So here’s what I was working on all day; what kept me from writing a REAL entry. I have to go to this English teachers’ conference next Thursday (the 31st) and I had to prepare a report for it. It’s for all the ETAs and their schools. There was a similar one last semester, which accomplished nothing because we never managed to get beyond instructions. I don’t have high hopes for this one, either, but I do what I’m told. Here were my instructions, as given by my earnest but slightly insane vice-principal (he’s an incessant self-mutterer):
jenipah, jenipah, jenipah, jenipah, jenipah.
oh-wal samshibil-il....(writes it down)...oh-wal shamshibil-il...five thirty...oh-wal samshibil...
eta wokshop cheonan. eta. Cheonan
report...
hana, dul, set (flips through pages). one two three. hana dul set.
english korean. english korean.
free speak.
RIGHT.
So here’s what I created:
My name is Jennifer Reinsel and I teach at Hongsan Elementary School. I am originally from Bozeman, Montana, where my family still resides. I majored in Environmental Analysis at Pomona College in Claremont, California and graduated last May. I have not been formally trained as a teacher, but I did have some teaching experience before coming to Korea: I worked at a day care center for two summers, I volunteered to teach environmental education to South African teenagers, and I was an assistant teacher in a second-grade classroom in California. These and my teaching experiences over the last year have cemented my decision to one day become a certified elementary school teacher.
School Life
I teach 180 students a total of twenty hours per week. I see my kindergarteners once a week and first through sixth grades twice a week. I also teach two club classes that each meet once a week—one for third and fourth grade students, and one for fifth and sixth grade students. Additionally, I teach an English class for the teachers at my school once a week.
I have one main co-teacher who is my main liaison with the school. She informs me of the school schedule and upcoming events and also helps me with any questions I have about the school or Korea in general. However, I teach with ten different teachers—one for each class. They are generally very helpful with keeping the students under control and explaining difficult concepts and instructions in Korean, but I am the main teacher in the classroom.
My main teaching goal is to assist my students in developing confidence with the English language. We spend a lot of time on each topic, until I am sure most of the students have completely mastered it. I believe it is far more important to really know a few words and phrases and concepts and use them correctly than to be exposed to a smattering of knowledge that never enters into long-term memory. Our pace may be slow, but my students can reliably produce the words and phrases we have covered together, even months later, and I take this as a measure of success.
It has also been helpful to have an English speaker around, for this provides a practical application of their foreign language learning. My students are very enthusiastic learners and I am always amazed by their determined efforts to communicate with me, both in and out of the classroom. I am sure this attitude has spurred much learning for both me and the students as we try to understand each other better.
I use the Elementary School English textbook series for curriculum ideas and core vocabulary, but I make my own lessons based on this material. I found the book and CD combination made for very passive learning and at least half of the students never picked up anything at all because the teaching style simply did not require them to do so. Since I am in a position to provide a more active learning environment for my students because I know English very well, I have tried to provide them with this in hopes of spurring greater and more relevant learning. To this end, we play a lot of games and engage in many activities that require quick thinking and comprehension of material we cover. They have responded quite well to this system.
I supplement this material with my own system for teaching reading and writing, which I am slowly implementing. It is my hope that by the time they leave Hongsan Elementary School, they will be confident readers and thus will possess a strong core of English language knowledge to fall back on in later years.
I have been lucky to have a school as supportive as mine is. I have learned so much about teaching in the last year, and though it has been a difficult process, I am grateful for the opportunity to step into the classroom as a real teacher. It has been so rewarding to see the progress many of them have made under my direction, and I am sure it will only get better as I become more experienced.
Homestay
My homestay has been one of the best parts of my Korean experience. I was initially terrified at the thought of living with a strange family who does not speak my language, especially since I am a vegetarian. My family has hosted exchange students before, so I know from experience how difficult it can be to have a stranger in your house, no matter how nice they are. After four years of college, I was used to living on my own, too, and it was difficult enough to live with my own family! However, the homestay arrangement has worked out surprisingly well for me.
I live in Hongsan, which is a very small town near Buyeo, with a family on a farm that is about a fifteen minute walk from the school. There are three children, two of whom are my students. Though they speak almost no English, we have managed to communicate well enough via gestures and my rudimentary Korean. It has certainly provided me with an impetus to learn more of the language!
When I speak to other English teachers in Korea, I realize how the homestay experience has truly enriched my time in Korea. It is an almost complete immersion for me, in a small town with no nearby English speakers—I am surrounded by Korean people and customs wherever I go. I pick up more of the language, I pick up more of the customs. I feel I am really being exposed to the core of what it means to be Korean in a way that few other foreigners are and I feel very fortunate in this respect.
Cultural Experiences
Every day in Korea is a “cultural experience” for me. I have become so accustomed to life in Korea, however, that I had nearly forgotten how drastically different America is until my father visited last month and was constantly commenting on the surface differences between Korea and America: rice at all meals, students cleaning the schools, the helpfulness exhibited by strangers, the extreme formality of relationships.
It is certainly true that there are many such surface distinctions to be made between American and Korean cultures and in the beginning, adjustment can be difficult. But at the core, I do not think they are that different. It is all about respecting those around you so everyone can exist within a framework of social harmony. The exact mechanisms for each system may be different, but the purposes are the same. It is most helpful to view cultural practices and ultimately differences with an open, undiscriminating mind, recognizing that they are alternatives to our own worldview with their own unique merits and failings. All too often, we see differences and compare them harshly. It is easy to pick out the flaws of a foreign system; it is much more difficult to pinpoint the failings of your own culture, since culture forms the lens from which you view the world.
Personally, I have found that there are certainly some elements of Korean culture I find to be more in tune with how I think and view the world—communal eating and living, for example, as well as the extreme respect shown to superiors and elders—but there are still some things I prefer about living in America. Still, I have extreme respect for Korea and its culture and am so grateful for all the cultural experiences that have made this part of my life such a colorful one.
Suggestions
For ETAs
1. More frequent meetings
I think it would be nice to organize more frequent meetings—perhaps monthly—among ETAs, if possible. This has been a challenging job for all of us, inexperienced as we are, and the support provided by people going through similar experiences would greatly assist ongoing cultural adjustment and the acquisition of teaching skills.
2. More contact between meetings
Even if face-to-face meetings are not possible, it would be beneficial to stay in better contact with each other, exchanging teaching tips and ideas and general hints for living in Korea. There is a forum already established to this end, but I propose we renew our commitment to promote communication among ourselves. We can be a very valuable resource for each other.
For Co-Teachers
1. Korean teachers in the classroom
I think it is helpful to have a native speaker in the classroom for discipline control and mother-tongue clarification at times. If a teacher would like to be more involved in teaching and lesson-planning, that would be wonderful, but at a minimum, it is nice to have someone else there for support when students absolutely do not understand or behavior becomes unmanageable.
2. Constructive criticism for the ETA
I would like to hear more feedback from the school about my teaching. I do not hear anything beyond “Good job!” and since all of the teachers at my school are more experienced than me, I am certain they could be a valuable resource for me to improve my teaching.
For Schools
1. Establish clear expectations for ETAs
At the onset, it was very unclear what my school expected me to do. I have gradually figured this out for myself, but in the future, I think it would be tremendously helpful to set forth clear expectations for what the ETA is expected to do and achieve in both the short and long term.
2. Maintain an open dialogue with the ETA
Again, I would like to hear constructive criticism from the administration about my teaching.