Frequently Asked Questions

Or, not so frequently asked questions but a load of stuff that my mum wanted to know that other peope might want to know too. What are you teaching and do you enjoy it? So far I’ve done ‘Homestay’, ‘Physician's Office’, ‘Storytelling’ and ’Bank’. Most classes feature some element of roleplay featuring vocabulary that you are supposedly gonna have taught the kids. For example in the bank I have to teach them ’withdrawal’, ’deposit’, ’teller’, ’cheque’, and so on, then we act out a little scenario where they deposit some money into there account, or whatever. If they’re a higher level class we’ll talk about different currencies and exchange rates etc, but every class is different so I never know what I’m gonna be able to teach a particular group until I’m in there and doing it. You generally teach one class for one or two weeks then move on to another class. Usually you teach on your own, but sometimes there’s a second teacher acting as an assistant. Yesterday for example I was assisting with ‘Medical Centre’ for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Also, rule number one for the kids is 'No Korean!' so it doesn't really matter most of the time that we can't speak their language. What are the kids like? The majority of the kids we’ll be teaching will be between nine and twelve years old, and will come from private schools, though the government also subsidises children from underprivileged areas occasionally. These kids stay on campus for one week. We also run special day-long programmes, and these kids that com to these can I think be any age. On Saturday for example we had some six year-old kindergarteners in. I had three classes of these in the physician’s office. For the first two classes I had Korean assistants in with me, so didn‘t have too many problems. For my final class of the day though - when the kids were getting grouchy anyway from tiredness and hunger - I was on my own, and the only word I can think of to describe that 45 minutes is havoc. Wait, no, that’s not the only word - I could also say anarchic, chaotic, overwhelming, exhausting, and draining. I shouted myself hoarse just to get them to sit down, and was very glad to have it over. I need to get me some better methods of crowd control pronto. Suggestions on an postcard please. Do you have to prepare lessons? There are lesson plans, some of which are better that others depending on the class. If you have a problem with an existing plan though it can be changed as long as you check with admin first. I'm just following mine as I don't know anything about teaching, but for example Doug who teaches music (and who did a masters in music) has pretty much rewritten his. They have to be flexible as you can teach a bunch of 13-year-olds followed straight on by a kindergarten class. Do you have to wear a uniform of sorts for work? Well today I wore jeans and a t-shirt, so no, not really. A few of the classes require uniforms which are provided by the school, though even those are pretty relaxed. The police station class has a just a black shirt with badge on, for example. The magic class has a cloak and top hat, and airplane class has an air hostess uniform, but even then you can wear your own stuff underneath. But we're not allowed to wear flip-flops. What hours do you teach during the day and what time do you have to get up? Classes are 45 minutes long with 15 minutes in-between classes. There are at most 3 classes in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, but it varies from day to day. I've never had the full 7 yet. You generally teach one main class for two weeks and then the schedules are reshuffled. We get two days off a week, not necessarily at the weekend, and not necessarily together. We’ll also occasionally be on ‘afternoon’ shifts, which means starting at 1 o’clock, doing (at most) the four afternoon classes, then a two hour evening activity til 9. This week I’m on dominos. What are your colleagues/supervisory teachers like? Nice. Still getting to know them of course, and there's some I’ve barely had a chance to speak to at all yet. The supervisory teachers Margaret and Braden are nice and approachable (though Margaret leaves in a week) They actually teach too so know what we actually do, unlike the higher admin folk who don't have a clue and don't even speak english themselves. And instructions coming down from on high end up being filtered through 3 or 4 people before we actually hear anything, so you have to wonder how much has been lost in translation sometimes. Who is Emma? I went to school with Emma. She claims we've known each other since we were nine. My memory ain't that good, but I have no reason to doubt her. Anyway, I've been unable to shake her since, and I've been living with her and three others in Doncaster since just before Xmas. Where exactly are you living? Well first off all I’d best remind you that it is South Korea. Even in the week before I left I had people confused as to where it was we were going. So no, it’s not Vietnam, not China, Hong Kong or North Korea (the ones doing the missile tests). It’s South Korea. One of the outer suburbs of Seoul, the capital. In fact, just in case you want to sent me presents, here’s my address: Ryan Jones 102 Antarctic Building Seoul English Village 82-San, Suyu-6dong, Gangbuk-gu Seoul Korea What's the weather like? The seasons here are much like in the UK. Summer reaches about 30 degrees (though I guess that’s nothing compared to what you guys are getting at the moment) and is very humid, with rain often. In fact since we arrived I think I’ve seen the sun twice, and it’s rained almost every day. From what I’ve heard winter tends to be around -5 degrees, with little snow but bitter winds hitting hard. I've heard one report of it getting down to -30, which will certainly be an experience if true. In between times, spring and autumn are said to be just lovely. What kind of food are you eating? We are provided with three meals a day. We eat in the canteen along with the kids, so it's all Korean food. This invariably means rice, a soup (usually fishy, rarely eaten), kimchi (a very spicy pickled vegetable dish, usually cabbage or radish based, and definitely an acquired taste) and two or three other small dishes. Today's was quite nice - a tuna salad, beansprouts, and some little hot doggy things. Some of more exotic dishes we've had include kiwi 'coleslaw', various shapes of compressed tofu and rice cakes, and there's this strange yellow thing they serve, could be a fruit, maybe it's pickled, I don't know. I'll have to start taking my camera in as sometimes we have no idea what we're eating. You honestly can't tell if it's meat, fish, octopus or vegetable. Sometimes it's better not to ask. On the plus side, when I return I shall be a chopstick expert.