This past month I have gotten back in the swing of teaching. It has yielded some frustrations because it is not the same as last year, but it has also produced some great moments to laugh about. I wanted to share some of them here.
Frustrations:
My one and only frustration this year has been the readjusting and adjusting to new co-teachers. My landlord is also my co-teacher this year (my home life and school life are a little too close for my comfort). Mr Kim, though, is also adjusting to a new school. I know the Foreign teacher from his last school and Matthew is very popular among the Korean population here in Gunsan. He's working on his fourth year here and was a teacher back home, so he knew what he was doing in the classroom. He actually didn't want/need a co-teacher in the room while he was teaching. So, when Mr Kim came to Seohyung, he did not quiet know what was expected of him. I had 2 very frustrating weeks of him coming late, or not coming at all to class. I was not having a good time in school--my second graders are little snots from hell--I love them, but they are little snots--and none of my lessons were working because I had zero control over the students. So I ended up saying "Thank you" to one of the co-teachers for being in class. This led to her being very confused because "of course I am in class." And that opened the door for me to say that some co-teachers aren't in class and we had a short discussion about it. The next day, Mr Kim was in all four of the classes. It has been one week and he has been in every class since I sort of blabbed about him to another co-teacher. I hope I didn't step on any toes, but since it has produced the result I wanted and needed, AND the classes are going so much better, I can't feel too bad.
POSITIVES (FUNNY STORIES):
1. They don't know who Bruce Lee is. I was playing a powerpoint Jeopardy game with them, where they had to guess where certain people were from (based on the language they spoke. Bonjour--french. Jambo--Kenya. Hello--America (it was a picture of me) ). Well, I stuck Bruce Lee in as the Chinese person (later I realized that Bruce was born in American, but spent the first 10 years of his life in Hong Kong) (I know I stereotyped him by just assuming he was Chinese, sorry!) Anyway, I asked the class if they knew who the guy in the picture was (it is an iconic picture of him in the yellow track suit).
Students: shake heads no.
Mr Kim said, "I know!"
Maggie: goofy--"Yes, Mr Kim!"
Mr Kim: "Jackie Chan!"
err.... *sound of car scretching to a stop* ... What?!
Maggie: "No! That's not Jackie Chan. That's Bruce Lee!"
Mr Kim: "Who?"
WHAT?!!
Maggie: "You don't know who Bruce Lee is?"
Mr Kim: "No. That is Jackie Chan!"
I guess my "Chinese stereotype" figure failed. But I was so shocked that they didn't know Bruce Lee. I would have thought that a country who's entire popular seems to be teethed on Taekwondo would have known/recognized/at least done an "ooh, yeah, that's right" when seeing Bruce Lee. He's like iconic Americana "Asian fighting style!" Granted, I'm not really into the whole martial arts scene, but...really?!
Really!?
2. I was doing a class game about White Day (which is sort of like Valentines Day except that on V-Day the girls get boys gifts and on White Day a month later, the guys get girls gifts). The basic concept was that one student would come up to the front of class and I would show a secret word on the board. The student's team had to get the student to guess the word with clues. Example: Secret Word: Rose. Clues: It's red. A flower. I love you. (Every secret word had "I love you" as a clue. I didn't think it was very effective clue, but it seemed to help.)
Anyway, one of the words that they had to guess was "pink." I was thinking they would say something along the lines of "color. Not red. not white. both!" Nope.
One of the boys immediately starts talking. "It is power rangers! It is girl! it is not yellow!" And bam! "Pink?" It was the easiest guessed word in the entire 40 minutes of this game. In fact, they used the same clues for the secret word "red." "It is power ranger! It is leader!"
For some reason, it was just perfect. It made me smile.
3. Same game as Funny No. 2.
The secret word was "Marriage." One of the boys broke the rules and started do gesturing. He said, "Boyfriend. Girlfriend. *gesture* Husband. Wife!" His gesture was why this makes the list. He pulled a Ross, from Friends. Remember Friends? Yes. Ok. Not the gesture where he puts his right hand in his left arm's elbow. The one where he taps his fists together. This is a lame photo, but something like this:
Ah...if the kid only knew what he was gesturing. I burst out laughing and couldn't breathe for a little while.
4. I was teaching how to order food last week and I showed a picture of my "lunch." A ham and cheese sandwich, a coke, and package of Lays. I went through four classes of the students saying the potato chips were "snacks" before I finally asked why they kept saying this. It turns out that in Korea, potato chips are not "potato chips" but "snacks." I then have to explain the different between Chips and snacks.
5. Also in the food ordering lesson, I show a small quick clip of an Xtranormal clip. Xtranormal is a 'make-you-own-movies' program where you can add your own dialogue and pick the characters and setting and such. I did not make the movie, but found it on YouTube.
Anyway, in this clip, it is a black Australian lady as the server and a goofy red headed British guy as the customer. The server has a very thick, Outback Australian accent. Like, she has Steve Irwin's voice in feminine form. On a whim one class I asked the students where they thought she was from. It was unanimous--Africa!
Oh, poor darlings. No. Not everyone who is black is from Africa. I tried to explain that my best friend in Gunsan (Sarah) is white and she's from Africa. I had one of my students tell me, "No. Only black people are from Africa." After a futile attempt to explain that, "No, not only black people in in Africa," I asked them again for where the server was from. I played the clip and asked them to listen really closely. Where is she from? America! "Tee-cah! America! She from America. She black!"
I finally told them "no, not Africa. not America. Australia." I tried to explain accents. The students told me that she didn't look like an Australian. They are white. This led into talking about the Aboriginal peoples in Australia. (Granted, this is all via translation with my co-teacher.)
It was a very interesting lesson. I asked a couple other classes where they thought Ms Server was from. The response was always "Africa!" "Not Africa? America!"
It leads me to believe that they can't hear the accents. And that stereotyping happens everywhere.
6. Starting about the 2nd week of class, I started having this weird thing happen at school. I would be sitting at my desk, in my English classroom, and I would have a male student come up to me and enthusiastically bow especially deep and then yell, at the top of his lungs, "Tee-cha! I love you!" And then skip/run/frolic off to go beat up a fellow classmate. Some girl students will come up to me after class and hand me a small trinket. Someone gave me a pencil they had carved (yes, I know, it is strange) while others give me a more straight forward gift of candy. I never quiet know what to do.
The rules for interaction between students and teachers is different here. Many teachers freely give out their phone numbers (they are almost considered like godparents or an aunt because they are responsible for helping the students succeed in school--and thus in life.) I have watched the interaction between some of the popular teachers and their adoring fans--errr, sorry, students and they are quiet hug-y. In America, you don't hug students. You rarely touch them. But here it is not uncommon for teachers to walk arm-in-arm with students, or an older female teacher to put her arms around a student and walk them down the hall. I have see a flock of female students surround a male teacher.
But as a Foreigner I never really expected to get the same treatment. And it is not quite on the same level, but it is a little strange. I understand, to some extent, the hierarchy. So I don't need to do anything more than say thank you. But still, it is new enough for it to catch me off-guard when it happens. I never know what to do with said gifts. I mean, when the girl gave me the pencil she had wood carved for me, I a) didn't know what it was, b) had no idea what I can use it for (it didn't have any led--it is just a wood carving of a pencil, colored red on the sides and black on the tip...). After Ms Kim explained that the student had made it for me, that it wasn't a pencil and that it was my gift, I ended up just smiling, saying thank you, and returned the hug she gave me. I kept the pencil in my pocket and it's currently resting in my drawer at my desk. A little momento from the randomness that is Korea.
So...those are most of my random funnies for you. Hope you enjoyed. The bell at school just rang so I have to run off to go teach. More later!
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