My first week teaching... Well, so this was my first day teaching.

Come into room.

Hello. My name is Yvonne.

Class yells out questions all at once.

I yell out QUIET!

They quiet down.

I tell them where I am from.

They begin asking questions all at once again.

I yell QUIET!

They settle down and I take roll.

Then they start jumping off the walls and jabbering a mile a minute to each other.

I yell SIT DOWN!!

Most of them sit down.

I yell QUIET!

Most of them shut up but then there are the boys

The boys are either deaf or are testing me...I've never figured that one out.

So I yell quiet a few more times.

So begins the futile attempts to control the classroom.

I get the boys to shut up then the rest of the class starts up.

I get the rest of the class to shut up and then the boys starts chirping up again.

And so goes my day.

At the end of the day my voice is raspy and I am tired out by chasing little ones around the room trying to make them sit down in a chair.

They were excited to see me I am sure but then they knew I was new so I think I was being tested to see if I would come back the next day...

Bad news for them...I came back. ;-p

The rest of the week was MUCH better. Most of the classes behaved themselves and now the biggest challenge I have is getting straight in my head where I am in the classes since we have a different book for almost every single class. I have seven classes in all. So pretty much seven different books to keep track of during the day. Then Friday I was told by one of my instructors that I need to give out homework or else I was not doing a good job. NOW they tell me!

So I need to become the American queeen of homework so the parents are impressed that their kids are learning enough English to pass whatever English test that they might have in the near or far future.

I am having a ton of fun in South Korea! The second night I was here I was treated to a bday celebration by my work since I'd told them that Monday was my bday. They took me out and bought me a fruit cake which was VERY YUMMY!! I impressed them all with eating dried squid with zest since they apparently had NEVER seen a foreign teacher eat that before. And they were impressed that I ate some spicy noodles that were on the table. They were not THAT hot and I just avoided the hot peppers.;-)

I figured out the bus system and one bus goes to both my place and Charlie's place so I don't have to transfer at all to any other bus. I've learned to hate taxis because the first one I took almost slammed into another taxi that stopped suddenly to get a passenger and another one dumped my ass off after three blocks to pick up some chick who was waiting. Taxi drivers drive way too fast. Considering I just survived three car accidents-I'm practically shaking when I get out of taxis. Anyways, I am overall enjoying Daejeon and am looking forward to seeing an American movie in the next two weeks at the theater downtown.

Also I learned how to do a money order and send mail. Now I just need to get a bus pass and figure out where a cellphone store is around here. Then work on getting computer access at home.

So that is about it for now. Post any questions or comments here on my blog or email me.  ¶ 9:33 PM 3 Comments