So I realized that I
haven't posted about my job since I started teaching. In general it's going quite well. The most difficult part is actually inputting
the marks and homework into the computer system properly. Luckily, the other teachers have been very
patient at explaining how it should be done and are quite forgiving when they
find mistakes.
As I probably
mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the foreign teachers conduct the
listening, speaking and writing classes while our Korean co-teachers teach
Grammar and reading. We also assign Speaking Recordings (they have short
English phrases that they repeat three times) and Dictation homework for them
to do on their own time. They also write
Journals and short essays that they hand in to us every week for marking.
During a listening
class, we play the students a recording of an excerpt of a conversation or a
lecture. The students have workbooks
that ask specific questions about the listening that they then have to answer. The topics from the lectures vary from
Biology, Geology, Psychology… and everything in between and beyond. Before we play the listening, we go through
new vocabulary with the students and introduce the topic. Needless to say, I will be very good at
trivia games by the end of this year.
They're so random! And complex! I have to research some of the topics
before class to make sure that I understand the material! … It's certainly an
interesting approach to teaching a language, though I guess it is not much
different than when I was taking courses in French when I was in school; the
main difference being that we would stick to a subject for a while before
moving on to something completely different, whereas here, they have 20
minutes. Luckily, beyond that twenty
minutes, they are not expected to remember the lecture material, only the
vocabulary from it.
The writing classes
and speaking classes are very similar to each other in many ways. The students are assigned a topic to write
about and in class, we check what they've written, talk about the subject as a
group, then get them to speak about the topic individually without their notes
(unless I forget to take them away before starting). Obviously, we focus more
on the written aspect in the writing period and vice versa in the speaking, but
the main idea is the same. We try to get
them speaking with us as much as possible, since they only see us for 40
minutes, twice a week.
I have come to the
conclusion that Korean students are not very different from Canadian students
when it comes to behavior during class.
You have the quiet, the studious ones, the class clowns, the student who
never does his homework, the student who falls asleep in the middle of class,
etc. The main difference being that
these kids are enrolled in multiple academies outside of their regular school.
I asked one of my classes how many Hagwons they go to and some listed off about
6, including, Math, Science, English, Japanese, Art, and Music… all on top of
their normal day of school. That's crazy! Though I guess it's not much
different from when we have piano lessons, dance lessons etc., though the
Korean system seems a little less free and a lot more formal (?). I don't know!
I currently teach
4-5 classes a day, which gives me a few free periods to prepare for the next
classes and, eventually, do some marking.
I haven't done much marking yet because the older students are in exams
right now and we don't assign homework until they're finished. For the same reason, most of my older classes
had only one student in them, if there was anyone at all. Because of all this, I have had more free
time than usual while at work, and very little to do during that time. The pace
should pick up over the following weeks, but for now, it is quite boring.
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