a speaking test and gave him time to study. He said it was hard so I gave him some examples on the board. He did pretty good on the test. Then we went over 2 lessons in the book.

My 3rd class was the newspaper class. One of the boys came in late. Then when he was doing the articles he wasn't even reading them. He went straight to the questions and clicked through them really fast and got the answers right. I think he does it at home and memorizes the answers. No matter how much I tell him to read the article and quit going so fast he doesn't listen. Then him and the other guy like to talk instead of doing work. The girls were doing pretty good except they were using my class time to study for something they were doing in the Korean teacher's class. Some of the girls just rush through the questions without reading them and just guess at the answers. I just don't know what to do in this class.

My 4th class was good. I gave them their speaking test. They all did pretty good. Then we played hangman.

day 285 I think he looks like a nerd

Monday Sept 28

last night my washing machine started giving me trouble. I washed 2 loads and there were some things in the 2nd load that I really wanted to be dry so I put them in to dry. well then some error happened and water started coming in during the dry cycle and the washing machine stopped working so my clothes were soaking wet.

I told my team leader at my school about my problem. She got in touch with someone and they should be coming to fix it tomorrow. I also told her about some of my lights being out so they can fix that at the same time.

I was told today that I didn't have to go to my conversation class. They were having an exam. I was suppose to give them a test today. Oh well. We'll take the test next week. It was nice to have a break.

My first class was good. I have one student and we learn spelling. She made a 50 on her spelling test. Then we covered 4 pages of material. Then we played hangman.

My 2nd class was good. We went over 2 lessons in our speaking book today. One about amusement parks and one about shopping. We had a good class. They like to ask me all kinds of questions. They asked me why I didn't have a boyfriend. They said "you have beauty. why don't you have a boyfriend?" Its funny. One of the boys asked me when I was going back to the USA. I told him I was leaving in March. Then all the students were disappointed. They don't want me to leave in March. One of them asked if I would ever come back to see them. I said i didn't know. Then they asked me questions about a student "Is she beauty, cool or cute?" I said all 3. That made them happy. They laughed when I said it for the boys also. one of the girls whispered to me. She said "do you think he's cute? I think he looks like a nerd". haha. I dont know where my new student is. He came one time and now he missed 2 classes.

My 3rd class was good also. I had to give them a speaking test today. I just decided I would ask them 10 questions each and grade them on a scale from 1-10 on each question. I gave them all pretty high marks although they weren't perfect. One of them did a really good job. Maybe I was a little too lenient but I don't think the grade really matters. You can have a bad day and forget to study and make a 50 but that doesn't mean you didn't understand the material. I gave them time to study but no one was studying so I asked 'who wants to go first?' They actually were excited about picking their order. One student kept begging to go second but 2 people called 2nd and 3rd before him. I'll work more in the coming months to make sure they know how to answer the question in complete sentences. Some of them write down the answers but some don't and they end up not talking in complete sentences. They all like English though. They say its easy and fun.

My last class was pretty good today. They begged and begged for a game. I got to a good stopping place so I let them play. We took a test in the beginning of class. They never seem to do well on the test. I always tell them in advance so they have time to study and I give them time to study before the test. The highest grade was a 63 and the lowest was a 42. One student always has low marks on spelling. If they really applied themselves and studied they could do a good job. My student who had the flu last week was back in class today. We covered a few pages in class today. Then I let them play a game. They were actually pretty good during the game. They didn't get too loud. I told them no game on Wednesday and that we were going to study hard. Hopefully on Wednesday I can get caught up somewhat. Wed is suppose to be our newspaper class but on my lesson plans it says do spelling so I'm using that day to catch up on spelling since we don't have class on Friday (its a holiday!)

videos from the Mass Freeze in Seoul....

I found these on You Tube...





you can see me for a second at 2:25 in the top video, but only my back...I had on a blue and white striped shirt...

And THE OFFICIAL VIDEO.....

Day 284

Sunday Sept 27

What have I done today? Well nothing productive!

There are things that I need to do but I just haven't got around to them.

Eventually I'll get around to:

*cleaning (my room is a mess! a big mess!)
*laundry
*going to Emart for food
*studying/preparing for speaking tests
*making a test for my conversation class
*finish grading the tests from last week

I have no clue how to do the speaking tests. I hate that I have no stories, no vocab, no concepts. I have a picture and questions about whats happening in the picture. All I can do is just an oral test. I'm going to show them a topic and have them describe the picture. Then I'll have them to read the questions and give me an answer. I'll pick 10 questions. They will be graded on using full sentences, understanding of the question, giving the right answer, grammar. Each one will be worth 10 points. I'll give them a point range for each question from 1-10 on how well they answered. Then I'll adjust their grade factoring in how much they have participated in class-plus or minus a few points.

Day 283...Mass Freeze and Wolmi-do Island

Saturday Sept 26

Wolmi-do

At 12:30 am my friend that is a soccer coach called me. Its really hard to talk to him just because his English isn't that good. He called to tell me that he got a new job. Now he works in Gangnam as a middle/high school soccer coach. (He used to work in Eungnam with small kids-the office was right next door). We talked for a few minutes.He asked why I didn't speak Korean.haha. He said I've been in Korea for a long time but I can't speak Korean. (well its true! I didn't put much effort into it because its not going to have any relevance when I move to the USA-now im learning slowly-its difficult!). Then his English speaking friend called me. He was telling me that his friend just wanted to call me and tell me he moved to a new job. He wanted to tell me because he considers me to be a friend. I haven't seen him in a long time. Its been a long time since I've seen his English speaking friend also. Both of them call me from time to time. Usually I can't understand because they call when they are in a loud restaurant. This morning they actually called and there was no background noise.

I headed out to COEX mall today for the Mass Freeze. We met at 1:30 to talk about where and what time. We originally wanted to do it in the courtyard near the main entrance but there was a competition there so we had to move inside. A lot of people showed up. We were told to wear something blue. A lot of people did, but some didn't. I think security was wondering what was going on because there were so many people (mostly foreigners) congregating near the trade tower. We were told that the freeze would happen at 2:30pm. Then we went on our way to do whatever until that time. Everyone started congregating around the area of the freeze around 2:20. At 2:30 we found out that the freeze was moved to 2:40. It was funny to see so many people crowded into one area. I saw security walking around. They were probably wondering what was going on. We did the freeze at 2:40 for 5 minutes. (you stand still for 5 mins). I saw my friend Lesley there so we decided she would hold a camera and I would pretend to pose. 5 mins isn't long but it feels so long when youre standing still. During the freeze there were people walking around and taking pictures. After we ended the freeze the people standing around starting clapping. haha. It was a neat thing to be a part of. I'll post a link to a video once someone puts it up on facebook or youtube. 468 people signed up as a "yes" on the facebook event page. I don't know how many showed up.

At night I went to Incheon to meet the guy I met on the subway last week. I had to transfer twice. All of the subway lines were packed. No where to sit so I stood for most of the 1 hour 15 min journey. We met at Juan station. I was a few mins late. I got on the wrong train. Line number 1 has 4 different lines. I thought I was on the right one, but I was in a rush. You have to rush when you are transferring so you can catch the next train. I saw a bunch of people running up the stairs to get the train and I followed them. I guess I got on the wrong side. We only went 2 stops when I realized it. Then i got on the train in the opposite direction. He told me to meet him at exit 5. Then when i got there it took him a while to find exit 5. He said he lives nearest to exit 1 but he doesn't know why he told me exit 5. We went to eat first. I chose to eat chicken. I looked at the menu and there was something that said it was chicken covered in a sweet, tangy sauce. I thought it sounded good. Oh my it was hot! When I saw sweet, tangy sauce I wasn't thinking spicy. I was thinking it would be sweet. It was a fire in my mouth! I ate 3 or 4 little pieces (like wing size). I drank 2 cans of coke with it!
Then he met 2 of his friends and briefly spoke with them. Then we got into a cab and went to Wolmi-do. Our cab driver loved to drive fast! He was going up to 80 km/hr(49 mi/hr) at one point in a 60 km/hr(37 mi/hr) zone. Only 49 mi/hr--it felt faster than that!
First we walked past the amusement park. Wolmi-do has an amusement park which looks like a state fair that you would see in the USA. We watched one of the rides. It was called 'sling shot' (google it). There was a camera to watch their reactions.They even had their own little viewing area set up where you could sit in chairs and watch people on the screen. There was quite a crowd.Then we walked down "culture street". There is an area with rocks where you can sit by the water. You aren't allowed to swim in the water. There was a tour boat on the water and they were shooting fireworks. There were also a lot of other people fishing and shooting fireworks. We went to a jazz bar called Verve. They were playing english jazz music. nice. We both don't drink so I had coke and he had tea. Then we went back over to the amusement park area and watched some of the rides. Then we left.

Day 282 Be Good or Be Gone

Friday Sept 25

Lately I've really been liking this song: "Be Good or Be Gone" by Fionn Regan. I've never heard of him before. I hear the song often on a Bean Pole(South Korean clothing company) commercial.

My first class was good. I gave her a spelling test and she made a 50. Then we covered a few pages in spelling. We played hangman for a few minutes.

My 2nd class was in the computer lab. My new student was absent. Same old problems as always. 7 people. 6 computers. Students want to listen but there are only 3 headphones. Then they are trying to do other work in my class. They are learning "Do Re Mi" from Sound of Music in their other class so they are all trying to look and listen to it. Near the end of class they were all singing it. I was helping one boy with the words. They did the articles and didn't visit any other websites. The students love to tell me that I'm thin. I think its funny. One of the students said she saw me when she was with her mother and her mother said I was beautiful.

We didn't get anything accomplished in my 3rd class. They were suppose to be doing the online newspaper. One of the boys got his pants caught on the chair. There was a metal button thing on the chair and somehow his pants got caught under the button. Then he ended up cutting his pants with scissors and then he had a hole in his pants. They spent all class trying to fix the hole and not doing their work. They finally ended up taping a piece of paper over the hole. One girl actually finished her work but the boys didn't get anything accomplished. I was yelling at them to do their work.

In my 4th class the 3 boys were 10 mins late. They went to Home Plus and I'm just standing in the class waiting for them to come so we can do our test. Then the 3 boys told me they didn't have their book. Why don't they bring their book to class?? so I had to make copies. While I was making copies the Korean teacher was talking to them. Probably telling them to behave. During the test one student still likes to spell out the word. I keep telling him to quit. Then another student keeps getting out of his seat to ask me if he spelled it right. We covered a few pages in our spelling book. Their behavior was better today. They weren't out of control. They had a few mins of free time at the end of class. They asked for a game. I told them they could play hangman because the 'ghost game' was too loud. They didn't play a game. They had about 5 mins because it was too late in class to start anything new. They do really bad on their spelling tests. I can tell they don't study. 1 girl made a 91. One of the boys made a 77. The other two boys made a 14 and a 42. (There are 15 words so 7 points a piece). If they would study they could do good. I have them on Monday and Friday for spelling so they have plenty of days to study. The words are pretty easy. After class the Korean teacher asked about their behavior. I told her that they were better.

The students are saying that one of our students has swine flu. She missed this whole week at the academy.

I bought some hand sanitizer this week. I've been using it a lot after classes and when I get off the subway and anywhere where I would touch something that a lot of people touched.

I've been texting or talking on yahoo messenger with the guy I met on the subway on Sunday every day. He has texted me every single day. We've also been talking on yahoo messenger after work. I'm going to meet him tomorrow. He lives near Incheon which is about an hour subway ride. We are going to go to Wolmido Island in Incheon.

Tomorrow is the Mass Freeze in Seoul! I'm excited. On the event page on Facebook over 400 people marked "yes" as attending. We will be freezing in place for 5 minutes at the COEX mall. I think its just something interesting to be a part of. It will probably end up on YouTube like all the other freezes that people have done all over the world.

Day 281

Thursday September 24

Today when I was on the subway there were these 3 young guys acting silly on the subway. One of them kept sitting on the other guys lap. I'd say they were probably in high school, but I can't ever tell.  We all got off on the same stop. They started talking to me. They were excited to talk to me. They told me I was beautiful. They wanted to know where I was from. They asked me what kind of Korean food did I like. And where I was going. They actually paid attention in English class. I could understand them. One of the guys asked me if I thought he was handsome. I told him yes. He was cute. I loved his hair. (Thats one thing I like about Korean guys. They have nice hair) Once we got into the main lobby of the subway we said our goodbyes and went our own way.

I gave tests in all of my classes today. Writing and conversation.

My 1st class was okay. We took our test and then we were going to study. They never want to study. They say class is boring. I don't know what to do. There's not a way to make writing interesting. I don't really like the writing text but there isn't really anything I can do about that. We talked about interviews today. We only covered one page. i wanted to do 2 more but they wanted to play a game. I made them do the 2 pages on their own for homework. Thats what they wanted so...The grades on their writing tests ranged from a 75 to 100.

My 2nd class was good. They were 10 minutes late coming to class. During breaks the children go to HomePlus downstairs to get snacks. Then they are late for class. I don't really care about them being late because thats less time that I have to teach this awful curriculum. We took our writing test and they both made 100. Then we went over 2 lessons. We learned about telling sentences and questions. We also reviewed the previous lessons. I gave them lots of examples of questions and telling sentences and they grasped the concept. Then they had a few mins of free time.

My 3rd class was okay. It was our online newspaper class. 2 of the computers are super slow and its hard for the students to work on them. Then they are always complaining about not being able to listen. There's nothing I can do. I can't help that there are crap computers and only 3 pairs of headphones. At least the kids did their work and didn't get distracted by going to other websites. I'm going to start making worksheets for them to fill out. They keep finishing too fast. One of the students keeps telling me to go to the bathroom. She wants me to leave the room so she can goof off on the computer. I told her I need to be in class. I can't just leave class. I'm already being spied on all the time.

My 4th class is terrible. Its so hard teaching conversation to 6th graders who don't even care. They can't complain that I don't give them time to conversate. I give them time. They just dont utilize it. The test went horribly! They were talking and cheating and asking me to repeat things 100 times and to spell the words. Its suppose to be a listening exercise. Then after the test we had 25 minutes left. They wanted to just leave. I can't end class 25 mins early. I told them we had to start unit 4. We only got finished with 3 pages. They wouldnt participate in the conversation practice with a partner. These classes are so hard to manage. I just don't know what to do!! I just have to make it through these awful classes for 2 more months! Next time I need to be strict and separate them and only say things twice and no spelling it out and no talking during the test. Its all skills that we learned in class so its not like im throwing out something new at them. How do you teach people who have no interest in learning? They are just interested in how fast we can end the class. They are always telling me to hurry up.

My 5th class was good. They went to home plus and were 5 mins late to class. I was just standing around in the classroom waiting for them to show up. We had our writing test. Then we covered a few pages in our writing book. They were a good class.

I skipped the gym 3 times this week. I just haven't felt like going. I went to Bulgwang to eat at Burger King then came back home. I am slowly killing myself by eating too much fast food. Maybe I should eat more to speed up the process.

Day 280---40 weeks!

Wednesday Sept 23

wow..can you believe I've been writing an entry every day for 280 days? 40 weeks!

First class was good. I only have one student. We just did the online newspaper. Its so easy with one person. We listen, read together out loud, then she answers the questions. If only my other classes were that good.

I had a new student in my 2nd class. Today I sat down with the kids in the circle and we talked about main ideas and paragraphs. We had a good class. Its hard to just pick up in the middle of a lesson with a new student because we are always building on previous writing. I think we had a good class. Everyone was good and they participated and seemed to grasp the concept. They didn't understand one part though. They don't know how to revise a sentence to add more details. I basically just gave them the answers to that part. Then they had to revise their paragraph that they wrote last class. They must be learning "do, re, mi" from sound of music in one of their classes. They were all singing it in class.

My 3rd class was acting up a little bit. They wanted to get out of their seat and not do their work. I had to keep telling them to be quiet. And again they were talking about poo poo. They are hilarious. We finally got finished with our lesson after I had to keep telling them to behave. They werent really bad. They just like to talk about subjects that have no relevance and that prevents me from teaching what I need to teach them. At least we got finished with our one lesson and they seemed to grasp the concept.

My 4th class was my conversation class. In the beginning of class it was funny when one of my students just broke out in a John Denver song. He said "country roads lead me home to the place where I belong". Then he started singing "Kung Fu Fighting". He's the class clown. Later we were reading together and he was making everyone laugh by saying the opposite of what I said. I'd say 'the building is big' and he'd say 'the building is small'. He's always doing something crazy. Class was okay. Sometimes its hard to get them to practice their conversation with each other. I beg them to talk to a partner. Most of the time they don't do it. If they don't excel at conversation its not my fault! I give them time and beg them to do it!Today in conversation class we were talking about describing things like big, small, colors, shapes, etc.

I had a new student in my last class. She was a really good student. She did the work like she was suppose to. The others weren't so good. Today we were in the computer lab doing our online newspaper. I don't know how they finish so fast. They are done with about 9 articles in 10 minutes. They won't listen when I tell them not to open up music players and other websites. When I write questions on the board they won't answer them. I only gave a sticker to the 2 girls. Next week I will have plenty of activities to keep them busy. I'm going to make up questions so they actually have to read the article to find the answer instead of reading it fast and finishing everything in 10 minutes. I know they arent reading it twice, listening and then answering the questions. And I can't keep up with 5 students at one time. I'm suppose to have one more new student in my class. Next week there will be 7 children and 6 computers. Then in my friday class there will be 8 students and 6 computers. What the heck am I suppose to do? And one of the computers is really really slow so I dont know if anyone will be able to work on it. always problems!

I'm buying a printer this weekend. Someone from dave's esl is selling me one. They will sell it to me for 40,000 won (@$40). Now I'll print all my stuff at home. I hate having to ask someone to print for me. I like to do things myself!! And I usually have a lot to print since I have to make my own tests and homework.

When I was on the subway a foreigner was speaking to me. He was a mormon missionary from the USA. Been in Korea for 10 months. He's very excited about sharing his faith. He speaks Korean(he witnesses to Koreans). He said he sees me a lot on the subway. (he lives in Eungam also and we are usually on the subway at the same time). He asked me if I would be interested in meeting with missionaries so they could talk about God with me. I told him I grew up in church but I don't go to church right now because its hard to find an English speaking church. I told him I wasn't interested.(I dont need to be witnessed to!<--I didnt say it that way!) He said he liked my honesty and I seemed like a nice person. I'm not interested in becoming a mormon. sorry. We talked as i was walking out of the subway towards my house.

Day 279--my picture is on a brochure at McDonalds

Tuesday Sept 22

I found out that my friend, Johnny Depp(an office assistant at our school), is quitting next week. Sept 30 is his last day. We used to talk a lot, but everyone said he talked to me too much so his boss told him he couldn't talk to me. Now we don't really talk that much. Now I'll have no friends at school. I knew he was quitting sometime soon. He told me a while ago that he was quitting around September.

I had a good day today.

They changed the desks around today. They are all in a circle instead of in lines.

My first class didn't want to study much. They asked if they could have a short study time and play a game. We studied one lesson. Then I let them have free time. They boy is always sleepy. He was asleep when class started. I woke him up. During free time he laid his head back down. When I went in the class they wanted to know about the person with the long name (from MWF class) and I showed them the name he picked. They said he stuck up his middle fingers behind the teacher's back when they turned around. These kids are bad! They love "fuck you" even though they don't know what it means. They also like to stick up their middle fingers. They were asking me what 'fuck you' meant. I told them it was a swear word. So they looked up what a swear word was. then they were looking up 'fuck you' in their phone dictionaries.

My 2nd class was the best class of the day. We covered 2 lessons. They read along with me and answered. They even used complete sentences. We had a great class. After the lesson I gave them free time.

My 3rd class was my English newspaper class. One of the computers was acting crazy so one of the students couldn't do the work properly. It was so slow. I have to teach the class in the lab but the computers are crappy and slow and there aren't enough headphones for everyone. crazy! I told the students to read the articles twice and answer the questions. There were 2 students who were actually following directions and trying to comprehend what the articles meant. The others were trying to go faster and just get to the questions. Some of them just click on random answers without reading the questions.

During my dinner break from 7-8 I went to McDonalds to eat. While I was there a Korean guy spoke to me. He was probably in his late 20's. His English was great.He was sitting at a table near me and he asked me if I was an English teacher. I told him I was. Then he wanted to know what school I worked for. He had never heard of the school. He actually had a brochure from my school in his hand. He looked at it and saw my picture and said "thats you". Yep. They have brochures with my picture on them in McDonalds to advertise our school. he asked if he could join me. He was trying to see if I knew of any high school students who were looking for private lessons.(i teach elementary) He wants to teach private lessons to high school students. He thinks that high school students don't get enough time to practice their English in class. (or they could be like my students--you give them the chance but they dont want it!)

My last class was good.We talked about cars and waking up. We had a good class. We finished a few mins early and they played hangman. The office assistants came in the middle of my class to fix the cctv camera. why couldnt they wait till my class was over? They like to spy on me. I just recently found out that they can watch the camera from their computer. I thought you could only see it on the monitor out in the lobby. you cant hear sound but you can see what is going on. At least they can't watch my classes in the computer lab.

While I was at the gym the guy from Pakistan texted me. He wanted to talk to me on messenger. I told him I'd be home in about 30 mins and he waited on me. We talked on messenger for about 30 mins or so. He keeps telling me how cute i am. Thats funny. Cause right now I feel crappy about the way I look!

Day 278....a good Monday..what?

Monday Sept 21

The guy I met last night on the subway texted me at 8:45am. He said "good morning. how are you?" and I replied back "not awake till noon". Then he asked if he disturbed my sleep and I replied back "Yes". Then he wanted to know when I would wakeup. When I did wake up he texted me for a while. I found out he is from Pakistan. He works for a company. He's been here 5 years. He lives in Incheon. A long way from Seoul. We also chatted on yahoo at night. He keeps telling me how cute I am. He says it a LOT. (and I looked like crap yesterday! very little makeup and my hair was in a ponytail. jeans and a tshirt.)

I am a foreign guy magnent. I'm also an American guy repellant.Haha. American guys never approach me.

Ok so I actually had a decent day at work.

My first class was good. I only have one student and we work on spelling. She made 100 on her spelling test. I only had to cover 3 pages in class today so we finished early and played hangman.

In my second class we talked about cars and waking up. We had a good class. This class is funny. They are always throwing out compliments because I let them eat and drink during class. They say stuff like "you are beautiful, nice, kind, slim, etc.".haha. One of the students asked me if I enjoyed teaching. I told her "sometimes". I like the good classes. She asked me if I liked the class she is in. I told her yes. (they are a good class!) They were all excited when I said I liked their class. One of the students changed his name. I couldn't say it without laughing. His new name is "David Robert Joseph Beckham John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt Deskkkk" Thats a mouthful! I told him it was too long and he told me told me "my friend has a long name. Its john jacob jingleheimer schmidt and his name is my name too" oh my. These kids are silly! We were talking about what time we go to bed and get up and they were amazed that I stay up so late and sleep late.haha.

In my 3rd class we talked about 'what did you do yesterday?' and 'who are they? what do they do?'. It was hard to keep them focused today! They want to talk about other things. like 'poo poo'. I don't know what their fascination with poo poo is! We talk about it every class. Today one of the students asked the weirdest question I've ever heard. He said "what color is your poo poo?" OMG! Then he asked me all sorts of colors. "is it red, blue, yellow, green, black, brown". I told him it was brown. We laugh a lot in this class. I had to keep telling them to get in their seats and be quiet. One of the boys likes to ask me all the questions that I ask them. They were surprised by how late I stay up also! One of the boys was asking me about my kg. I told him I didn't know. He wanted to know my height. I know it-158 cm. One of the boys asked me if I was 'heavy' in the USA. I said I was. (its true). After I said that another boy said "Teacher is not fat".haha. The students here don't think I'm fat. that's nice.

My middle school class is one of my least favorite. Half of the class doesn't want to do their work. I tell them what part to do and they don't fill in it. I go around the room and point to it and tell them to do it. There are only a few students in that class who actually act like they care about learning. The rest just want to sit around and talk and play with their cellphones. Some of them are always studying for vocabulary during my class. I can't get them to practice talking with a partner. I ask multiple times and only a few people actually do it. I'm giving them a test next week. If they haven't been paying attention they won't do well on the test. There are a few who I think won't do well because they never pay attention and don't do the work in the book. One of the questions in the book was when is Korean independance day. They were asking me for the answer! I don't know! They live in Korea. They should know. That's like not knowing the USA independance day. (I looked it up on Google now--Its August 15..its when they got independance from Japan). I've got to make 3 versions of the test. I have one student who missed unit 1 and a new student who missed units 1 and 2.

My last class was actually good today! 2 of the students were absent. The other 3 students worked hard and actually behaved for me today. It was like night and day! We covered a lot of material but I'm still one day behind. I got all the way up to the point where I should have finished on Friday. They were so good that I agreed to let them have free time for about 10 minutes.

I had a lot of work to do tonight! I made study guides for my 3 levels of writing. I'm giving writing tests on Thursday and next Wednesday. I made the test for my conversation test on Thursday. I also came up with questions for the newspaper class for them to do as they go along to keep them occupied.

I rarely give homework because I don't know what to do!!

Tuesday or Wednesday I need to come up with criteria for their speaking test which will be Monday and Tuesday of next week. I'm going to do an oral test and pick criteria on how to grade like if they spoke in complete sentences, if the understood the question and gave a right answer, using correct grammer, etc.

I have so much work to do!!

Day 277..China Town and Eurwangni Beach

Sunday September 20

China Town in Korea

Eurwangni Beach

(click on albums to see pictures)

More adventure...or misadventure...something always goes wrong everytime I go somewhere! All this misadventure and I always make it back home!! I'm glad i've never got stranded anywhere and not able to make it home!
I wanted to sleep in so I didnt actually get on the subway till 3pm. (I should have left a lot earlier!) I started at Eungam on line 6. I had to transfer twice. Once to line 2 and then to line 1. I was going all the way to Incheon which is the last station on line 1. It took about an hour and 30 minutes to get there.

When I got to Incheon I visited China Town first. Yes, South Korea has a China Town. As I was crossing the crosswalk this old man wanted to shake my hand. I just thought he was being friendly. Then he was trying to follow me around. He kept grabbing my arm and wanted to walk around with me. He kept talking to me in Korean. I kept shaking my head "no" and pulling away from him. I was standing right outside the entrance to China Town and people saw him bothering me and no one would even say anything to him. They just watched. I finally just started walking fast and he left me alone. I didn't think he was going to hurt me. He was just creepy. Probably drunk and excited to see a foreigner. I walked around for a while and took a lot of pictures. While I was taking photos a young korean woman asked me if she could take a picture of me with my camera.

Directions to China Town:  Line 1 (dark blue line) Incheon station...its a few minutes walk away from the station
Then I was going to go to the beach. I was at the bus stop forever! The bus I needed to take came around every 30 minutes. I waited for one but I missed it. I couldn't make it to the bus in time. Then the next one came and I found out I was on the wrong side of the street. A korean man asked me where I was going. I told him I was going to the beach. He told me I needed to go to the other side of the street. He walked over with me. He told me he just got back from Hawaii. He also told me that he got his master's degree in the USA. I finally got on the bus around 6:45 or so. It was beginning to get dark. At first I was the only person on the bus. Then another woman got on. It took a long time to get there! About an hour. I didn't know the beach was that far from the subway station. I'm glad I didn't get desperate and take a taxi! That would have costed a lot!

I went to Eurwangni Beach. I finally got to the beach around 8pm. It was a very small beach. It just didn't feel like a beach to me! One reason I love the beach is the smell of the saltwater. There was no beach smell. I walked around for a little while and picked up a few seashells. I took a few pictures.

Directions to Eurwangni Beach: Incheon International Airport (Airport Railroad), Gate 2A (1F).
Take Bus 302 or 306 and get off at Eurwangni Beach.

Then I decided to catch the bus back to Incheon station. I didn't know which side I needed to be on. I stood on one side and the bus just went right past me. Then I went to the other side and the bus went right past me again. Finally a bus stopped and me and 3 other people got on. It was getting late and I was scared i'd get stuck somewhere because of the long ride home and missing the last train.

I made it to Dongincheon station around 10:30 or so. It took me a while to find the entrance to the subway but I finally found it. I had a long ride on line number 1. 20 stops. While I was on line number 1 I met another foreigner. A guy-29. I'm not exactly sure what nationality he is. Definatly not American. I didn't ask him. We didnt talk for long. We talked briefly and exchanged phone numbers. Later, I had to transfer to line 2 to get to Hapjeong. Then I had to transfer again to get to line 6. I was so scared I wouldn't make it. The trains usually stop around midnight. I didn't get on line 2 until 11:45 or so. Then I made it to the transfer station. It was madness. It was funny seeing everyone running to get to the last train. I made it to the last train home!!

When I got home I ordered McDonalds delivery.

I washed a load of clothes when I got home. I splurged and bought some expensive Downy fabric softner (@$8). It smells so good. It was worth the investment. All my clothes have a nice floral smell.

The weekend is over...yuck..back to school!

Day 276...Asia Song Festival 2009

Saturday September 19

Asia Song festival

Asia Song Festival 2009 (1)

The 6th Asia Song Festival

Performers:

Korea
Girls Generation
Big Bang
Super Junior
2NE1

Japan
V6
Gackt
Mihimaru GT

China
Chris Lee

Taiwan
Show Luo

Hong Kong
Ekin Cheng

Thailand
K-Otic

Vietnam
Ho Ngoc Ha

Indonesia
Agnes Monica

Ukraine
Ruslana

My pictures were bad! I was so far away from the stage (I need a better camera!)(its time for a bigger/better lens!), but at least I got to go! I love Korean pop! I got to see Big Bang, 2NE1, Super Junior, and Girls Generation!!

I enjoyed all of the music although I didn't understand it. I knew the songs that the Korean artists were singing, but I hadn't heard of any of the other groups.(I'm not familiar with Asian music)

It lasted from 6pm till 10pm. There were tons of people there!

They sprayed something on us when we entered. There were these machines that sprayed a mist as we walked in. I don't know what it was. I saw something on it about flu.

They have a neat new fountain at the World cup subway station. The fountain flows down the stairs! I'll have to go take a picture sometime.

Events in Seoul are a lot different from America. In America you can't bring your own food into an event. At this event I saw people carrying grocery bags with various snacks. They were also vendors outside selling sodas, waters, and beer. Its just weird to see beer being sold at event where the majority of the people are underage.

I got drink poured on me. There were these 2 Korean women sitting behind me. One of them opened their Chilsung cider(its a carbonated drink that tastes like 7up) and it spewed out and got on my shirt. They said they were sorry and they gave me a cider and a snack.

After the concert I decided to go to Bulgwang to eat at Burger King. While I was there I saw a guy from the gym. He came over to talk to me briefly. (He's Korean, Age 25, in college...he was actually a student at the academy that I teach at when he was younger. His English is good. we met a few months ago). He asked me if I went to the gym. (I didn't go today). He wanted to know if I came there just to eat at Burger King. I told him I had just came from the festival and I wanted to eat there. he told me he was there with his friends from church.

Day 275 A drunk man was at my door!

Friday September 18

Well the day started with happiness and ended with frustration..

My package finally came today!!!

I tried on some of my new clothes. I don't like one of the shirts. It just doesnt fit right. One of the shirts is too long but I'm keeping it. I don't really like the skirt. Its black but its very sheer. The fabric is too thin. I could wear a slip but Im just not happy with the skirt. I think I'm going to return the shirt($10) and the skirt($20). I can exchange them for something else. I really liked one of the tshirts. Its really conservative and pretty. It was only $10. I might get 2 more of those.

My online newspaper classes went pretty well today. The students followed my rules and didn't listen to music, play games or visit other websites. I asked them to read it twice and listen.I hate it that in one class there arent enough computers. I also hate that all the students can't listen to the article. I don't think everyone reads it and some of them do try to do it too fast. That class is just impossible to manage. At least they followed my rules.One of the computers went off in the first class. We couldn't figure out why. I checked the plugs that were near the computer and they were plugged in. I found out after class that it was unplugged. It was plugged into a socket beside another computer and not one of the power strips directly in in front of the computer.

My last class was terrible as usual. I just don't know what to do with these kids! When I came into the class I told them they had 5 mins to study for their spelling test. (they knew about it since Monday so they had all week to study!) The boys weren't studying at all. They were just all playing around. One of the girls had her book open. Then it came time for the test. Then all of a sudden the boys wanted to study. I said no. I told them to close their books. Then they started trying to open their books and lay them on the floor or sit on them or put them in their laps. I made them put their books on the desk in front of them so I could see them. It took forever to take the test because they wouldnt stop trying to cheat. I kept watching them. I caught one of the boys opening his book in his lap. I took his test and gave him a zero. Then he takes out his book and tells me he is studying. I said 'you dont need to study. I gave you a zero'. They asked me "whats a zero?" I told them it was less than 1. I still don't think they understand!! I had to keep telling one of the students to quit spelling out the word. I'd call out the word and he'd start to spell it out loud. It took 10 mins to take a test that should have taken less than 5 minutes. None of them did good on the test. The highest grade was a 77 and the lowest was a zero. The next lowest was a 28. Its hard teaching students who just don't care. The boys act up all during class and I can't get anything done. Then they still expect me to give them a game. NO! One of the boys asked why they couldn't have a game. "because you are being bad." "you are going to be mean to me and expect me to give you a game" I yell at them all class long and they don't listen. They are constantly out of their seat and playing around. I basically just have to give them the answers because they won't do their work. I just put the answers on the board. here they are-write them down. The girls actually try to get the right answers. One of the boys tries a little. 2 of the boys don't try at all. I am so behind in this class. I was suppose to be up to page 24 today. I only got up to page 17. I assigned page 18 for homework. When class was over the Korean teacher came in the classroom. She asked about their behavior. I told her the boys were really bad. She asked "why didn't you punish them?" (I don't know what to do!) I didn't answer. Then she told me that the boss was watching me on the video screen. (we have video cameras in the classroom) The boss can watch the classrooms from his desk. Oh my. I'm being watched! Those kids are making me look bad!! She told me that on Friday she doesn't have class and if they are bad I could send them out to her. I'll definitely do that! It was funny when she was talking to me. There was one student who was sticking around to eavesdrop. She had to keep telling him to leave. He finally left after she asked him 3 or 4 times.

I seriously think that the boss doesn't speak any English. Anytime he needs for me to know something he tells the Korean teacher. All he ever says to me is 'hello' in Korean. Not even in English! And now I'm being watched. Oh my! I seriously don't know what to do with this class!! What can I do to discipline? I already punish them by making them work till the last minute of class and have no fun time! I know other teachers hit, but I really don't want to hit the children!! Its against my personal values!

Oh my...there was someone trying to get into my officetel! He had to be drunk to not know he was at the wrong place. I heard someone messing around with the door. Like leaning against it and touching it. Then I heard them trying to type in a code. The door won't open if you type in the wrong code so there's no way he can get in. I could see him on my screen. There's a camera outside the door. i can see who is outside my door. I kept pushing the button to look and I could see him leaning against the door. and he had that look of desperation of 'I forgot my code and I can't get in'. I thought he left cause I heard him walking away after a few minutes. Probably about an hour or so later I decided I wanted to go to the store. There was a pair of shoes in front of my door. Then I saw the man sleeping in the hall near the stairwell. I took a picture.

Day 274

Thursday September 17

I redesigned my blog last night. I love change. I have to change the colors and the pictures often! The picture I have up is from Teacher's day in March. Best Samgyeopsal restaurant I've been to so far. It was in Gusan. I'd really like to go back there sometime. I just need someone to go with me! I can't eat the whole portion by myself! I really liked one of their side dishes. It was like a fruit salad. I ate 3 bowls of it by myself!! Its the only side dish I'll eat bc I'm not a fan of spicy foods. When I go to restaurants I always eat the salad. lots of salad.
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Thursdays are actually one of my good days. Everything went very smoothly today.

Yesterday I took some of my students to Home Plus to get some snacks. My team leader told me that the kids were really happy that I got that for them.

My first class was good today. We went over a writing unit today. We were talking about questions and answers. They have to do an interview for homework. I'll get them to write their interview in paragraph form in next class.

My 2nd class was good also. When class started one of the boys showed me a magic trick.haha. Today we did one lesson on 'telling parts' of a sentence. They did really well and grasped the concept. I gave them a lot of examples. Then I gave them free time. I did what I was suppose to do and I gave a lot of examples and they showed me that they understood so I let them have free time. We also reviewed what we learned last time about 'naming parts'. At one point in class they were playing around too much and I made one of them move to another seat. He moved back later and they stopped playing around and just used their free time to carry on a conversation.

My English newspaper class today was good. The kids did what I told them to. They didn't try to listen to music or look at other websites. They read the articles and answered the questions. They still finished early so I got them to write the answers to the comprehension questions. I think I'm going to start making questions sheets to go with the articles so they can read and answer questions. I have to keep them occupied for 50 mins. Plus the question sheets will help me know if they are actually reading the article because they have to search for the answer.

One of the computers in the lab is going very slooooow. I don't know how anyone is going to be able to work on it tomorrow. It took forever to bring up a page and then it froze. Tomorrow is my class where I have 7 students and 6 computers. Now one of the computers isn't working well so thats another disaster.

My middle school class was okay. 2 boys were sitting in the back of the classroom listening to music. I kept telling the student to take out his headphones but he put them right back in. Those 2 students weren't participating in the speaking practice. I have 6 students in the class. 4 students who always participate and 2 who love to goof off.(these are 2 of the same kids I had trouble with when they were in my elementary classes) One of the students in the back of the room wanted me to listen to a song. I don't know what it was. It was a korean song. He also wanted me to hear another song. It was a Christian worship song "Here I am to worship". neat. We finished class 10 mins early and I let them leave 5 mins early. Next week we are having a test on units 1-3. Whatever they get on that test will be their grade in the class. I'm going to do a mixture of listening and matching. I've got some good listening examples in the book. I think I'll also make them write a conversation about describing what someone is wearing. There are some pictures in their book that they can describe.

My last class was good. We were doing a writing unit. We were talking about main ideas, details and paragraphs. They asked for a game. I told them I'd let them have a game after we finished a certain page. I let them have a few minutes of free time. They played hangman.

I've got a good weekend planned. I'm excited about the Asia Song Festival!! I get to see Big Bang, 2NE1, and Super Junior!!

On Sunday I may go to the beach! Its a long trip! Maybe I'll take some of my classwork with me so I can study while I'm on the 3 hour express bus.

Day 273...the class from Hell

Wednesday Sept 16

Nearly 4 weeks and still no package...WHY!!!!!!!!where in the world is my package?! Some idiot probably lost it. I try to buy some decent clothes online from America because of Korea's HATE for fat people (big clothes are hard to find and are ugly and not flattering) and then after spending $114 on clothes they never make it here. Plus the shipping was outrageous. Plus I had items from home that are hard to find here or cost an arm and a leg! I know I'm fat and I need to lose weight but I still need some clothes to wear!!!!!!!

Days like today make me want to leave..How will I ever make it 165 more days?..I'm glad its not 165 school days..I'd be absolutely insane! I already am!...Things are getting really rough right near the end-5 months and 2 weeks left...

Today the Korean teacher gave me some stickers. She said when the students do something good I can give them a sticker. If they get 100 stickers they get a prize. I'm going to give them to classes that do their homework and work hard in class. I gave out 2 to 3 students in my first class. One for having homework and one for doing a good job in class. I gave stickers to all of my students in my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Elem. class. In my last class I only gave a sticker to 1 student. You'll see why when you read about that class.

In my first class we were doing the newspaper activities on the website. I only have one student so its the only class that I can actually keep up with!! We read the article together, then we listen, then do questions.

We did a writing unit in my 2nd class. I think they all grasped the concept of main idea and details today. They got the answers right in their book. They all seemed excited when I went around the room checking answers and letting them know they did a good job. At the end of class I gave them all stickers. Then they asked if I would buy them something at the store. I agreed today. They are always complaining about being hungry or telling me they didn't eat lunch or I havent eaten in 5 hours.(do their parents not feed them? or give them money to get something?) I let them get something that was 700 won. It won't be a regular thing. Just something occasional as a reward.

My 3rd class also did a writing unit. A very simple unit about naming parts of a sentence and writing sentences about themselves. Once I wrote example sentences they caught on quickly. They were laughing all during class. I let them goof off since the lesson is so short. They go off topic a lot and I just let them go off topic. They were asking me a ton of questions. Most of their talk today revolved around "poo poo and bloody poo poo". These kids love talking about "poo poo". They draw pictures and tell me the name in korean. Its hilarious.They love to run their fingers down the chalkboard. They think its so funny. The sound makes me cringe!!

I had one of my middle school conversation classes today. They like to goof off, but at least they read along and participate and fill in the answers in their book. Today we were talking about food. It was so funny. The book had some korean foods listed and they had to match what the food was. They would laugh at me when I got the pronunciation wrong. They are a good class. One of the boys ripped up his copy of the lesson. He didn't intentionally rip it up. He just thought it was funny to rip it up and pretend like he was eating it. Then another boy put the paper in his mouth also. One of the boys laughs every time I call his name. (his name was Jjin Dda. I looked it up on the internet and it means "silly person")(oh and while I was searching I found the mother load of Korean cuss words-not that I need them) 3 of the boys wanted to change their name today to Coca Cola, Question Mark, and abracadabra.

My last class of the day is a total nightmare. Every class I feel like running out and slamming the door and never coming back. So what if they don't learn? (I never do this..i wish I could!)We had to go to the computer lab to do the English newspaper online. I hate it! Whenever you sit kids at a computer they want to play around. I wish the people at my school were smart enough to block all websites that weren't part of classroom activities. At the beginning of class I wrote the website on the board. I also wrote 'no other websites''no music''no games'. Do you think they listened? NO! all of them except one girl were looking at other websites and listening to music. I'd hear the music and ask them to stop and they would say "im not listening to music". I could hear it! Our activities don't have any music! 2 of the kids said they had already done the activities for homework in the Korean teacher's class. Why in the heck is she assigning stuff I'm suppose to do in my class for homework? If that's their homework then what the hell am I suppose to do in my class? I told them to do it again. I want to do the activities as a class, but there's no way I can monitor what all the students are doing at one time. When my back is turned they will look at other stuff. The students finish way too quickly. I told them to read it twice, listen to it if they had headphones and then answer the questions. I don't think they are reading it. I think there are about 9 articles. One student finished in 10 minutes. I told him he went to fast and he said "im fast". There's no way he read all of the articles in 10 mins. I think he just opened it, pretended to read and answered the questions quickly without even caring what the real answer was. I can't keep up with every student and make them all get on the same page. I have no clue how to control this class!!!!! I had to keep yelling at them to only go to the newspaper website. no matter how much I yelled they wouldnt close their other websites. They all finished way too early so I made them open the website and we were going to read the articles all together. They wouldnt cooperate. We would read it out loud and I would ask really easy questions and the answers were right in front of their face and they would say "I don't know". Even when I pointed out the answer to them. OH MY GOD! I WANTED TO JUST LEAVE CLASS AND RUN OUT! THEY DRIVE ME CRAZY!! These students are horrible! (They are my only bad elementary class) I only gave out one sticker in the class. One student asked for a sticker because she didn't go to any other websites. I gave her one. At least she followed my directions. The others begged and I said no! One student begged me and said "I'll be good next time". I told her if she was good next time she'd get one. I'm not giving it out in advance!! She has to work for it! I think this class will never get any stickers from me unless they stop being so bad!! They keep begging for games, but they aren't getting any!! Treat me like crap and then expect to play a game during my class. No, I don't think so!

I'm going to have to make worksheets for them to fill out as they are reading. It's going to be a lot of work for me, but I have to keep them occupied somehow!

Oh my goodness...this class is going to cause me to have a mental breakdown! I wish I could just catch swine flu and die! and I hope they'd get the teacher from Hell! They cause me to have so much stress.

I skipped the gym tonight because I just didn't feel like going. I was in no mood to go to the gym.

I feel so lonely at my school. I just sit at my desk playing on the internet while they sit around and talk in Korean all day long. The co-teacher doesn't even act friendly. She's not mean or anything. She just doesn't make any effort to get to know me.

More Korean Pop....

Here are some more Korean Pop videos that I like at the moment: (I'm going to see Big Bang, Super Junior, 2NE1, and Girls Generation on Saturday!!)

G Dragon (from Big Bang) "Heartbreaker"




2NE1 "I don't care"




SS501 "U R Man"



2PM "Again and Again"



Wondergirls "Nobody"

Day 272

Tuesday Sept 15

Today actually went by pretty smoothly.

In my first class we only covered one lesson in our speaking book. We were talking about various responses to situations. The title was "what should he do?". One of the questions was "What should he do if he saw a car hit a girl and keep going?". One of the students said "tell her not to cry." Oh my. I asked her "what if she is hurt?". Then she said "call 911". That was what I was hoping would be her first response. One boy in the class kept putting his head down and he wouldn't answer any of my questions. He left later. He said he had a headache and was going to the hospital. When we got finished with one lesson they asked if they could have free time. They were begging me not to do the 2nd lesson. They wanted to do the 2nd lesson as homework but its a speaking lesson so I said we'd do it next time. Then the rest of class was free time.

My 2nd class is hilarious. We laugh all during class. While they were out getting water and going to the bathroom I was drawing the signs on the board. Today we were talking about various signs like no U turn, school zone, etc. One of the signs was a picture of a man with a helmet (something that would be on a work site). One of the boys got up from his seat and drew a funny face on the sign. They love to play around during class. I don't really mind as long as they participate when I ask them to. One of the boys was playing with toy guns all during class.

My 3rd class was in the computer lab. When I went in the lab there were 3 students doing their homework. The one student left when our class started. I told the girls we needed the computers for our class. I was trying to be nice about it. The girls told me they were doing their online homework. They left 5 mins later so it didn't disrupt my class too much. I was wondering what I was going to do if 2 of my students didn't have computers to work on. I got the students to go to the website and read the article and answer the questions. I saw some of them trying to cheat. I told them not to take the test and memorize the answers and take it again. Some of them finish with the articles too fast. I dont think they are reading it. I think they are just guessing on the tests too. Oh well. they are only hurting themselves. One of the students looked at the articles ahead of time at home and wrote all the answers on a piece of paper. A student told on him and I told him not to cheat. the paper was in his bookbag and he kept looking in his bookbag and she kept telling on him. I made him move his bookbag somewhere else so he couldnt look anymore. Some of them got finished too early so I made them answer the comprehension questions. They have a hard time finding the answers to the questions. If they read hard enough they would easily find the answers. I showed them where to look. I made them write the answers down. I had to have something to occupy them so they aren't trying to look at other websites.

In my last class we covered 2 lessons. We talked about makeup and household chores. One of our questions was "These days men wear makeup. What do you think about that?" I asked the boy in the class. He said he thought it was good. haha. The MWF class said it was crazy. We finished 15 mins early so I asked them if they wanted something fun to do. I gave them a word search. They all had fun doing that. The boy was excited when I held it up to show the class. They asked me if it was homework. I told them just for fun.

I'm going to the Asia Song Festival this weekend!! Its going to be awesome! I'll write a blog explaining that later!!

Day 271...

Monday Sept 14

In my first class I had to teach spelling. Today's lesson was a review unit. She has a hard time trying to find out how to fill in the words into a paragraph. She does good on the spelling part.

In my next class we talked about makeup and household chores. In the 3rd class we talked about "what do these signs mean?", "What do you say?", and "When do you say...". We had a pretty good class in both of those.

My middle school class was moved to another room because the room was hot and the AC wasnt working properly. The students told me about the switch before class. I had one new student in this class. Now I have 12 students in my middle school class. My biggest class. We were talking about giving directions. The middle schoolers don't seem to care about learning. They talk during class, won't speak to their partner, won't fill in the answers, and seem to have a hard time finding the answers. All they had to do was look at a map and write what street the building was or tell if the building was near, next to, far from, etc from another building. I think its just apathy. Plus they all seemed occupied by studying for their vocabulary test. There are a few students who put forth the effort, but most don't even seem to care. All I can do is try my best. If they want to learn they will learn and if they don't well its not my fault. I'm going to give them a test on the units we have covered so far at the end of the month. I'll make it part listening and part matching. Maybe some fill the blanks on what someone would say in a conversation. Whatever they get on the test will be their grade for that class.

My last class was still bad today. They kept getting out of their seat and begging me for a game. I didn't let them play a game. They begged and begged and begged. I just don't know what to do with this class. They don't care for learning. they just want to play games. I have to teach them spelling! They didn't do their homework so I made them write the words 10 times each. 15 words-each 10 times. They kept complaining about their hand hurting from writing. If you are going to be bad constantly then you are going to pay! We still didn't get finished with what I needed to accomplish in that class for the day. We'll just have to cover more on Friday.

I saw the teacher's assistant making copies of a teachers edition for the Korean teacher. Its not fair that she gets a teacher's edition and I don't! I just have to BS my way through my classes! I guess we'll just have more game time this semester!ha.

Day 270

Sunday Sept 13

Well I was planning on going to the beach today, but I changed my mind. I was tired after my little misadventure yesterday.

I will go next Sunday.

I slept till 2:30 then I just sat around and did nothing.

Around 7pm I went to Independence Park since its really nearby. I went to the Nokbeon subway station and it was only 3 stops away. I wanted to see the newly renovated space and take a photo of the Dongnimmun Gate. The park was suppose to be completed by July but it still looks unfinished. There are construction gates up everywhere. At least the walls are down. Last time I went there were tall walls up where you couldn't see what was on the other side. At least I got a photo of the gate. I also got a photo of the declaration of independence monument and a statue of the first Korean American.

Then I went by Pizza school and got a combination pizza. The combination pizza is really good and cheap! Its approx. the size of a medium in the US and its only 5,000 won which is less than $5 usd. On the pizza there is corn, onions, green peppers, pepperoni?, some kind of meat, and cheese. Having corn on a pizza is a different experience but I like it.

I tried to go to my bank and pay my bills, but the machine wasn't working. I guess you can only pay them during business hours. that sucks!

I went shopping at Emart to get some groceries. I couldn't find the pasta that I like. They were remodeling that section of the store so I guess it got moved somewhere else. I decided to splurge and get some downy fabric softener. I also got some easy off bam and toilet cleaner so I could clean the bathroom.

I cleaned the bathroom tonight and its almost spotless. The only drawback is the extremely strong smell that comes from the easy off bam. It will almost take your breath away. I'll get around to sweeping the floor in my room eventually.

Now I have to study for my classes! Oh no!

South Korea confirms 5th death from Swine Flu....

A South Korean woman infected with influenza A died Saturday, raising the local death toll from the H1N1 virus to five.

The 73-year-old woman, who suffered from high blood pressure, was presumed to have died from complications stemming from the new flu, Yonhap News Agency reported quoting health officials.

The woman, who recently visited the United States, was confirmed infected with influenza A on Aug. 25, after showing symptoms of high fever and coughing. The exact cause of the death was still under investigation.

On Aug. 15, South Korea reported its first H1N1 virus-related death -- a man in his 50s who had recently returned from a trip to Thailand.

South Korea reported its first new flu outbreak in early May, with the number of infections reaching more than 7,000. Most have fully recovered, but health experts say the disease could spread at a more rapid pace in the fall.

day 269...meetup FAIL (Banpo Bridge)

Saturday Sept 12

Banpo Bridge: (its a very neat fountain!)

Address: Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul

April-October (Duration: 15min) 
* Weekdays: 12:00, 20:00, 21:00 
* Weekends: 12:00, 17:00, 19:30 (July & August only), 20:00, 20:30, 21:00, 21:30 

※ Operating hours are subject to change.

More Info: http://hangang.seoul.go.kr/
http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=1011983

Directions: 1) Dongjak Station (Seoul Subway Line 4), Exit 1 or 2.

2) Express Bus Terminal Station (Seoul Subway Line 3,7 or 9), Exit 8-1. Go straight for 250m, and turn right at the Express Bus Terminal 4-way intersection. Continue going straight for 400m and cross the street at the crosswalk. Go straight through the underpass to arrive at the park.

[Bus]
Take Bus 405 or 8340 and get off at Banpo Hangang Park.

So last minute I decided I was going to go to a meetup group. They were going to see the banpo bridge. I looked at the directions and it took 32 minutes to get to the destination from the subway so I decided to leave my house around 6. I thought I'd have plenty of time to get there by 7pm.

I got to the subway stop about 6:50. It took about 6 or so minutes just to get out of the subway station. It was a long walk.

Then I was suppose to take exit 6 and keep walking straight till I get to the steps heading down to the Han river. sounded simple, but it was about a 30 minute walk! Then once I got there I didn't know where to meet. I didn't know which bridge was the Banpo bridge.

(Why didn't I look at the website to get better directions?)

The Banpo bridge is the longest fountain bridge in the world(its a bridge that cars drive over)(I've never seen one that had a fountain show before!). 570 meters on each side. There are a lot of fountains that pump water out and there is a show with lights. Its also called the "rainbow fountain". It's over the Han river.

I saw a plain bridge over the river then I saw a bridge that was lit up with all these colorful lights. I thought that was probably the place, but I was wrong. At 8pm I saw the bridge light up and the fountain started. I was at the wrong bridge. I started walking towards the banpo bridge but I couldnt get there in time to see the show up close. I got pictures from far away. The show lasted for 20 minutes. I was so far away that 20 minutes wasn't long enough for me to make it to get good pictures.

They needed a lot more detail in the directions. They assumed that everyone was familiar with Seoul. (I should have known Seoul better..I'd been there 6 months already!!) I would have left earlier if the group would have mentioned that it wasn't really near the subway station. there was a 30 min walk from the subway station. There should have been more signage as to which one was the bridge. there is more than one bridge in the area. If i would have known that they were meeting in the park area I wouldn't have went up to the other bridge.

I'll have to go again sometime since I know now how much time I need to allot and where I need to sit to get good pictures.

So I've tried to go to meetup groups twice and I've failed both times!

day 268 "If I don't have water I'll die"

Friday September 11

Its Sunday and I'm finally getting around to writing this!.

Friday was crazy.

My first class was the best out of all of my ENIE classes. I only have one student so we read the article together, then she listens, then she answers questions. She has trouble answering the questions so I show her where to look in the article to find the answer.

My 2nd class was not good. I had 7 students and only 6 computers. Only 3 of the computers have headphones so the students can listen. I asked the TA if we had more headphones and he said no. The students tell me that they dont have a headphone at their computer but I just have to tell them that I don't have any. They had to sign up for their ID/PW and one student kept telling me that she didn't know her ID# (like a SS#). I didn't know what to do. I don't know her personal number. Then the student that didn't have a computer was complaining about not having a computer and I didn't know what to tell him. He finally got on a computer and another student just sat over to the side and played a game on his pencil case (his pencil case has a built in game). Its hard to keep everyone on the same page. They all want to look at other websites and I kept telling them to only go to the school website. One of the students was sharing the headphones with another student. She would listen, then hand the headphones over to the other student. They keep trying to tell each other the answers. I told them to stop.

At least i'll have more time next week for the class because I won't have to wait for everyone to sign up for an ID/PW.

I had 3 people in my 3rd class so it worked out nicely. They all got to use the headphones. I'd have them listen first, then we would read together as a class, then answer questions. That technique didn't work so well. They found out that you can speed up the talking up to 400% so they would do that instead of listening to it normal speed. Why would they put a button to speed it up to 400%?? WHY? WHo can understand at that speed? I told them to listen to it normally. They keep listening to it too fast because its funny. Well we arent there to have fun! Then one student found out that it shows you the answer so he'd memorize the answers and take the test again. I started watching him to make sure he didn't cheat.

The ENIE classes are out of control! The students cheat, I can't keep everyone on the same page, they want to look at other websites, they try to listen too fast, they dont read the article, there arent enough headphones or computers. I think the class is good, but I think we shouldn't do it on the computers because its too distracting. I wish I could just print the articles out and print out the tests and jsut do it in the classroom. It would be a whole lot smoother.

I want us to do it as a class. We read the article, then I'd like for everyone to be able to listen, then do the questions. Its impossible to make sure everyone is in the same place.

The Korean teacher who quit comes back once a week on Friday to teach 2 middle school classes.

My last class of the day was a nightmare! The students would not listen. I had to keep yelling at them. 2 of the boys kept trying to cheat on the test. I would call out the word then everyone would run up to me and ask "is this right?" I gave them time to study before the test and since no one was studying I just told them that we were going to take the test and then they want to study. I said no because I gave them time and no one used the time. They were being too loud and they wouldn't stay on the same page as me. They want to move ahead. One of the boys asked to go to the bathroom and I told him he needs to go during break and he doesn't understand. Finally I just let him go. Then after he got back he asked if he could get water. (the bathroom is right beside the water cooler) I don't know why he didn't get some while he was there. I told him no. Then he complains "If I don't have water I'll die". I didn't let him go. It looks bad if I keep letting everyone leave the room during class. I didn't get finished with what pages I needed to accomplish because they were being so bad. Now I have to finish those pages on Monday. They begged for a game but I made them work until it was time to go. Since they were so bad their homework was to write all the new words (15 in all) 10 times each. I usually make them write it 5 times during class. They asked for a game on Monday but I said no. I'm not giving them any games until they can learn to be good in class, quit working ahead in the book and quit being too loud.

We are 2 weeks into the semester and I havent given any tests yet. I don't know what to do!! I could give writing tests, but I dont know what to put on the speaking tests. We arent learning any vocab or concepts, just speaking about things.

Monday in one class we will be talking about makeup and household chores. How many questions can I come up with for that topic?? I'm not worried about the 2nd class. There are some good things in their book and they can keep themselves entertained. I guess I'll just do as much speaking as I can and just let them play games for the rest of class. I could just find some conversation questions off the internet and let them speak all class. its boring but gotta do something!

Day 267

Thursday September 10


I hate teaching writing! The students don't understand what I'm saying. I don't know how to "dumb" it down any more!!

I had to teach writing in my first class. We were talking about staying on topic. They didn't understand. I try to explain it the best I can. I'm not a writing teacher! We were talking about statements and questions today also. They didn't know how to turn a statement into a question or a question into a statement. I gave an example, but it didn't help. I just had to tell them the answers. For example: My favorite ride at the fair was the ferris wheel. (thats the statement) To make it a question you would say "what was your favorite ride?"

My 2nd class is so silly. There are two boys in the class. I let them goof off all the time because I don't have enough material to fill the whole class. They were laughing during the whole class today! They did a good job on the review activity from last class. They knew what a sentence was. They know how to put the words in the correct order. Today we talked about naming parts of a sentence and writing sentences about themselves. They grasped the concept of the naming part. I think we had a productive class today. I try to add lots of review so I can fill time. How am I suppose to make 2 pages last 50 minutes? And the activities are extremely short! I can't cover too many lessons in one class or I will finish the book too early.

I had to take my 3rd class to the computer lab. I have the first set of students twice in one day. Once for writing and once for the ENIE.I got them all to go to the website and open the articles. I told them to read the article and answer the questions then move to the next article. They were actually reading it instead of going straight to the questions. Then one of the students figured out a way to cheat.She found out that it shows you the right answers after you complete it so then she goes back and memorizes the answers and does it again. I told her not to cheat. There needs to be a way so they can only take it once. I can't watch every student to make sure they are doing the right thing. When i would be watching her she would tell me to go away. This class is just a waste of time. Then when she was done she was begging me to let her listen to music on the computer. I said no other websites. Only the newspaper.

My middle school conversation class is a waste of my time! There is one boy in the class who is constantly telling me to talk fast and rush through the lesson. Him and his partner rush through the practice and talk gibberish. Everyone else actually does the activities the right way. One of the boys laughed when I called his name. Last semester we used his Korean name. This semester he wrote on the notebook that he wanted to be 'John'. So I called him John and he laughed. I showed him that its what he wrote in my notebook.Today we were talking about family members and describing what someone looks like. We finished early. The 4 boys were playing rock paper scissors and the person who lost got thumped in the forehead.

I taught writing in my last class. We had a good class, but I dont think they really understand. I'm trying to explain it the best I can. We were talking about revising sentences to add more detail. I have to tell them how to do it and come up with sentences for them. I asked them to add more details to a paragraph that we wrote in last class. They were confused. Oh my. If they can't understand the simple things then how will they get the harder material? Do they not learn how to write in school? They act like topics and ideas and sentences are all foreign concepts.

I have to teach the newspaper class in 3 of my 4 classes tomorrow. I don't know what we will do in one class. There are 7 people and 6 computers. Someone will have to share. I also have to teach spelling to the lower level. I've got to get them to quit rushing me through the lesson and we arent playing a game.

Events in September....

Got some exciting events lined up this month:

12th--Soccer game

13th--Beach trip

26th--Mass Freeze in Seoul-I'm not sure if I will participate or just go to watch. Anyway I just want to say I was there. Maybe I'll just go and take photos.

26th--Seoul Fireworks festival-CANCELLED--Stupid swine flu! why not just close the whole town? the subways, churches, supermarkets, schools are more dangerous than an outdoor event.

from the Seoul tourism site: Expect to see not only fireworks but a total visual extravaganza, as the pyrotechnics will be accompanied by music, lights, and a laser show.

Its one of the country's biggest events and draws a crowd of about one million people!

Day 266

Wednesday September 09

Where is my package? I still don't have it! It was mailed using Priority Mail from the USA on August 21st. Almost 3 weeks ago! All my packages have arrived within 10 days! I hope it's not lost!! It was very expensive! The post office sent it the wrong way so I can't get a refund and I don't have insurance on it. The contents plus shipping was around $250.

So I found out that after all that trouble I'm still not connected to a printer. I'll just have to keep begging my co-teacher to print things for me.

Today I had to teach writing and ENIE. The cirriculum is terrible this semester! Why fix something that wasn't broken? I liked my old books!! They could have saved money by using the same books but just move them around to different levels! I sure hope I don't get evaluated this semester. She will definatly not like the way I am teaching. She'll have about 10 pages of tips of things I should do. Its never good enough for her.

In my first class we were suppose to do the ENIE (English newspapers in education). The korean teacher told me that my student might have some problems making an id and password and to come get her if I had trouble. Well the student didn't know her ID number (similar to a SS#). The teacher called her mom to get the number. She entered it in and press the submit button and got an error page. The teacher said the student should sign up at home where someone could help her. She asked me to teach one of my other lessons. So I taught the spelling lesson that I was going to teach on Friday. (I hate teaching spelling to such a low level!)

In my 2nd class we went over a writing unit. I don't know where I should really be in the book. I don't have lesson plans for this class. I'm just taking it as fast as I can. The lessons are long so I think i'm actually still on lesson one. My students are having some trouble with it too so. We are talking about topics and ideas. We talked today about revising details to add more information. They have a hard time adding their own details.

I have the opposite problem in my next class. The lessons are WAY too short. last week I was suppose to only cover lesson 1, but I covered lesson 1 and 2 and still had time left over. Today I just reviewed lesson 1 and 2. They were having a hard time. I gave them a worksheet to do. They were suppose to circle the sentences. They don't know what a sentence is. So I reviewed what a sentence was. and we worked on putting the words in the correct order in a sentence. Today I had 3 11 year boys in my class. The girl was absent. One of them kept saying "God Damn". I looked at him and told him that was bad. He said "It's English". My students love the word "Fuck" and "fuck you". They say it constantly to each other! They don't even know what it means.One student asked me "What does fuck mean?" I told him it was bad. I am not explaining that to kids.

My 4th class was my middle school conversation class. The lessons are too long! I don't have time to cover all the material. They are crazy. Today we were talking about imperatives. I don't think they really grasped the concept. They had some prompts and they had to write imperatives. For example: Someone is talking too loud. You say "Please be quiet". Instead they want to come up with silly answers like "do you want to die?" "Go away" "I kill you" "I cut you". Instead of good answers like "please be quiet", "Please open the door", etc. They don't really pay attention. At least they practice their speaking half of the time. I think this lesson was too hard. Next week's lesson looks easy so maybe I'll have a better class next week.I am still clueless as to how to grade this class. I don't know how to give a test for conversation class. Maybe I'll just write out a conversation and have them fill in the blanks as to how the person should answer. If it makes sense they get the points. Give one test a month plus factor in their participation. I don't know.

I don't know how to give tests in any of my classes! How do I give a test in speaking? We aren't learning any specific vocab or concepts. I could give tests in writing class. I'm so confused!

In my last class we had another ENIE class.I don't really like the ENIE class with the young kids. They keep asking if they can play games. They rush through the articles and guess at the questions. Some of them don't even read the articles. They just go straight to the questions. Some of them skim the article and expect me to tell them the answers. I dont tell the answers. i tell them to read the article again. The answers are in the article. With that strategy they finished early. Then they wanted to play games. Probably not a good idea but I didnt know how to prolong class so I let them play games. I told them next week we are doing the articles as a class and no games. Its so hard to keep up with 5 students esp when you have 3 sitting on one side and 2 on the other. Thats the way the computers are set up. 4 on the left side and 2 on the right side. They can listen to the article but 3 of the computers don't have headphones and there arent any more headphones. I dont really know what we are suppose to do in that class. I just get them to read the article and answer the questions. We will do it together and briefly talk about it next week. I think it will still be hard to keep an eye on all of them and make sure they are all on the same thing. I'll make them read aloud with me, then listen, then answer the questions. I just have to try different things and see what works and what doesn't. I think working on the computers is a bad idea. We would get more accomplished if we just had the paper in front of us and read together in the classroom.

I don't know what we will do if they have more than 6 students in one class. There are only 6 computers in the lab. Actually my class on Friday has 7 students. 2 of them will have to share a computer I guess.

goodness! I feel like I write a book everyday! If you actually make it this far you must really have some time on your hands! Maybe I should write a book about my experiences. That wouldnt work. No one would buy it. My writing is terrible and boring!