It's 6:30 Sunday morning as I type this. That's AM. I know it's hard to believe but here we are. I'm a guy who doesn't get out of bed at 6:30 unless there's work, golf or fishing involved. Or unless I can't sleep. For my whole life that's never been a problem. Until now. And although there are things about the job I have right now that make it so sweet I really shouldn't complain about it at all, IT'S 6:30 in the friggin' mornin'!!! I'm grumpy, so here I go:
The early bird, it's often said, gets its reward when it is fed.
It's meant to get you out of bed; lift your spirits; clear your head.
It works just fine for farmers' toil. Cooler air and softer soil.
I favour the comedic foil. This saying sets my blood aboil.
What's in it for the lowly worm? I cannot fly but I can squirm.
So speaking in poetic term, I'm less a bird and more a worm.
I thank you.
I was up yesterday at 6:30 too! This is just crazy! It has to do with many things. Students in the dorm are the first reason. Out in the courtyard they sometimes raise such a clatter that I spring from my bed to see what's the matter. Two days ago when I did that I was spotted and then I had half a dozen students asking me through my window to please let them in. I reckon it was about 3 or 4 in the morning. So I have a choice: I can reveal to them that I have a key to the back door and CAN let them in but then they'll be all the more likely to come a knockin' on my window in the future. Or I can tell them the truth, that I really can't open the main doors for them. Then they'll just sit at the picnic tables and continue drinking soju, smoking and making racket enough to keep EVERYBODY awake. So what did I do? I let them in.
I didn't hear them making any racket in their rooms. They probably saved their soju for another time and went right to bed that night. But it'll probably come back to bite me in the ass. In fact just a short time ago today when it was still dark outside and I was trying to ignore the noise and get back to sleep I could have sworn I heard someone out there say, "Dae ee beet." That's me. David. The cat's out the bag! I'm in trouble folks.
But it's not only the students keeping me awake. The room I have is as dusty as Dead Man's Gulch in a sandstorm. I don't know how it happens. Last vacation I stayed away for a month and came back to a room that was so dusty it killed my computer AND my printer. I had my windows and door closed. How does this happen?
And breathing in all this dust does me no good. It makes for some pretty clogged sinuses. I've taken to rubbing Vicks Vapo Rub under my nose before going to bed but that's only a temporary solution. The clogged sinuses just make my snoring worse. And some days, like today, I find myself dosing off only to wake myself up with the first snore. Then going back to sleep again to be instantly awakened again. I don't need to tell you how frustrating that can be.
I find that by midweek I'm exhausted enough that I can get a good night's sleep. But then comes Thursday, the only day I have to get up early. On Thursday it would be helpful to get up at 6:30. But, of course, that's the day I can't seem to do it.
Oh well, on the bright side I'm up early enough today to wash my dishes in warm water and take a hot shower. We get hot water from about 7:30 to 9 am and pm.
But as long as I'm complaining I should bring up the latest here. I have a girl in one of my Thursday classes that has told management she's deaf. I say it that way because I'm still not convinced she is. But that doesn't matter, management IS convinced. So what does that say about the standards of this place? They will admit a deaf girl into a program that has a mandatory conversation class! She should have been put in another program or given special exempt status. Well, it's been the practice of the management since I've been here to just take the money from every customer and let the teacher, (now teacherS), deal with the fallout. That's why I say my main duty is to pick up the ball every time management drops it. On my facebook profile I describe my job as "Catcher in the rice."
I told somebody I was chatting with the other day that the deaf girl didn't show up to my last class. Probably because she was noticing a pretty big gap in communication ability between herself and my other students and she just couldn't deal with their ineptitude. I'm only kidding there a little bit. My Thursday classes are all from the Hotel Management Cullinary Arts program. They're all nice but smart as sacks of hammers. I didn't think it would ever be necessary but I find a need to dumb down my already dumbed down lessons. And of course it doesn't help that all three of the classes are 45 kids in a small room for two hours.
They all have at least 10 years of English training from public school and hagwans and they've all miraculously come out of that all but unscathed by any foreign tongue. Only to land in a class where they don't even have a teacher who can communicate in Korean or give them the answers to their tests! It's gotta be a hellish experience for them! Poor souls.
But like always I've pinpointed a few students from each class who are following along and actually learning. They'll keep me sane through the semester. And I know there's an expensive, (but awesome), trip to Canada waiting to happen in the long summer break that'll more than likely bolster my constitution for the next year I teach here. If I get re-signed, that is.
Oh and also the Kia Tigers will have their home opener on Tuesday. I've already made plans to go with about 6 or 7 other folks to that.
My struggle and my coping mechanisms. And on and on it goes.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Counting my blessings
It's a good day here in Korea. It's a Saturday. I haven't gone outside my room to meet with any untoward Koreanness today. I've just been catching up on my TV. What's with TV these days anyway? It seems to be yet another thing that's passing me by. The Friends are no longer friends; Old Christine isn't old in my books; the race isn't so Amazing any more; I only watch the Daily show about once a week; Hockey Night is in the morning and it's not in Canada; Lost lost me long ago; House isn't up in dis here house; I scrubbed Scrubs; Middle Man was cancelled while it was still in the beginning; pickins are slim.
I still have my old favourites: Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park (the new Tiger Woods episode was awesome!), 30 Rock, The Office, Big Bang, Cougar Town, Modern Family, Survivor, Daily Show, Colbert Report, and occasionally a Letterman or Man vs Nature. American Dad and the Cleveland Show are wearing a bit thin.
I watch America's next top model out of morbid curiosity as much as anything. To me it looks like Tyra always picks chicks who are nowhere near as good-looking as her. It's tough to find anyone as good-looking as Tyra Banks but these girls are just not attractive to me most of the time. When a few girls who I think are hot sneak through they get voted out early for reasons that are fascinating to behold. It's reminiscent of the old TV channel I watched in Calgary when I lived there, Fashion TV, mostly for the sexy outfits and occasional boob falling out but between catwalk models we were forced to sit through designers fashionspeak and if it wasn't such an affront to the intelligence of the average person I might have appreciated it a little bit for it's poetic, lyrical quality. They tended to shovel the shit like, I dunno, people who are trying to sell invisible clothes to the King. For a lot of money.
The judges on ANTM are exactly the same. They will tell one girl to stop doing the expected and to think outside the box and tell another that her traditional modeling poses are classically beautiful. In the same show. Two girls will do the exact same thing with their eyes and one will be told she is squinting while the other is applauded for "smizing", (which is smiling with her eyes). Today one girl was told she should stretch out her neck all the time and another girl was given compliments for the fragile feminine effect she got by hiding her head in her shoulders.
What's funny is when two of the judges say opposing things about the same picture or model. They're just trying to make an asbtract idea like beauty concrete and the more they talk the harder they work. But these beauties aren't usually geniuses so they get away with it. It's like me telling someone that hot dogs taste better than hamburgers and trying to create what seems to be an explanation as to why by stringing sparkly word circles together. It's sad to me that there are people who like hamburgers better than hot dogs who would BELIEVE me! These are the people who pay for and wear high fashion. The expensive prices are their punishment for being mentally impotent enough to allow someone else to convince them that this blue dress is $20,000 better than that other blue dress.
But let's talk about shows I like for better reasons. My favourite new show is the Ricky Gervais Show and, surprise, surprise, it's animated. It's the simplest idea in the world: three guys talking. But this Carl Pilkington they have on the show is a cottage industry of oddball insight that is absolutely hilarious. WIthout even trying to be! The other two just wind him up and watch him go. This show would be the greatest conversation teaching aid ever if there were any hope of my teaching a class that could follow even 10% of the conversation. It's tough for me to explain how conversation can be the most entertaining thing in the world if you're talking to people whose brains are not identically programmed. I don't know about this Pilkington guy but his programmers seem to have crossed some wires.
I also like the new show called The Marriage Ref. I can't imagine many people who aren't enjoying that one. I like it for the same reasons as most but much like the model show I also watch it from, shall we say a tangential viewpoint. A single man's angle which makes it all the more entertaining to me. It's not just that I am happy in the knowledge that I'll never need a marriage ref or have stupid fights about the things these people fight about. I am also noticing something that perhaps is my imagination but perhaps not. It looks to me like when the woman wins and the man loses, he will actually do what the marriage ref tells him to do. But when the man wins and the woman loses, in every case I can remember to this point the woman has looked like not only is she not going to heed the advice of the marriage ref but hubby is in the doghouse for a week, she's gonna throw out all the DVD box sets of Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Office, and burn all the Madonna cd's. And she will go on the trip they give couples on the show, but she's GONNA steal some bathrobes and soaps from the hotel.
This is not to say that I'm not married because women are too controlling. It's just a real plus about NOT being married. I don't want to win arguments, I just don't want to have them. And there's no such thing as a woman who could deal with me without changing things, or suggesting changes that would eventually result in fights. And I know now that she would always win because I can't stand the fighting. I'd be so whipped if I were married! This show makes me glad I'm not.
To bring this entry full circle there aren't many ladies who would have "allowed" me to sit around all day watching TV the way I did today if they were married to me. And if I could find this gem of a woman who would allow me to sacrifice a full day to the TV gods, 1. Would she spend it with me or would she work really hard around the house to shore up some guilt points for later? 2. Would she spend it watching TV with me and allow me to watch 50% of the shows I want to see? 3. Would she disappear for the whole day and make me wonder if I'd get my head bitten off for asking where she was? (You'd know if you weren't watching TV all day!/I can waste a whole day just as good as you buster!/I was out looking for a new TV cuz THAT one's gonna be worn out soon! and so on) 4. Would I be able to scratch, nap, fart, and eat spaghetti and meatballs TWICE like I did today?
It's probably the greatest blessing I have being single. I just don't think about that enough.
Another new show I think I'm going to like is yet another animated show called Ugly Americans. Looks like it's gonna be quirky enough to remain interested in.
Other than these shows I've been watching some old classics. Red Dwarf. Wish I had the box set of that. I found an old show that I didn't know ever existed called Strangers With Candy. It has Amy Sedaris and Steven Colbert. Every time she says, "I stole a Tay Vay" it kills me. ha ha ha. I like the Mind of Mencia too. Comedy all the time. I laugh so much I should have abs of steel. But I guess I'm more than compensating with the food I eat while watching.
I'm so lucky to be able to just waste a day sitting around on my own watching every show I want to watch, eating what I want, wearing what I want, just being me. In fact I can be me more often than most people I know. And people have told me that when they are around me they feel that same way. I don't guess there are many greater blessings I could give to anyone or have. I think I'll go indulge in this blessing a bit more.
See ya.
I still have my old favourites: Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park (the new Tiger Woods episode was awesome!), 30 Rock, The Office, Big Bang, Cougar Town, Modern Family, Survivor, Daily Show, Colbert Report, and occasionally a Letterman or Man vs Nature. American Dad and the Cleveland Show are wearing a bit thin.
I watch America's next top model out of morbid curiosity as much as anything. To me it looks like Tyra always picks chicks who are nowhere near as good-looking as her. It's tough to find anyone as good-looking as Tyra Banks but these girls are just not attractive to me most of the time. When a few girls who I think are hot sneak through they get voted out early for reasons that are fascinating to behold. It's reminiscent of the old TV channel I watched in Calgary when I lived there, Fashion TV, mostly for the sexy outfits and occasional boob falling out but between catwalk models we were forced to sit through designers fashionspeak and if it wasn't such an affront to the intelligence of the average person I might have appreciated it a little bit for it's poetic, lyrical quality. They tended to shovel the shit like, I dunno, people who are trying to sell invisible clothes to the King. For a lot of money.
The judges on ANTM are exactly the same. They will tell one girl to stop doing the expected and to think outside the box and tell another that her traditional modeling poses are classically beautiful. In the same show. Two girls will do the exact same thing with their eyes and one will be told she is squinting while the other is applauded for "smizing", (which is smiling with her eyes). Today one girl was told she should stretch out her neck all the time and another girl was given compliments for the fragile feminine effect she got by hiding her head in her shoulders.
What's funny is when two of the judges say opposing things about the same picture or model. They're just trying to make an asbtract idea like beauty concrete and the more they talk the harder they work. But these beauties aren't usually geniuses so they get away with it. It's like me telling someone that hot dogs taste better than hamburgers and trying to create what seems to be an explanation as to why by stringing sparkly word circles together. It's sad to me that there are people who like hamburgers better than hot dogs who would BELIEVE me! These are the people who pay for and wear high fashion. The expensive prices are their punishment for being mentally impotent enough to allow someone else to convince them that this blue dress is $20,000 better than that other blue dress.
But let's talk about shows I like for better reasons. My favourite new show is the Ricky Gervais Show and, surprise, surprise, it's animated. It's the simplest idea in the world: three guys talking. But this Carl Pilkington they have on the show is a cottage industry of oddball insight that is absolutely hilarious. WIthout even trying to be! The other two just wind him up and watch him go. This show would be the greatest conversation teaching aid ever if there were any hope of my teaching a class that could follow even 10% of the conversation. It's tough for me to explain how conversation can be the most entertaining thing in the world if you're talking to people whose brains are not identically programmed. I don't know about this Pilkington guy but his programmers seem to have crossed some wires.
I also like the new show called The Marriage Ref. I can't imagine many people who aren't enjoying that one. I like it for the same reasons as most but much like the model show I also watch it from, shall we say a tangential viewpoint. A single man's angle which makes it all the more entertaining to me. It's not just that I am happy in the knowledge that I'll never need a marriage ref or have stupid fights about the things these people fight about. I am also noticing something that perhaps is my imagination but perhaps not. It looks to me like when the woman wins and the man loses, he will actually do what the marriage ref tells him to do. But when the man wins and the woman loses, in every case I can remember to this point the woman has looked like not only is she not going to heed the advice of the marriage ref but hubby is in the doghouse for a week, she's gonna throw out all the DVD box sets of Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Office, and burn all the Madonna cd's. And she will go on the trip they give couples on the show, but she's GONNA steal some bathrobes and soaps from the hotel.
This is not to say that I'm not married because women are too controlling. It's just a real plus about NOT being married. I don't want to win arguments, I just don't want to have them. And there's no such thing as a woman who could deal with me without changing things, or suggesting changes that would eventually result in fights. And I know now that she would always win because I can't stand the fighting. I'd be so whipped if I were married! This show makes me glad I'm not.
To bring this entry full circle there aren't many ladies who would have "allowed" me to sit around all day watching TV the way I did today if they were married to me. And if I could find this gem of a woman who would allow me to sacrifice a full day to the TV gods, 1. Would she spend it with me or would she work really hard around the house to shore up some guilt points for later? 2. Would she spend it watching TV with me and allow me to watch 50% of the shows I want to see? 3. Would she disappear for the whole day and make me wonder if I'd get my head bitten off for asking where she was? (You'd know if you weren't watching TV all day!/I can waste a whole day just as good as you buster!/I was out looking for a new TV cuz THAT one's gonna be worn out soon! and so on) 4. Would I be able to scratch, nap, fart, and eat spaghetti and meatballs TWICE like I did today?
It's probably the greatest blessing I have being single. I just don't think about that enough.
Another new show I think I'm going to like is yet another animated show called Ugly Americans. Looks like it's gonna be quirky enough to remain interested in.
Other than these shows I've been watching some old classics. Red Dwarf. Wish I had the box set of that. I found an old show that I didn't know ever existed called Strangers With Candy. It has Amy Sedaris and Steven Colbert. Every time she says, "I stole a Tay Vay" it kills me. ha ha ha. I like the Mind of Mencia too. Comedy all the time. I laugh so much I should have abs of steel. But I guess I'm more than compensating with the food I eat while watching.
I'm so lucky to be able to just waste a day sitting around on my own watching every show I want to watch, eating what I want, wearing what I want, just being me. In fact I can be me more often than most people I know. And people have told me that when they are around me they feel that same way. I don't guess there are many greater blessings I could give to anyone or have. I think I'll go indulge in this blessing a bit more.
See ya.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Week two: big changes
I'm settling into the second week here at my beloved job. Monday was a red letter day here I think. First I was called into Peter's office because he had to tell me that the book needed to be changed back to the book he suggested then told me I could deep six. It's a good thing I didn't throw it in the garbage. The students may have though. I told them all last week to buy a different book. That's about 175 students.
Now I have to tell them all this week that we're going back to the original book. Sigh. But I won't see 135 of them because they have Membership Training this week. So I don't know how many of them will buy the new, wrong book in that time and I'm not sure of the exchange policies in book stores around here. I think I've just lowered the soju budgets for a lot of students. I won't be Mr. Popularity for that especially with this being MT week when they all get together and drink themselves into inibriated states of bonding.
Plus this means the curriculum I had already planned, (and for which I already had hundreds and hundreds of copies made), has to be shelved and I will have to make a new one. I was already busy making a new curriculum for the Flight Attendants anyway. Now I will have to do another one.
But there IS good news. I'll have a long weekend to do them in. Since Thursday is MT day and since Friday is hangover day, I get a four-day weekend! Yeehaw!
Also, just to show you how incredibly GOOD I am, enrollment in the English program, (for which I was the one and only teacher last three semestres), has exploded. Not only are my class numbers WAY up but there is a new teacher here named Erin who from what I've heard has similar or even higher class numbers. So it has more than doubled thank you very much. I'm sure it's not just because of me but I'll toot my horn a little.
Yeah, I have another soul to share with. I've really missed Kasia since she's left the hallowed halls of Seokang University. I'm sure Erin won't take her place but it'll be nice to have somebody to speak sober English to. The only other time I speak English is on card nights, (Tuesdays at the German Bar), quiz nights, (every second Thursday at the Speakeasy), and weekends when everybody seems to do the same thing: drink. Although, this past weekend I DID enjoy a night out with Amber, Maria, Chris and Kimmie bowling and for some odd reason there was NO BEER at the bowling alley. And I've played tennis a couple times with Andy. So things are getting better there. Actually Maria and Amber play tennis too. We're tentatively talking about getting together with Andy for a game of mixed doubles some day.
However, these are not the events that made Monday a red letter day. I asked Peter if I could change the scheduling for my Physiotherapy class. They were scheduled for 3 hours a week, 2 hours on Tuesdays and an hour on Wednesdays. The class has 45 students and the room is not big enough for that many, especially if we're doing activities like I have planned. So I asked if I could split the class into two classes of 22/23 and teach two hours on Tue and 2 hours on Wed. I told Peter I would teach the extra hour for free. His knee-jerk reaction was, "Impossible!" which he said a number of times while I was vehemently stressing the educational benefits in a class of 22/23 as opposed to the drawbacks of a class of 45 especially in a class where the teacher isn't lecturing or training, he's EDUfuckingCATING. I admit I got a little riled up. I'm passionate about my work.
Finally he agreed to visit the Dean of Physiotherapy, no longer Prof. Shin, who I have a great rapor with, but a new guy, Prof. Jung. So I lost one Jung and gained another. Anyhoo, we went in and in a few minutes Prof. Jung agreed to the arrangement on a "probationary" basis. Lo and behold, POSSIBLE!
I could see Peter's point that the three hours were needed to get the students the full credit for the course but I told him that if I taught 45 students three hours a week we'd finish the curriculum. If I taught 22 students 2 hours a week, we'd finish the curriculum AND do LOTS of other educational activities.
His mistake in the debate was stating that Seokang is not a hagwon. I said he was acting naive and that if Seokang really wanted to be better than a hagwon they should be thinking of the educational value for the class, not the monetary value. There's no way he could argue with that since I've tried things both ways. Classroom dynamics is no mystery to me after all the years I've been at this. Then I went as far as to suggest 3 hours Tue and 3 hours Wed. I'd be teaching FOUR hours for free! I think Peter might have gained a little respect for me when I offered this. I'm not sure if I would have followed through on it... but probly. I gained a little respect for Peter for actually abandoning the almighty RULES here and making things better.
So that's going to be awesome. Today I sent half the class home and they were, to a student, over the moon with the new arrangements. This means they only have English once a week. And we did some Oscar conversation and played a game of celebrity Headbanz. The students all had a good day. I didn't hear much English being spoken but we'll work on that as time goes by. The thing is, EVERY student did EVERY assignment. There was a group of girls in the back who would have fallen asleep if there were 45 students today. That's why they chose those seats at the back. I'm not a dummy. I've BEEN in those back seats before. In this class the desks are jammed so tightly together I can't even REACH the back of the room. The students know this. And the people at the back are always the ones who don't listen the first or second time I explain how to do something then talk to the students in the front, (in Korean), asking what the hell they're supposed to be doing, thus wasting EVERYBODY's time. What I'm saying is I couldn't have gotten through what I did today in two hours with a class of 45 in THREE hours. And even if I had, there would have been several students who didn't do a thing.
Anyway, it's going better for that class. Now I have to work on trimming the fat on my other three classes of 45. They looked like they were none too interested so I think it'll be a case of locking the doors at go time and if someone shows up and they don't have homework, notebook, textbook, and writing utensil - BUBYE. You'd be surprised how many students will actually come to class here with nothing. Not even a pencil or pen or crayon or whatever.
One way or another I'm determined to keep the educational value in my classes and force this place to do things the right way and make shitloads of money. At least in the English program.
Now if they'd only let me do camps in the vacations we'd all be swimming in cash!
We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. One victory at a time.
Now I have to tell them all this week that we're going back to the original book. Sigh. But I won't see 135 of them because they have Membership Training this week. So I don't know how many of them will buy the new, wrong book in that time and I'm not sure of the exchange policies in book stores around here. I think I've just lowered the soju budgets for a lot of students. I won't be Mr. Popularity for that especially with this being MT week when they all get together and drink themselves into inibriated states of bonding.
Plus this means the curriculum I had already planned, (and for which I already had hundreds and hundreds of copies made), has to be shelved and I will have to make a new one. I was already busy making a new curriculum for the Flight Attendants anyway. Now I will have to do another one.
But there IS good news. I'll have a long weekend to do them in. Since Thursday is MT day and since Friday is hangover day, I get a four-day weekend! Yeehaw!
Also, just to show you how incredibly GOOD I am, enrollment in the English program, (for which I was the one and only teacher last three semestres), has exploded. Not only are my class numbers WAY up but there is a new teacher here named Erin who from what I've heard has similar or even higher class numbers. So it has more than doubled thank you very much. I'm sure it's not just because of me but I'll toot my horn a little.
Yeah, I have another soul to share with. I've really missed Kasia since she's left the hallowed halls of Seokang University. I'm sure Erin won't take her place but it'll be nice to have somebody to speak sober English to. The only other time I speak English is on card nights, (Tuesdays at the German Bar), quiz nights, (every second Thursday at the Speakeasy), and weekends when everybody seems to do the same thing: drink. Although, this past weekend I DID enjoy a night out with Amber, Maria, Chris and Kimmie bowling and for some odd reason there was NO BEER at the bowling alley. And I've played tennis a couple times with Andy. So things are getting better there. Actually Maria and Amber play tennis too. We're tentatively talking about getting together with Andy for a game of mixed doubles some day.
However, these are not the events that made Monday a red letter day. I asked Peter if I could change the scheduling for my Physiotherapy class. They were scheduled for 3 hours a week, 2 hours on Tuesdays and an hour on Wednesdays. The class has 45 students and the room is not big enough for that many, especially if we're doing activities like I have planned. So I asked if I could split the class into two classes of 22/23 and teach two hours on Tue and 2 hours on Wed. I told Peter I would teach the extra hour for free. His knee-jerk reaction was, "Impossible!" which he said a number of times while I was vehemently stressing the educational benefits in a class of 22/23 as opposed to the drawbacks of a class of 45 especially in a class where the teacher isn't lecturing or training, he's EDUfuckingCATING. I admit I got a little riled up. I'm passionate about my work.
Finally he agreed to visit the Dean of Physiotherapy, no longer Prof. Shin, who I have a great rapor with, but a new guy, Prof. Jung. So I lost one Jung and gained another. Anyhoo, we went in and in a few minutes Prof. Jung agreed to the arrangement on a "probationary" basis. Lo and behold, POSSIBLE!
I could see Peter's point that the three hours were needed to get the students the full credit for the course but I told him that if I taught 45 students three hours a week we'd finish the curriculum. If I taught 22 students 2 hours a week, we'd finish the curriculum AND do LOTS of other educational activities.
His mistake in the debate was stating that Seokang is not a hagwon. I said he was acting naive and that if Seokang really wanted to be better than a hagwon they should be thinking of the educational value for the class, not the monetary value. There's no way he could argue with that since I've tried things both ways. Classroom dynamics is no mystery to me after all the years I've been at this. Then I went as far as to suggest 3 hours Tue and 3 hours Wed. I'd be teaching FOUR hours for free! I think Peter might have gained a little respect for me when I offered this. I'm not sure if I would have followed through on it... but probly. I gained a little respect for Peter for actually abandoning the almighty RULES here and making things better.
So that's going to be awesome. Today I sent half the class home and they were, to a student, over the moon with the new arrangements. This means they only have English once a week. And we did some Oscar conversation and played a game of celebrity Headbanz. The students all had a good day. I didn't hear much English being spoken but we'll work on that as time goes by. The thing is, EVERY student did EVERY assignment. There was a group of girls in the back who would have fallen asleep if there were 45 students today. That's why they chose those seats at the back. I'm not a dummy. I've BEEN in those back seats before. In this class the desks are jammed so tightly together I can't even REACH the back of the room. The students know this. And the people at the back are always the ones who don't listen the first or second time I explain how to do something then talk to the students in the front, (in Korean), asking what the hell they're supposed to be doing, thus wasting EVERYBODY's time. What I'm saying is I couldn't have gotten through what I did today in two hours with a class of 45 in THREE hours. And even if I had, there would have been several students who didn't do a thing.
Anyway, it's going better for that class. Now I have to work on trimming the fat on my other three classes of 45. They looked like they were none too interested so I think it'll be a case of locking the doors at go time and if someone shows up and they don't have homework, notebook, textbook, and writing utensil - BUBYE. You'd be surprised how many students will actually come to class here with nothing. Not even a pencil or pen or crayon or whatever.
One way or another I'm determined to keep the educational value in my classes and force this place to do things the right way and make shitloads of money. At least in the English program.
Now if they'd only let me do camps in the vacations we'd all be swimming in cash!
We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. One victory at a time.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Back to school
Well I taught my first new class today. It was much the same as always. I think it's about 15 Celsius outside today. I walked into the classroom that was about 30. My glasses fogged up for crying out loud! And all my students were sitting there in their winter jackets looking like they were ready to climb Everest!
Tomorrow it'll be 25 Celsius and they'll turn on the air conditioner so that it's 10 degrees in the classroom. The modern Korean is a creature of extreme temperatures.
Other than writing on the whiteboard and hoping the sweat running down the trough in my back hadn't yet made a big stain on the ass of my pants, I had other concerns today. The new management, (Peter), gave me a new textbook. It has no publication date or author's name on it so I can only suspect that somebody has suggested this to earn some extra dough. Possibly somebody at the school or a friend of somebody at the school. Regardless of who wrote it, it's not very good. It's designed for ESL and I'm teaching EFL. It's pretty much the same lame stuff they've learned over the average 10-12 years they've taken English classes at hagwons or in public school. So you'd think they'd be good at it. This is in part why this same crap is suggested. They WANT the students to get good grades. But they're not very good at it because it was boring to them THEN and it's boring to them now.
However, I have a better book with better lessons that I have been using successfully for years. I have lots of extra copies of my lessons too so it would save me some money on copying. Also, I won't have to create any new lessons and print them out at the store where I do my copying. I went there yesterday to copy out a new introduction Mad Lib I made for this week and there was some problem using my zip drive. I've used it many times in their computers but over the winter vacation they installed some new "security" programs that won't allow me to use my zip drive on them.
What we did was turned off the new anti-virus "protection" program, (I forget what it was called. Some new Korean thing. NOT Ahn Lab I don't think), and my zip drive worked fine. But today when they turn on their computers that program will tell them that there are new "viruses" recognized. These fake programs "recognize" viruses just to keep the buyers feeling warm and fuzzy thinking their computer safety is increased when actually their speed, RAM, and efficiency has decreased. It's just another example of the mentality that complicated is better. It seems to be very popular in Korea particularly with electronics.
Anyhoo, if I use the curriculums I have already designed I will be able to bring in copies of all my lessons to photocopy instead of printing out new ones which would require me to use my zipdrive, which has been identified as evil by their new anti-virus program. Most likely because it doesn't like English. No kidding.
As far as that class is concerned, I'm going to see if I can divide it in half. There are 45 of them and they get two hours on Tuesdays from 11-1 and one hour on Wednesdays from 11-12. What I'll suggest is cut the class in half and I'll teach half of them on Tuesdays from 11-1 and the other half on Wednesdays from 11-1. I'll have one extra hour a week. So instead of 11 hours a week I'll have 12. I think I can live with that. And instead of one class of 45 I'll have two classes of 22. MUCH easier to work with, (and the class won't be so dang HOT).
But I have to talk to Peter to change the book, and I have to talk to the dean of the physiotherapy department, (this class's major), to get permission to change their class hours. I have THREE two-hour classes on Thursday that I think I might have to do the same things with. I sure hope those classes have reasonable numbers!
That's par for the course around here though. I have been doing my teaching AND administration since I came back here. It's just easier that way for everybody. I tried telling Jung how to do things more efficiently but we always ended up arguing. That's most likely why he quit. But I am glad he quit. For him as well as me.
The nice thing is I got a schedule WITH ROOM NUMBERS! For the first time ever! I was very happy about that. Peter even gave me a map of the campus AND something else I've been asking for forever, a school calendar. Now I know when holidays and sports week and scheduled events are taking place and I won't be going to class and finding it empty any more. So things are looking up here I think. I'll know better as we settle into classes.
And you can be sure I'll let you know.
Tomorrow it'll be 25 Celsius and they'll turn on the air conditioner so that it's 10 degrees in the classroom. The modern Korean is a creature of extreme temperatures.
Other than writing on the whiteboard and hoping the sweat running down the trough in my back hadn't yet made a big stain on the ass of my pants, I had other concerns today. The new management, (Peter), gave me a new textbook. It has no publication date or author's name on it so I can only suspect that somebody has suggested this to earn some extra dough. Possibly somebody at the school or a friend of somebody at the school. Regardless of who wrote it, it's not very good. It's designed for ESL and I'm teaching EFL. It's pretty much the same lame stuff they've learned over the average 10-12 years they've taken English classes at hagwons or in public school. So you'd think they'd be good at it. This is in part why this same crap is suggested. They WANT the students to get good grades. But they're not very good at it because it was boring to them THEN and it's boring to them now.
However, I have a better book with better lessons that I have been using successfully for years. I have lots of extra copies of my lessons too so it would save me some money on copying. Also, I won't have to create any new lessons and print them out at the store where I do my copying. I went there yesterday to copy out a new introduction Mad Lib I made for this week and there was some problem using my zip drive. I've used it many times in their computers but over the winter vacation they installed some new "security" programs that won't allow me to use my zip drive on them.
What we did was turned off the new anti-virus "protection" program, (I forget what it was called. Some new Korean thing. NOT Ahn Lab I don't think), and my zip drive worked fine. But today when they turn on their computers that program will tell them that there are new "viruses" recognized. These fake programs "recognize" viruses just to keep the buyers feeling warm and fuzzy thinking their computer safety is increased when actually their speed, RAM, and efficiency has decreased. It's just another example of the mentality that complicated is better. It seems to be very popular in Korea particularly with electronics.
Anyhoo, if I use the curriculums I have already designed I will be able to bring in copies of all my lessons to photocopy instead of printing out new ones which would require me to use my zipdrive, which has been identified as evil by their new anti-virus program. Most likely because it doesn't like English. No kidding.
As far as that class is concerned, I'm going to see if I can divide it in half. There are 45 of them and they get two hours on Tuesdays from 11-1 and one hour on Wednesdays from 11-12. What I'll suggest is cut the class in half and I'll teach half of them on Tuesdays from 11-1 and the other half on Wednesdays from 11-1. I'll have one extra hour a week. So instead of 11 hours a week I'll have 12. I think I can live with that. And instead of one class of 45 I'll have two classes of 22. MUCH easier to work with, (and the class won't be so dang HOT).
But I have to talk to Peter to change the book, and I have to talk to the dean of the physiotherapy department, (this class's major), to get permission to change their class hours. I have THREE two-hour classes on Thursday that I think I might have to do the same things with. I sure hope those classes have reasonable numbers!
That's par for the course around here though. I have been doing my teaching AND administration since I came back here. It's just easier that way for everybody. I tried telling Jung how to do things more efficiently but we always ended up arguing. That's most likely why he quit. But I am glad he quit. For him as well as me.
The nice thing is I got a schedule WITH ROOM NUMBERS! For the first time ever! I was very happy about that. Peter even gave me a map of the campus AND something else I've been asking for forever, a school calendar. Now I know when holidays and sports week and scheduled events are taking place and I won't be going to class and finding it empty any more. So things are looking up here I think. I'll know better as we settle into classes.
And you can be sure I'll let you know.
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