Monday was an exciting day. Of the 72 teachers that arrived, 13 were unfortunately male. But that still left 59 females. Of the 59, 2 were pretty damn fine on the first day, and 6 more have become that way as the week has gone on. One of them is definitely single, as she said she still lives with her parents...and wears no ring. Paul, who works on the floor above and is relatively normal said he thinks 59 of the 59 females are nice...which gives him a fairly good chance of success I guess, even though around 20 of them could be called senior teachers or old ladies, and I guess 50 of them are married with children. Paul tells me that he often tries to persuade them to leave their husbands...but I'm not sure if he is serious or not. I wouldn't count it out though - he willingly got himself into a compromising situation with the Crazy Korean/American girl one alcohol infused evening a while back (and so therefore cannot really be called normal).
The very nice and possibly single girl who lives with her mum is in class A (there are 6 classes of 12), and I have had her twice this week. The second time she seemed less shy, and came early so she could chat to me about vegetarianism, which was nice. I think she is due to come again once this (following) week, and a couple of times the week after. By that time we should be getting on pretty well.
Despite the disappointing turnout of 1, the lessons have gone very well. Their English level is a bit mixed, but on average, it's average. There are lively ones in all but one of the classes, and they are good fun to teach. The teacher training course (CELTA) I took in Malaysia has definitely helped, and I can finally develop the skills I learnt there, as for the first time I have been given the chance to actually teach.
As for the other teachers, I'm not sure how things are going for them. I asked one class how the course is going overall, and they declined to answer the question...and ended up laughing at their own lack of response. The culture here is to say nothing if you can't say something good...which is what they do. However, as time went on, they would make comments about other teachers... such as 'Terrance speaks very fast' (which means ‘I can't understand a bloody word he says’), and 'John is a nice person' (= ‘John's a shite teacher’). Another comment to me was that I was thought to be relaxed while teaching, but 'the Americans are very loud'. I think Big Friendly American Pete (who has no accent), is in his element here - he seems to be talking for 75 minutes of the 80 minute lessons, and is getting a few good comments from the students, which is a bit surprising but there you are. One of his classes is 'drama'. He was on Broadway you know.
Each class has a 'leader', and they have meetings with the Korean lady who is running this course. This is where they really say what they mean, and after 5 days the main complaint was that some teachers are not giving an example of how to do something before asking the students to do a task. This was passed on to us in one of our own meetings, and the reactions were pretty amusing. Crazy Korean/American girl immediately declared it cannot be her because she hasn't given them any activities, closely followed by BFA Pete who said it can't be him either. Ellena, our 'leader' seemed to take offence at this complaint, and in turn complained about the students. Several of them said that it's the students fault for not telling them they don't understand, and so therefore 'how are we supposed to know?' Blaming the students for poor classes is a great way to shift the blame, and I will do the same if/when I need to. There is nothing but high quality teachers at this establishment.
On Friday evening, Ellena, her boyfriend Jerrud (who is also a teacher here, fairly normal, and looks a lot like John Travolta, and yes...does fancy himself), and me went out for a few drinks with two of the Elementary Teachers on our course. It was a little uncomfortable at first, because as soon as they arrived Ellena quizzed them in great detail on why they had complained. They also said they had been given too much homework (Ellena gave them homework), and that BFA Pete was doing a good job (Ellena can't stand BFA Pete). It was pretty funny I guess, as for every question she asked came a reply she didn't want to hear. She was quiet for the rest of the night...which was nice. She is from Canada you know.
On Saturday I met up with one of the (unfortunately) male teachers on the course. I was happy to do so, but was also obliged to as he had brought in lunch for me for 4 of the 5 days so far. He asked his wife to make me special vegetarian kimbap - which is the same as the sushi rolls in Japan. It's very nice. I got to meet his wife, and their two children after they drove 1 hour from their hometown to meet me.
Their time of arrival could have been better, as at that very moment I was about to get another blood test done (to check cholesterol). I said I would only be a few minutes, and so they waited outside. In the doctors surgery I saw the attractive nurse/receptionist who missed the vein before, and I hoped she would try again as I now think she is very cute indeed. But she didn't do it this time. Instead it was a stern looking nurse who gave the impression that she wanted to/likes to hurt people. The door of the room where she was to hurt me was left wide open, and I looked out of it as she got the needle ready. But just seconds before penetration, into the room walks the teacher chap who was waiting outside, with his 2 children. The little girl comes straight over to me and watched the nurse prepare the needle. I tried to get her to go away (she is 8 years old), but she just stood and watched...with a huge grin on her face. Then the needle went in...and the nurse made sure I got my phobia back. It was a horrible 30 seconds. I had to pretend that inside my head was calm, and to look brave. The little girl looked straight at me as the needle went in, to see what my reaction was - and she wouldn't stop grinning. It seemed she was getting much pleasure out of my suffering, although I tried not to show it. However, she knew what I was going through...and was loving every second of it. Even the nurse was in on it, and made me think it was over so that I would look at my arm, but the damn thing was still in there. She tried to make me look away, but it was too late. The little girl looked even more delighted. At last, the 3 foot long needle was yanked out. I quickly made out that the whole experience had been no big deal, and walked out of the room. But the sweat and expressions on my face had already told the little girl everything she wanted to know (however, I again did not cry).
After that, the family took me to Gongju museum. It was full of the kind of things that look like the sort of things that were dug up many years ago; things that can be found in every museum in the world...coins, knives, bits of pottery and cooking implements, and coffins/jewels belonging to important people from long ago. It's unknown if these people wanted to be dug up and have all their things taken away. I think it would be better to leave them alone, as then people wouldn’t have to walk around museums looking at them.
The afternoon was finished off with a nice meal. The kids now seemed completely seemed unafraid of me, as they proved by jumping all over me. I did manage to get some food in my mouth, and when I was dropped off at my flat the kids seemed sad I was leaving. This hopefully means they had a nice time and their mother will make me kimbap for my lunch all this week.
I'm looking forward to week 2 of the Elementary Teachers, and especially class A.
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