March: new beginnings

Let the new school year begin! This month, Jared and I started our new teaching job at Hwarang Elementary, while Ty returned to teach exclusively at BCM, with a new lineup of adult classes. We met our new staff members (6 Korean English teachers and 9 foreigners, including us) as well as the staff coordinator, Lisa. For the first week we administered speaking tests to every student from the grades we would be teaching. Each day after school, we sat in on interminable meetings with management (both Hwarang and BCM) to address school protocol, watch presentations by P.R. reps of the new text books, listen to BCM and Hwarang give subsequent criticisms and tell us what they wanted us to do with the text books instead, practice applying lesson plans in front of our co-teachers, watch a presentation on teaching philosophy, sit in on the classes of former teachers and fill out observation reports, write a test on school protocol... you get the picture.
Classes started the following week, and things settled into a state of normality. I have to be at the school every day from 8:00am - 4:00pm, though my classes always finish at either 2:oopm or 3:00pm each day. The remaining time is for planning and prep, as well as weekly meetings with our Korean co-teachers. Like at Kwangwoon, regular classes are divided into three groups of 10 students each, according to their ability: Sun (high) Star (middle) Sky (low). I teach two grades: grade 4 Sky and grade 1 Sun. I was fortunate enough to have a break this month: Though I'm teaching some unruly grade 4 students, the start of English classes is delayed for all the grade ones untill April, in order to give them a chance to warm up to the rest of their curriculum first.

After the second week of classes, Ty, Jared, and I met Nick and Shannon in the square down the road from Hyewa station, near CulCom. It turned out that every foreigner in Seoul had decided to visit the same spot, drink Guiness, wear green, and gripe about their jobs. Of course, the fact that it happened to be St. Patrick's day might have had something to do with it... In any case, it was a sight to behold. I was flabbergasted to see that many caucasions in one place. We toyed with the idea of starting an impromptu English teacher's union on the spot. And to paraphrase Jared's immortal words, "you are looking at the people responsible for the dissemination of the English language in this country."

Jared and Ty, with the massive tower of free Guiness on the left, mostly obscurred. Unlike most of his pictures, Ty couldn't help smilling.

An hour or so later...

They even had Koreans doing river-dance, or Celtic-hopscotch, as I like to call it.

A few snapshots of Hwarang Elementary:

Outside the front entrance. (For staff use only - students have to use the doors on the far right!)

Just inside the main lobby.

The entrance to the Hwarang English "Edu" Center located on the fourth floor of the building. All of the English staff's classrooms are located here. I was told by BCM I would have my own classroom, but it turns out that they were short a room, and Jessica and I were the unlucky ones. We were given the smallest room to share at opposite times. While one of us is using the "Shadow Live Zone", the other teaches downstairs in the students' homerooms.

Taerung subway station, line 7 . Returning from work. Strangely quiet. Usually these places are bustling. At rush hour, its an organized stampede.

There was a large diorama on display at Nowon station when I arrived one day after school. A bunch of professors and students were being photographed in the lobby outside, for one of the local newspapers. I inquired about the project and was told by a student representative that the government had commissioned the engineering students of S.N.U.T. (Seoul National University of Technology) to design a plan for a greener, pedestrian friendly space soon to be vacated by the pending demolition of an old train track running through Gongneug district. I pass by this University (and through this district) everyday on my way to work, just before arriving at Seoul Women's University and Hwarang. It was encouraging to see the support for the project, though whether the government adopts it as their game plan for 2010 is still in question. And on a completely irrelevant side note, S.N.U.T. is the funniest sounding acronym I've heard in a long time.

Another galbi joint successfully ransacked by a large group of hungry foreigners. Booya!

On the last weekend of March, Ty, Jared, and I went up to Uijeongbu to meet Sean and his girlfriend, whom we had not seen or heard from since he left BCM two months ago. It was encouraging to hear that he had successfully negotiated his new position for a satisfying after-school program in a public school just south of Seoul, despite leaving BCM on bad terms. Since Nick, Shannon, and Kaitlin also lived in the vicinity, they joined the party as well, inviting their friend Jeff, a Korean-American teaching English in Seoul. After galbi, they took us to one of their favorite haunts, a little place called Radio Clock.