Meeting the Korean teachers...

Monday

Was taken to the school to have a look around and meet people. Was told they have all been looking forward to meeting me, which is nice. First Korean lady I was introduced to...around 50 yrs old, smiley, short:

'David, this is Margaret'

'Hello Margaret. Nice to meet you'

'Are you a Christian?'

'Umm...no.'

'Oh (disappointed). Are you a vegetarian?'

'Yes! How did you know?'

'I met another David once, and he was a vegetarian.'

The other Korean teachers I met were also friendly, but seemed a bit bemused. They had seen a photo of me b4 I arrived - one of me reading the news in China (smart, tie, short hair). I now had much longer hair, with blond streaky highlights.

This is not really a school. It's a very new building and is decked out with modern technology. Students come to stay for 5 days, and are taught English in classrooms, and also in the 'English Experience Centre'. The EEC is on 2 floors, and is a pretty impressive place! There are very realistic mock-ups of places such as a post office, bank, supermarket, restaurant, fast food restaurant, doctors, chemist, a street, and an airport. The supermarket has a real cash register, the bank has a working (but fake) cash machine, the doctors surgery has a real blood pressure and heart rate thing...and prints out the results, the airport has a working metal detector, and there is also a mock-up of the inside of a plane which has a screen at the front on which the safety video is played. It's all very real! This is where students come to practise what they have learnt in the classroom.

I discover that this centre is now very famous in Korea, and is the first of it's kind. It's run by the government, and has been on TV a lot. It is visited by teachers, headmasters and TV crews from all over the country. Some of the best teachers in the country were carefully selected to teach here (so the welcome info says). I am also told that here, the emphasis is more on 'fun' than teaching. As the big 61 year old American teacher called Pete told me...'All we want to do here is make sure the kids go away happy. Teaching only makes sad faces.' Hmm. I think, Pete, that depends very much on the teacher. (I didn't say that. He is quite loud, and very sure of what he is saying. I just smile and nod for now. Smile and nod. Oh...did I mention he's an American?

I am introduced to Mr Yang. Mr Yang will be my Korean teaching partner (every foreign teacher here is paired up). He is someone I will work closely with, as we will 'teach' the students together in the classroom. Our first conversation went as follows:

'Hello, nice to meet you'

'Very happy. I wait long time. Very happy. You come.'

'So we will be partners, right?'

'Very happy. Finally. Long time wait. My Engrish no good. Solly.'

We went to the classroom. Tis very big...with a plasma screen TV hanging from the ceiling, and the biggest whiteboard in the world. Each class will only have 12 students. Mr Yang and I chatted for what seemed like a very long time. I understood little of our conversation, but I did catch that the first leader of Korea was someone who went to America, studied at Harvard, found God, and then returned to Korea and took over. Many American missionaries followed him...which explains a lot. He told me this story twice. Mr Yang then went on to tell me (in secret) that Pete gets paid 20000won to go and sing hymns in a church on Sundays. I was then invited to go to a church in Mr Yangs hometown to sing hymns, and get paid (but in secret). I avoided answering the question by saying something unrelated to the topic very quickly, which confused Mr Yang, and I went off to make a cup of tea.

Mr Yang. He is my partner in 'teaching' English, and I can hardly understand a word he says. He keeps saying the job is 'very easy', and laughing. But something he said did shock me...after I realised what he had said that is. He was talking about Englishmen, and this is what it sounded like to me:

'Engrishmen...very good peace'

But after he repeated it a few times (as I looked confused) I realised this is what he was saying:

'Engrishmen...very good penis.'

This also explained his embarrassed laughter after each repetition. But then I realised it's not what he said that is worrying, it's how he knows this.

Fun times ahead.