Ever wondered what it would be like to find yourself fighting jet lag in front of an eager class of South Korean school children in freezing minus 12 conditions? My friend Clare's going to tell you...
An adventure in a South Korea English Camp
My start to 2013, wasn't my usual
January slump of feeling guilty for Christmas extravagance and the draft
through the deep holes in my pockets. Instead, I had the opportunity to
teach children in South Korea. Ah…I thought, a tropical adventure. Unfortunately this definitely wasn't the case as it was more like stepping into a freezer, with temperatures as low
as -12 degrees centigrade in the day and even more bone chattering at night.
I had never taught children before,
and certainly never taught abroad before or visited Asia even. I arrived in
South Korea with no knowledge of the culture and even less of Korean pop
culture – something that I was soon to learn, or rather experience for myself.
Having had some difficulties
acquiring a visa and being forced to change my flight as a result, I ended up
arriving in Korea after an 11 hour flight and plunging 9 hours into the future,
and heading straight into a meeting with my fellow teachers, my suitcase in
tow. The teaching was starting at 9 o’clock the next morning!
My class consisted of a group of 12
teenagers who were in Korean years aged 16, western age 14 - in Korea you are 1
when you're born and then everyone increases in age come January 1st as
far, that is as I understand it. The rest of the camp ranged from primary
school up to middle school. The camp was set up by a university and was aimed
at poorer students in the town and funded by the local council.
My trip lasted 4 weeks with teaching
taking up 3. My days at the school consisted of 3 hours of English language
teaching in the morning, followed by teaching an Art club after lunch and then
working with my class on a different activity every week which would be
performed on Saturdays. The first week, was a dance for Naju Idol, an X-Factor
style performance. My class chose to do a very repetitive K-pop (Korean pop)
song, as Gangnam had been band in camp due to it being over playing at previous
events. Somehow, in my weakened jet lagged state I had been persuaded to join
in, resulting in me performing in front of the whole school the following
Saturday. I sorely regretted this agreement as I have zero co-ordination, which
was re-affirmed in the re-play video shown more times than I care to remember.
But my class was delight as they won the competition, receiving some class
points. The second and third week activities involved performing a skit and
presenting a piece of artwork respectively.
The Korean Government had made a rule
that institutions, such as school, should limit their energy usage. This had
been interpreted by the school, as meaning power and heating should be switched off
during the day, for a period of 2 hours. The school overcame this by providing
(rather hideous) brown blankets, which the children snuggled up in. The cold
didn’t assist the ease of teaching, as trying to keep the children engaged when
they were freezing was a challenge to say the least and one that has certainly
helped my assertiveness in doing my current role as a Housing Officer, working
in Social Housing.
In the final week, a local radio
station recorded a set from the school to show what the children had learnt and
to demonstrate their English. The questions were already set and the teacher's
job was to prepare the student’s. However the DJ (an American man who seemed to
have limited experience of dealing with children) had decided to go “off
script” throwing the children into complete confusion, making for painful
viewing. A fellow teacher, who spoke fluent Korean, also told me that the radio
technician had told a member of my class that he was wooden and no one would be
interested unless he liven his performance up. This I found quiet shocking as
they were children and were expected to present not only in front of the whole
school but also on the radio.
The three weeks of teaching flew by
and before I knew it, it was the closing ceremony with the parents collecting
their children. The closing ceremony consisted of yet another performance of
Westlife’ - My Love, which had been constantly overplayed throughout the three
weeks and is seemingly very popular amongst boys and girls. This was played
with a slide show of photos of the camp, accompanied by weeping children in the
background.
After teaching at the camp, I had an
opportunity to travel around Korea for a week with an old friend who lives in
Korea. I experienced the national delicacy of Bondegi (silk worms) provided as
a free side dish to my chicken on a stick, by a street seller who I’m sure was
expecting me to turn green at the site of them. However, having eaten worse, I
tried a few and he rewarded the entertaining site with a free sweet bread cake,
which was lovely. The last week also encompassed a visit to the Demilitarized
Zone and Panmunjom, is the only place North and South can hold talks
which has recently been in the news. This was a very odd experience and
included signing a disclaimer that if I was kidnapped or shot they would take
no responsibility for it (a scary thought). Needless to say but I wasn't and
that is how I can write this account, phew!
I could write a very long article about my adventures in South Korea and
the interesting experiences I had, but I won’t as the experiences are much
better than I could ever describe. However, if you are interested in Teaching
abroad and in South Korea there is a vast amount of information online and on
the Korea embassy website.
Clare Simmons
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