'Do you often leave the washing-up until the next day?'
'Umm...yes'
'Do you do any exercise?'
'Umm, well...not at the moment, but I am planning on...' (she cuts me off and continues...)
'Do you ever read a book in the evenings?'
'Well, I used to...but, umm...I try to read many online articles and...'
'That's a 'no' then. Thanks - I can put your name in these boxes.'
The next thing she said was devastating...
'Oh...umm...what's your name? Sorry. I forgot.'
So the vvv nice girl now knows that whatsizname here is a really lazy bastrd and probably lives like a rat in a sewer. Forgetting my name is a bit of a sucker-punch. That was not meant to happen. Maybe she was just a bit flustered.
I had to get though 10 hours of talking about the 'Post Office' venue this week. This is the hardest venue to make interesting, as there is not much inside to keep students active. To talk about it for 2 hours with each class is a bit tough, so I spent many hours trying to think of ways to make it interesting. I finally came up with something that might work. One of the activities I asked them to do was to (in groups of 3) make up their own dialogues based on what we had talked about in the lesson and also on some situation cards I gave them (such as 'It's your first day at work, and you have 2 difficult customers', or 'the Post Office worker is a complete arse and two customers who are rude bstrds walk in'). They seemed very keen to do this, and got about planning their skits. I explained that when the young kids come they are asked to just read the same dialogue one by one, which is pretty boring and they learn nothing. The teachers English is of a higher level, and it will be more challenging. When I said this to the class one of the students voiced her agreement, and then said that that is exactly what the other teachers here make them do in the other venues - repeat the same dialogues the kids used to read when they came! Luckily the lessons went well, with just one more next week.
The above may explain why two students in one class fell asleep in one of the other teachers' lessons. The teacher was not happy, and told them to be more interested in future. Later he complained about the students to all the other foreign teachers. Mr. Yang's daughter (who is on this course, along with his wife) got angry with the same teacher and yelled at him for not explaining an activity clearly before asking them to do it. He complained about her too. Of course, Gerrald, my friend, it's all their fault. But whatever you do, don't ask yourself why they fall asleep and get angry in your class.
On Thursday evening I went out for a drink with one of the students from class D...as she was the class leader and I would be with them on the Seoul trip the next day. As the beer flowed, she began opening up a bit about one of the teachers (which is pretty rare...the Koreans always keep criticism of others to themselves). She said (without naming any names) that one of the teachers in particular doesn’t come across very well, and has been very rude to the students in class. The rest of her group haven’t complained...she thinks its because most of them couldn’t understand what was being said to them anyway (which is probably true - this group is the weakest). The person in question asked for an opinion on something, but gave his own first. Then when an opinion that disagreed with his own was given, he poured scorn on it in a patronizing and humiliating way. He also yelled at one of the students (who are adult teachers!), and she told me, in another class he used a water gun on a woman who looked like she wasn't listening. It went all over her glasses and into her eyes...and after being humiliated in front of everyone, she cried. There could only be one person here who would do something like that....The Big Friendly American, Pete. What an arse. He just doesn't get it at all. He's big trouble and it's going to be impossible for me to keep my mouth closed for the next 6 months to keep the peace. But I know once I have said what needs to be said, he will explode, and will hate me with a passion forever. Oh well. The experience will do me good.
Unfortunately the more we talked the more we drank, and after 6 hours we realised we had to be on the bus to Seoul quite soon. The plan , when we got to Seoul was to take Group D to lunch at an Indian Restaurant, for a truly British experience. The foreign teachers in charge of each group all intended to visit a restaurant serving their own countries food, to give the Korean teachers a new experience. I told group D about English food...and they agreed not to eat it. The Indian was the closest safe alternative...although it is from India. They didn't quite understand, but I changed the topic before anyone could ask a question (which is easy to do with this group - they have a short attention span). BFA Pete told his group he was taking them all to visit an American restaurant where they can eat hamburger and fries. I heard several of them complaining...and 3 of them came to ask me if they could got to the Indian restaurant instead. Pete, being the diplomat he us, responded to the complaints by saying they must all go with him to eat hamburgers...and experience good American food....or rather, eat junk food and get fat (which the weight concious Korean women just love).
The Seoul trip didn't quite pan out the way I had planned. Being very tired and a bit hung over, I discovered that the vvv nice girl in group A was on a different coach to me. By the time our coach arrived, she had disappeared. So I decided not to try and lose Group D, and separate vvv nice girl from group A...as I had no idea where they had gone, and I prob. smelled of beer.
Actually, group D and I had a really good time. I think they enjoyed trying Indian (British) food...except the sweet corn soup, which seemed unusual to most of them. I only had to explain one thing - that usually people don't put the whole naan bread onto their plate and use a knife and fork on it. One chap still insisted on stuffing his naan with his main dish and rolling it up as if it were a pancake, but each to their own.
After the restaurant was the main treat of the day - a trip to the American Embassy. Oh what joy...and so many people were looking forward to it. The coach was full of excited Koreans and foreign teachers. The day before we had been reminded to take our passports or ID cards, otherwise we wouldn't be allowed in. As we got nearer, I realised I had done something terrible - I had left my passport and foreign ID card in my room...and so would not be allowed in. I told the Korean teachers around me on coach what I had done. I couldn't hide my bitter disappointment...and I almost cried. So I would have to take myself off somewhere else I said. I might go to a few shops and look around for the 3 hour duration of their Embassy visit. But, within seconds, someone else said they had forgotten their ID card too. Then there was another, and another. Quite a lot of people, it seemed, had suddenly discovered they had left their ID cards on their kitchen table, or near the door, on top of the TV, or 'somewhere in a different place...but not here' (that person panicked). The trip leader seemed a tad worried, and got off the bus first. We were just deciding where we could go when the organiser returned and said we should try to get in anyway. We were led through a side door where there was a metal detector and two guards. We were asked to walk through the detector and into a large conference room, where the 3 hour lecture about the USA was to take place. When I walked through the metal detector and alarm went off...but I was told to continue. I said to the guard the alarm went off, but he just said 'it's ok'. Many of the Korean teachers also set the alarm off and told him...but he didn't care. The first 5 said they don't have any ID on them - they had forgotten/lost it...but he again said 'it's ok'. They really tried to explain that it was not secure to let people in without ID and who also set off the alarm, but everyone was allowed in, and the door was closed. Bugger.
A big American lady started talking to us. One of the first things she wanted to discuss was the cultural differences between the USA and Korea. To do this, she brought up a picture of the Virginia Tech massacre in the US where a Korean American student shot lots of people. That set a good tone for the next 2 hours and 50 minutes. She wanted to look at the differences between the 2 countries reaction to this event (in Korea everyone felt guilty, in the US they just put the blame a mad man with a gun). Before she could make her point, the Crazy Korean/American teacher started yelling at her from the top of her loud voice...asking why she is showing the Korean shooting rather than any of the other gun massacres in America? The Crazy Korean/American continued to shout and yell throughout the 3 hours, and was usually completely missing the point. It was funny, but embarrassing all the same. Why did she do this? Because at lunch time she was drinking alcohol. This is what happens whenever she drinks alcohol. The fact that she was making a fool of herself infront of a lot of people didn’t matter to her. She would also shout out the answers to questions aimed at the Korean teachers (who this talk was for), and in doing so let her feelings about Korean culture be known. On a question about how parents look after their children, she yelled out again before anyone else could answer-
'Well in the US we look after our kids and take make sure they learn how to behave, but the Koreans don't...they just let them do whatever they want'. (There were 72 Korean teachers sitting listening to this...and Crazy girl is going to have to teach them all again next week). When she wasn’t shouting out, it was one of the Dingle brothers from Canada who was shouting out answers and opinions. BFA Pete only had a few things to say, and for once was completely out-yelled by these other two. It was an amazing scene, and an amazing experience. I will find out on Monday what the Korean teachers thought about it all. The message of the talk was basically - you do things like this in Korea and behave in this way...BUT IN AMERICA WE DO IT LIKE THIS!!!
One happy note to end on that I didn't mention. On Thursday the vvv nice girl in class A came to look for me for help. She wanted to know if I could help her pronounce some French words as she was going to have to do a talk which included some...and so asked me if I can speak it. I lied and said 'oui' so that she would sit with me for a while. I helped her with the pronunciation, guessing where I was not sure, and she seemed happy and grateful, although it was difficult for her. Ahh...she is nice.
Later she said she failed in her talk. That's a pity...but I said I can help her more next week...and she agreed. Sometimes failure is a good thing.
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