NO CAMP SUPPLIES

My last admins were great. Never had to talk to them.

Then the tides changed and the newbie was afraid of me. 

Never greeted me, ever. Always looked in the opposite direction when passing, always.

Oh well, right? All he does is send my salary and print out a statement...

Until it was late. I had to wait two days and he was like "Sorry!" and then continued the above attitude. Oh well, he apologized and it was only once. Who cares, right?

Until he hadn't bought my materials for summer camp and had been told all about it two weeks prior and reminded on 3 occasions that I couldn't get the things in Emart, etc. And believe me I walked to (and bussed out of town) to each store to check. My coT asked him to meet with me the Friday before camp to buy things on Gmarket and he CANCELED. 

At that point, I couldn't take it anymore. You don't acknowledge my presence for five months, then are late on a payment, then refuse to help me buy my winter camp supplies?

I didn't raise my voice but I firmly cornered him in the teacher's office and went all out. I didn't care if he spoke English or not. I spoke slowly and stood in a Korean's version of personal space (meaning I burst that bubble!) and asked him at the end if he'd like to teach my students without materials.

He was then scolded by the VP who witnessed everything. VP invited me to lunch with the group to calm down and then after lunch, I didn't even wait. I brought my excel spreadsheet, logged into my own Gmarket account on his computer and forced the process. I even had the audacity at the end to demand he start greeting me.

We're cool now. We even chat sometimes in English.    7 months later, and counting, and still on good terms.

Middle School Enterance Exam Round 2!!

Hello all!

I apologize for falling off the grid again but I am pleased to announce that I will have completed my first full contract on Feb 15th~~~! Today.... Anywho, I signed up to continue until Feb 16th~~~ of 2014~~!

Now to the reason for the post.

As many of you know, the 6th grade elementary students must take an exam to enter middle school year 1 (or 7th grade in the states). Since I worked more at SPE, I just knew that they'd pass the exam with higher scores than YCE. And pass they did! Albeit with not as high of scores as I'd liked. Too bad this exam comes after a 4wk vacay with an English camp that who knows what happened in. 

*My coT said she'd try to prepare them for middle school and used a few things from that book but, today I found out that that was unnecessary.*

In any event, I looked over the placement exam and noticed something horrible. The average of the SPE, YCE and an unknown school (3 kids) was just 48%.  Forty-eight percent. 

So.

The next horrible thing? These sentences came up all through the exam's questions.

"I like to read a book."

"I want to dance....I want to sing...Ok. Then let's do the musical."

"Amy is good at writing a story."

"You look bad. What's the matter with you?"

  -_-   yep. I think throughout this year, I'll pinpoint a few things that you should prepare fore when deciding to teach here. Apparently this is a countrywide thing. I don't know who makes the tests, but I do know that little to know western input is included in the books.

When I teach students, I have them scratch out or white out bad grammar or rude English that's in their books. When I speak with them I correct those "I like to sing a song", and such, phrases that have prevailed here. So, unfortunately, after seeing the test I can finally understand some of the causes of low scores. We can't make state exams, but I would think it'd be a better idea.

*le sigh* This must be because I live in the countryside right? There's no way the bigger cities have these kinds of scores or mistakes right? Let us know in the comments.

Keep Your Bonus Money

You all know how Tuesdays go at YCE. I was sooooo annoyed today and slightly pleased. School will be finished  so soon! Another semester will start. After all the crappy times at this school, I am ready to tell my main school, "You know what? Money isn't everything. I don't need a bonus check and YCE can do bad all by itself. I don't need to go over ever week. In the meantime, how about I just step it up at your school?"

My wallet would cry and my credit card debt would laugh, but I don't care. Happiness is so much more important than working at a place that makes you crazy. If I have the same co-teacher, I can't do it. However, if the co-teacher changes, I may be willing to test the waters. In that case, it would be the as if I went to a new school altogether.


On a positive note, in Chinese class today we were supposed to present a movie idea. I listened to my peers but honestly, they hadn't done their homework. Not much thought put in and soooo many pauses as they tried to think of stuff to say. Come on Korea! You guys are paying for this class! Anywho, I was sooooo happy for my turn. I explained the concept and everyone kept asking questions I'd yet to think about. I'm gonna take that as a sign that I need to write that book. Although, if it's anything like this blog, don't expect it for a while. :(

By the way, I really really really really (keep it going) want 소지섭 So Jisub to be the main character if the book ever becomes a movie, but that means I need to hurry before he retires. He would definitely be able to make you feel the way I, the writer, want you to feel!!!! And that would involve noooooo marital feelings. That's just for me.(How embarrassing to say that out loud write it on the world wide web but he really makes me happy!)

I am really sorry for not updating in time on time.

Angry Enough To Vomit

I went to the English service at Nambu Church for the 11 am service. I go late most of the time because I prefer my own praise and worship style. I try to focus on the lesson and think about how to apply it to my life. Many people are happy to see me and whisper how much they would love it if I attended every service and on time. After service we eat lunch together and I chat with the different members.

Unfortunately, I'm thinking "I am not really comfortable with you and not sure I enjoy chatting with you each Sunday as if we are friends." My definition of friend isn't so light. I accompany my Chinese teacher that comes to church to practice English, to Gangnam Joongang Church. They don't have any English services, but at 2pm there is an abundance of young Koreans and we try to listen to the sermon as much as we can. We have downloaded bibles to our phones that have dual language capabilities, but as we all know, in church you aren't reading the whole time.

We finish the service and head down to the church cafe like always. We sit in a group consisting of us two, a 2nd Chinese teacher that joins us for this church's service, a Korean guy that apparently loves languages, the pastor's wife and the pastor. The chit chat is fairly minimal but the pastor and his wife express that they'd love to see me at more services. They are very friendly people and I enjoy them being there, but we can't quite communicate, because I don't really have much to say in Korean...to them. I'd prefer to discuss the sermon of the day or life battles and my personal bible study time but that just isn't my level of Korean...speaking anyway.

The pastor then calls some random kid over around my age and tells them to talk to me since their English is good, as they are students that study in Australia, the U.S., etc. We talk a bit about what they're studying and they welcome me and ask about my hometown, etc and then leave.

Today is when I couldn't lie to myself any longer.
1. I do not enjoy chit chatting with people that have no intention of doing so in the first place. If we don't talk outside of church, I don't consider you a friend that I need to commit to a schedule of being available for each service to chat about non-service things.

2. I do not enjoy people seeing me in church for the past couple of months, not greeting me and explaining that they live/study in my home country. I know many will want to bash me for that line but here's the thing. Korea is a "I'm sorry I don't speak English so I won't talk to you" culture. It's also a don't-introduce-yourself-wait-until-you-have-mutual-friends culture. On top of that, it's a don't-acknowledge-that-person's-presence-until-an-introduction culture. (Not as in they are rude to foreigners, as in this is seen as rude and strange in their culture.)

3. I don't have any friends in my city. After my one left to finish her MA, good luck, I have no one. The Koreans I salsa with here seem determined to ignore my interest no matter how much Korean I speak to them. Then again, they are in their 30's and possibly can't be bothered. My Chinese teachers work at night and on Saturdays, so we don't have much time to hang out. They are awesome people and my age, but our schedules don't fit. The foreigners here are so against brown skin that I can't attend all the parties they have and such.

Overall, I'm not liking my thinking about staying on for a second contracted year. Maybe by being honest with myself I can pull through. Afterall, I'm not lying to myself about enjoying my schools 90% of the time. My soon to graduate 9th graders included. ^^ Good luck babies~~!