I really have been intending to write every day, but I am seriously too busy! It’s not just sheer laziness that’s keeping me from it…I haven’t even been knitting or reading much lately! I spend so much time on the computer writing my lesson plans that the last thing I want to do is spend more time in front of it, writing. But here I am…and it’s actually probably a good thing. Sometimes I worry I will completely lose the ability to speak or write English correctly, or even at all. For example, today I was teaching the teachers’ workshop and I spelled terrific with two fs. What kind of English teacher am I, anyway? One who relied far too much on Microsoft Word to correct her spelling errors, evidently. I use broken English most of the time, and when I don’t, I usually end up talking to myself anyway, since no one really understands. All I have to keep me from becoming an incoherent idiot is Salman Rushdie and occasional written correspondence. Ah, the joys of foreign life! I guess this is the first time I’ve been abroad without another native English speaker around. It hasn’t been as tough yet as I thought it might be (and like people here expect, with their constant concern for my loneliness), but perhaps I’m speaking too early. The main point of this ramble is to add to the rapidly growing pile of evidence that I am going entirely crazy.
On to brighter topics…I received an email of praise from the big lady herself, Fulbright Director Mrs. Shim, yesterday afternoon. Seems my principal called her to say how happy they were to have me in their “village” and that I was the hardest-working English teacher he’d ever seen. (Notice he didn’t say I was good, just that I worked hard. True enough.) And I have good manners. So I’m on the In List with her right now and that’s nice. After the OCs worked so hard to make us terrified of her this summer, I’m glad she actually likes me now. I am also glad that the principal thinks enough of me to make the call. I had just been complaining that I haven’t been getting any feedback…guess this qualifies!
Unfortunately, my lessons have not been going very well. I have just been feeling overwhelmed with everything this week. I feel like I’m always working and it’s been really hard for me to transition from class to class because all of the learning materials are so different by age. Also, I think I have been trying to move too quickly through things—trying to accomplish too much—and I need to slow down so they understand me and actually learn. However, when I go slowly, everyone stops listening to me! What, do they want that horrendous book back? Honestly…work with me! Hopefully things turn around these next couple days. Too bad I have so much more teaching left to do! My English Chat Class (the English-only club class) is meeting for the first time tomorrow. I think my agenda is too ambitious for them, but maybe it’ll stretch into a two-week lesson. The thing is, I seriously don’t know how I am going to teach such a wide variation in language ability. Some of them have been taking English for only a few months, while others have been taking it for three or more years! I’m planning to have them write to California pen pals and even develop some projects on life in Hongsan and Korea in general to share with our overseas friends. I hope they like it, but it’s almost one of those too-corny teacher things. We’ll have to see.
Last night I taught the SK engineering guys for the first time and it was pretty much awful. First, I’d heard them wrong and they wanted to pick me up at 6:30 instead of 7:30. So I was walking home at 6:30 when I ran into the one guy pulling into my driveway. Instead of being normal and coming into my house, he creepily parks a ways down the road and just waits for me. I was sorta freaked out. I mean, who DOES that? He was acting like a pedophile/serial killer. I finally went outside 20 minutes later and tried to talk to him. I seriously didn’t want to go anymore. It ended up being all right, but I still don’t understand that whole exchange. If Koreans are all about politeness, like I’d been led to believe, then how polite was that? So I am teaching 4 civil engineers and one administrator, all men. I don’t really know what they want from me, so yesterday was awkward. I guess I’m going to teach them pronunciation tomorrow, and if they don’t like it, they can go to hell because they’re not paying me anyway. Although they did give me a bagful of apples yesterday and have promised me a box of vegetables. Oh, yeah…one of them is a crossing guard at the school and I guess that’s where they heard about me. The kids are always talking about me, apparently…enough that he knew I was a vegetarian! Oh, small towns…