Today was the first day of the new school year. It felt a bit like putting on a pair of jeans that shrunk in the dryer—it’s vaguely familiar, but constricting at first. Gradually, though, it will be a comfortable, reassuring fit once again. At least, I hope so…
It was a day of tedium, at least. We had an assembly this morning for what felt like an eternity but was probably only 40 minutes or so. I counted two boys with permed hair—two too many, in my opinion. Whose mom lets their son do that?!? I also finally found out who would be teaching what classes, and boy was that a surprise! Basically, we’re playing musical teachers here. Of the ten teachers at the school, we only lost two who actually teach. And of the remaining eight, only two remain at the same positions. Everyone else has scattered every which way—the former first grade teacher is teaching sixth grade, along with the former second grade teacher; the former fourth grade teacher has moved down to second grade; the other second grade teacher is now doing first grade; and everyone else is…not teaching. There are new teachers for third and fourth grade. I’m not really sure what’s going on. It seems much more chaotic than it has to be, but who am I to judge? I always thought the great thing about being an elementary school teacher was teaching the same level, year after year, with the chance to improve all the time and gradually build a stellar curriculum. This is evidently not the line of thought the Korean school system has adapted. I thought it was bad enough that teachers moved from school to school all the time, but this?!? Seriously…it almost seems like a joke. But as long as whoever is teaching the bratty fourth graders sets them straight, I’m happy enough with the situation.
I spent the rest of the day trying to get some curriculum ideas in order, operating under the assumption that I would have over a week to do so. It was slow work—my brain is not used to coming up with teaching ideas at the moment. I guess there are certain similarities between mental and muscular fitness after all—you’ve gotta work it or lose it. And once you lose it, the skills are slow to come back. At least I’m starting off with more than I had at the beginning of the last semester. Namely, I have a CLUE.
I saw a lot of my students today because many of them stopped to say hi to me. I was happy to see that I am still able to communicate okay with them. I really do need to learn more, though, or our conversations will always consist primarily of “Where are you going?” It’s reassuring to at least know I haven’t forgotten anything—I just don’t know much to begin with! They were excited to ask where I’d been and I think were a little amazed at the extent of my winter break travels.
And then the tedium resumed with a surprise 90 minute teacher meeting that concluded the school day. I paged through the forty plus pages I was given, but I could only decipher four—the title page (half of which was the date and the other half of which was Hongsan Elementary School), the two pages in the middle with the school year schedule (not much vacation at all…boo!!), and the final page with the names of each teacher listed (but I only know four of them…). Good work, Jen. I tried to listen sometimes, but I really had no idea what was going on. I know he was talking about me for a while because I heard my name and the Korean word for English, but what it was about is beyond me.
After that, we went out to dinner in Buyeo. Raw fish again. It was okay, but there definitely wasn’t enough delicious vegetarian fare. It was pretty uneventful for the most part, but I did enjoy the few English words my principal and vice principal employed. The principal, after forcing a soju shot down my throat, pointed to my new co-teacher, had her translate the word for co-teacher, and bellowed, “Choi Hyun Moon (my old co-teacher) get out!” and pointed to her. “Okay? Okay?” Yes, we had this conversation exactly one week ago. And then the vice principal kept encouraging me to drink what he called Korean whiskey but I think was some kind of ginseng wine. He kept shaking his head and muttering, “Korean whiskey.” It was a sight.
I went out to the norebang with some of them, too. I’ve never been with the teachers before and it was sure an experience. I didn’t know I was teaching among such singing superstars! This one guy scored 100 every time he went, I think, which must have been at least five times. They kept trying to get me to sing, but there was absolutely no way I was going to comply. I am not about to subject them to my voice, especially when I have my stepfather’s snide comment about my singing still ringing in my ears. The old sixth grade teacher (who evidently is not teaching anymore) kept pointing to songs with the words “kiss” or “sexy” and telling me to sing them. Now, he is usually the nicest guy, which makes this behavior even funnier. But they were all talking to me more than normal—that is, they said at least one word each. The one guy who does the bookkeeping tried to talk to me a couple times, and we’ve never exchanged more than hello before! What gives? Though I did not sing, I did dance a couple numbers with my principal (he kept hiking his pants over his paunch) and one other skinny elderly teacher (he had surprisingly wild moves). A night to remember, in any case. It almost softens the news I received at the end—I am in fact teaching on Monday and my co-teacher wants my semester teaching plans ASAP. WHOA. And I don’t even have a teaching schedule yet! So I am unfortunately school-bound tomorrow, trying to get this all together for Monday. Big boo.