A day in a Korean Kindergarten

It has been awhile since I have posted. Sadly I lost a close friend this past week, and the days have somewhat blurred together. I miss you everyday Adam.

I have decided to do a play by play of what my day is like working in a Korean kindergarten. I arrive at work at 9 or 9:30 depending on my director's mood. I then have "preparation" time until around 10 (and by prep time I mean facebook and email checking time).  From then on I teach different classes around the school. Some of these are 20 minute "storybook" lessons in which I "teach" a book to various classes.

Ho-ki, Tam-ki, Yu-ki etc. are called the 5 year classes but since Koreans count age differently than we do they are actually 3-4 years old. In Eastern age reckoning newborns start at one year old and each passing of the Lunar New Year, rather than the birthday, adds ones year to the person's age (thanks Wikipedia for making me sound so intellectual). So with this aging system I am, in fact, 26, bummer. Anyway, back to attempting to teach 3-4 year old Korean kids the English language. Just imagine trying to teach an American 3 year old Korean and that sums up that part of my day. The one good thing I have going for me is these kids have never had a female foreign teacher before so I still have some shock value and having their mouths dropped open in awe keeps them relatively quiet. After 20 minutes of singing, dancing, emotions, "reading" and usually a BM or two (the kids, not me) I crawl out of the class drained.

The 6 and 7 year storybook classes usually go pretty smoothly. Strangely enough white skin is considered beautiful here so I am greeted every so often with a class full of Korean children chanting beau-ti-ful in their cute little accents. I have to admit it is not a bad way to start the day. When I am not doing storybook I am in the "English Village".  It is a sweet room filled with different stations for situations and role play. This month we focused on classroom stuff and beauty shop. We also teach the kids about different countries (apparently America is the only ethnocentric country who doesn't care about other cultures) and this month was Korea and America. We learn (I say we with all seriousness, I am finding out some new things with the kindergarten classes, great) how to say hello in different languages, what food people eat, and about other traditions.

Beauty Shop, Groovy House, and Food court

Market

                            
Everyday (and sometimes twice a day) I teach 40 minute classes to our "Schule" kids. They pay more to have extra lessons so I find myself walking into their classrooms way too often. The 6 years (really 4-5 year olds) are called Lancaster class and the 7 years (5-6 year olds) are Gryffindor class (no, I did not name them). They are a pretty rambunctious lot considering they have class in English for the majority of the day and are bored to death. Despite their crazy ways, I have developed relationships with all of the kids. We even got to go on a super awesome fieldtrip to....Lotte Mart (Walmart). If anyone thinks that taking 17 four to six year olds to a mega department store is a good idea, think again. For the most part they were actually quite well behaved and even got to purchase things and practice their English by asking the non-English speaking cashier "how much is it?" Another fun thing we did with the Schule classes was an American event day. Aaron and I taught them to line dance to good ol' Billy Ray Cyrus's rendition of "Achy Breaky Heart" and it was pretty amusing. We then did makeovers for everyone, the boys included because, let's face it, Korean men are preeeeetty metro. Finally we got to have burgers! We were so excited to have a taste from home and passionately showed the kids how to make a proper burger but when we got to the meat, we were viciously shut down. The "burgers" were some kind of soy/mystery meat cut into square shapes and no thicker than a quarter inch... so much for that idea.

Cara making the flag

Amuuuuurica

Colin and Ruby

Luna and Kelly

Dan and Amy

Cara and Kate

Eric and Robin

Chris

Sarah and Evie being racist

Jack and Ben

Emily and Katrina

Jack's nails

Robin's lipstick

Schule kids. Lacaster on left, Gryffindor on right.

Burger station

DISAPPOINTMENT

The kids with their burgers.

 I will write about Hollywood Kids, our drama class later. Until next time, here is some Engrish.

lunch

"The umbrella is unfolded toward sky, if it is stopped, rainbow will raise out of cloud."

"Do you what chocolate cooky?"