Upon my return to Korea I was pleasantly surprised the weather was hitting +10 after leaving cold snowy Toronto at -10. When I left mid January Daegu was hovering above zero. From the first week of February it has climbed to high single digits, even crossing to double digits some days. Two week forecast to the end of the month shows the same. I remember being in Shanghai last February when weather was in +15 to +18 range.

Appears winters are very short, about six weeks, and barely hit the freezing mark in Daegu . Seoul is another story where the length of winter was the same but hitting temperatures colder than Toronto consistently in the -15 range. 

The second week of febuary is graduation week so students come back from their winter break for three days of short classes followed by graduation ceremonies last two days. Graduation was televised in the classrooms as there was no room in the gym with all the third graders and their visiting family members. Outside the school were stalls set up selling plastic flowers and boquets.

The last two weeks of february school is closed again till after the Mar 1 public holiday. Officially I have to be in school those two weeks as I have used up my winter vacation time going to Toronto. But my school is flexible about letting me take time off to travel and learn about Korea (which other schools do not allow infuriating foreign teachers who have to sit in empty schools, sometimes with no heat, till 4 .30!). So i'll be doing a few days in Busan on the coast the first week and spending a week in Japan after that.

I quietly made a video of a rowdy class coming in. This is what I have to deal with in every class (I have 21 classes in a regular week), bring them to order, and try to maintain calm while I teach a class. I like the girls on the first table by the door as they can be quiet funny. The boys you can see have all grouped at the back tables. Usually I do not allow them to sit in groups of six and I make a boy/girl split on each table which they hate. But this is a short week and we're playing team games so i'm letting it go. Also included a pic of the 'canada wall' with more goodies I brought from home for decorations.

youtube video : rowdy class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4e-fm8Ay9I


I made another short video on the cafeteria . As you can see its self serve style korean food. We will have kimchi (pickled cabbage leaves), boiled sticky rice, and a soup dish daily. The other menu items will vary each day for one meat and one vegetable item. The two boys you see walking by the food together are a funny and troublesome pair who are inseperable! Also you'll see three teachers waving, the music teacher on the right, another one in glasses, and the pretty one on the left. (I dont know their names, I know that sounds bad) They are all good friends and come to my english teachers class. I didnt know all three were leaving end of the month as korean teachers are on four year rotating cycles. Also filmed some of the footwear and crazy socks which I found quite bizzare when I first got here!

youtube video : cafeteria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uucnz5YlvGk


Next made a video in the hallway. Look for the girl in white glasses and her friend with big goggles and a scarf wrapped around her face . She is quite funny although she smashed my nameplate which I had from working at RSA back in 1998 and I often remind her about it! If they dont want to be filmed why dont they just walk away? The camera is very shaky as they kept trying to hit and grab it. I end up in the teachers room and you can see students cleaning. There are no janitorial staff or cleaners in schools and students are assigned duties. Understandably, they dont want to do it, do a half hearted job or descend into broom or mop fights. I use cleaning as a punishment for bad students.

youtube video : hallway and teachers room
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y28QmcBXEZs


Finally, I was lucky enough to have my camera with me that day as we had a surprise teachers dinner. Appears every second month we have a full staff dinner at a restaurant, which i'm usually told about last minute, yet everyone has known for days . This was a farewell dinner for the staff that were leaving at the end of their four year cycle, I didnt realize a quarter of the staff were going and so many of the people I became friends with. This was a traditional korean grill restaurant which they have a few of in Toronto. Korean food is actually a group meal as more courses that I like appear that you cant order by itself. Also didnt realize the oldest person at the table is supposed to pour the drinks when I tried to serve myself.

youtube video : school dinner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH09r_2JlZ8


Also worth mentioning a few points about korean student life. Many students goto private schools called 'academys' after they goto regular school classes. So once they finish day school they can be in private classes from 5pm-10pm. Often students are passed out and sleeping during my class so I leave them alone. Public schools have classes saturday morning although I have weekends off. But students also goto academies on weekends, sometimes until the evenings, so it can be long study days with no breaks.

In high school it doesnt get any better. Once regular classes finish about 4pm they still have to stay till about 10pm. After a 6pm evening meal they stay for 'self study'. Teachers have gone home but students voluntarily stay in classrooms to study or do homework . I found this odd when I heard it. How do you know they are studying? What if they slack off, fight, go home, talk in their cell phones, play video games, etc? Back home you cant make students voluntarily stay till 10pm and they'll just sneak out. When I explained this to a teacher he found it all very odd and said they just dont do that in korea.

I also asked about their families. When do they get to spend time if there are in school till 10pm then just go home to sleep and leave again the next day? Again, he somewhat agreed with my points but said this is just they way they do things in korea. Student life can be very tough and quite a few middle school students have grey hairs, and an unusually high number for their age wear glasses. I've even heard the word 'suicide' a couple of times in classes during examples so not sure what kind of pressures they are under.  

In my middle school I do 21 regular 45 min classes in a week in addition to my 90 min afterschool class once a week and an afterschool teachers class. I am teaching all three grades 7,8,9. Regular classes are divided between lower level, intermediate, and advanced students. Intermediate and Advanced classes have 32 students per class. The six lower level classes I have are 15-18 students which are more manageable and productive than the larger classes which can have behavioural problems. The lower level classes have some special needs students which nobody really tells you about in the beginning.
 
Teaching is supposed to be a joint experience with myself and the korean co-teacher. There are seven co-teachers divided between my 21 classes. We are supposed to plan and teach the lessons together, in theory. In practice, I am left to make up and teach the lessons all by myself. This actually suits me fine as I dont have to plan meetings with other teachers, vet ideas, change lessons based on input etc. Every third week classes tend to be cancelled or shortened for exams or other reasons, which i'm never told about till the morning of, yet have spent time planning lessons I dont have to teach now.

I teach public school which is a lot more relaxed with cancelled classes, shorterned days, being sent home early, extra vacation days, 8.20-4.20 school day. The other choice is private schools which pay more (academys) but is where most of the horror stories occur. First of all their hours are evenings and weekends, or split shifts where you do early mornings and evenings together with upto an eight hour gap during the day (ie 7-10am then back again 5-10pm)

I've read different blogs where there was pay withheld/disputes, really crap apartments, only allowed 5 vacation days in a year and given a hard time about taking it, secret apartment checks when you're not home, walking into your apartment when you called in sick to see if you were really ill, camera's watching your class and being questioned about it after. Not all schools are like, and some are really nice, this but there is a lot less consistency than public school teaching.  

Someone posted this video, its too funny : A day in a korean students life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bniwLF4hYHQ

We also played a game where I show different famous people and they have to guess the name... funny responses
Oprah     - obama wife or beyonce
Pope      - magician or church king
Queen    - elijabes season 2
Thatcher - hillary clinton
Diana     - woman or beyonce???
Obama  - asif
Muppets - pig
Madonna - angelina joli
Michelin Man - tire man
Beckham       - david bacon
Harry Potter - daniel radcliff
Mr Spock     - fits of laughter, they've never seen him before
Bill Clinton   - JFK

Also surprising is the magic of candy. I can buy a big bag for $2 so each one might be worth less than 10cents. However, it has such a hysterical effect on the kids, they will stop me in the hallways and ask for candy, swarm me, tell me 'teacher I love you' or 'you are handsome'. When we play games the winning table will get candies. Then I am swarmed by others asking for their candy and I have to keep telling them that they didnt win the game. Even kids in trouble standing outside the teachers room facing the wall will turn around when they see me, ask for candy, so I have to remind them that they were bad so they cant have any!

Thanks to all the positive feedback I got from everyone on my trip back about this blog. Sorry I didnt see everyone but the weather was so bad and I didnt have a car. Expect to back in August when the weather will be nicer and I can rent a car so will be more mobile.

Anyway, i'll be off to Busan and Japan soon so will be a bunch of entries starting in March....
found some 'capsule hotels' which is sleeping inside a fridge sized capsule!
also been invited to a korean wedding next weekend....