Thursday, May 8, 2014

1st day at 2nd school

All of the native English teachers in the JLP program are responsible for teaching at more than one school. Most of us have two schools. A few of us have four or five schools and travel by bus every day to a different location. We are compensated for travel expenses once a month. Our language skills are spread throughout the regions we are designated for.

I only have two schools. My primary school and the secondary rural school that I go to only on Thursdays. There was a holiday last week, so today was my first Thursday at my new school. We were told repeatedly at orientation to expect the unexpected at our schools. I was instructed on how to get to my school yesterday evening. My co-teacher and her husband did a dry run with me in their van. I take two buses and then walk about 100 yards to the secondary school. I was told that one of the classes had a very low level of english.

The day started off with rain, which  delayed my 8:10am bus to 8:20, which made me catch the second bus even later. Thank goodness I remembered to take my raincoat. As I sat on the second bus, we started going thru very rural areas. It took twenty minutes to get to the final busstop. When the bus finally let me off, I asked two very old ladies where the school was. Well, they stared at me and spoke Korean until I decided to ask another younger woman, who also did not know enough English to help me. I smiled and bowed my head and tried a third time. Finally, a woman understood me enough and walked me to the entrance of the school. It was 9am by that time. I was suppose to be there before 8:40am.

As I walked into the school, two suited-up Korean men stood in the doorway. I bowed and said "good morning". They nodded at me and stared at my braids. While I was taking my outdoor shoes off, one of them said "Africa?" and I said "no, America". I felt a migraine coming on slowly.  One of the women in the area, then escorted me to the main office, where I sat while another woman got on the phone and yelled while looking at me. She looked like she ordered sushi and was delivered a rat instead.  I was getting upset by now but I held my tongue. Well, not so much held it, as did not know the language well enough to express myself. I felt unwanted and dismissed.


After ten minutes, one of the women escorted me upstairs to a 5th grade class. The children did the whole "shocked at seeing a foreigner with weird hair" dance that I am familiar with. I can accept this behavior from children because they really do not know any better. I smiled graciously, even though I was slowly getting a migraine. I introduced myself and then went around the room asking the students their names and attempting to pronounce their names to show them that I was making an effort to speak their language too. It is not just a one way street. 

The teacher in the class KNEW NO ENGLISH. It was soooo bad. The children also KNEW ALMOST NO ENGLISH. Their english level was not low, it was non-existent. The chapter that I was told to cover was wrong, it was actually 2 chapters ahead of where they actually were. The teacher did not discipline them so they were talking and walking around as I tried to teach them. The computer did not have any sounds, only the visual. There was a point during the first 30 minutes of the class, that I was biting my lip to stop tears from rolling down my cheeks. That is how frustrated I was by that point. I felt like it was the worse class I have had so far. I wanted to walk out the school and (try) to find my way back to the apartment.

But.

But I am not a quitter, never have been and never will be. I have the heart of a lion and warrior blood races through my veins. I reminded myself of this and took a breath...and taught.

I taught 2 classes for the same 5th and 6th grade class, then we had lunch. Afterwards,  I met the other English teacher in the school, Teresa. She is a Filipino married to a Korean.  She translated so I could be introduced to the principal and vice principal. I sat in on her kindergarten class, full of cute munchkins, who kept sneaking looks at the new foreign teacher. After she finished her last class, she drove me home. We talked during the ride and she expressed her initial frustration seven years prior when she moved to Korea. It felt good to speak with someone who could relate to my experiences. When I got home, I took a nap to get rid of my migraine. The day started off with frustration but ended up ok.

Below are the beautiful pictures of my second school and the surrounding area.
Oh, some of the students ride unicycles during their lunch break.










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