World Cup fever has infected every little heart in Korea. These kids love their soccer. Last week they came to school early to watch their country face off against Russia in Korea's first match of this year's World Cup tournament. A Math teacher even came in early to watch the match with her students, which I thought was pretty awesome of her. She always seems to go above and beyond to make her kids feel at home in her class. And today, the majority of kids even woke up at 4:00 am to catch the Korea-Algeria match.
The one that takes the cake is the kid from last week, though. I was in one of my 5th grade classes on Thursday, and I couldn't help but notice this one poor kid completely conked out on his desk. I'm actually surprised that I haven't seen more of this in my time here, considering how many of the kids are usually studying at academies until 10 pm every night.
The reason this kid caught my eye, though, was that he's usually really engaged in the lessons and regularly participates in conversations. I knew something had to be wrong, so while my co-teacher was talking to the class, I casually walked over to his desk, bent over, and asked him if anything was wrong in the most sympathetic voice I could muster. He raised his head and craned his neck to look up at me, eyes barely open, and his mouth agape, as if it his lips had gone numb, and the words "World Cup" plopped out of his mouth with a moan before his head went back down.
The scene broke my heart, but I couldn't help myself at the sight of him--I burst out in laughter. I immediately felt bad, though--both for the kid, and for my co-teacher, who I had just distracted with my cackle. I put a comforting arm around the poor guy, and told him I was impressed by his commitment to the game. I think he understood my sentiment. I then apologized to my co-teacher and assured her the boy was fine. What most impressed me was that Korea wasn't even playing that day! I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't missed a single game.
I recently started teaching at an after school program run by a nearby elementary school, and aside from one class of rapscallions who clearly don't enjoy the books they're forced to read (and I don't blame them), I thoroughly enjoy the 2-3 hours I spend there everyday.
There are three different types of classes in the program. The first is the reading class: Over the span of 4 classes in two weeks, we read a book together, do activities, answer questions, and eventually, and it all culminates in a quiz. Then there's "Conversation class," which is essentially teaching English out of a textbook--much like what I do at my own school. Finally, there's "Special Class," where I'm given free reign to teach whatever the hell I want in 80 minutes. It was kindly suggested that I teach them about different cultures, games, songs, and plays, so I stick to the first three. I teach about Canada, Nicaragua, and various other countries; we play games like Cranium, Apples to Apples, Crazy 8's, etc., and I teach them Beatles songs. It's a pretty awesome way to end the work week.
Here are some highlights from the first two weeks:
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| There was a short story in the textbook which a mother and son are sitting at the table and the son is talking about how their cat's day must be so boring because all he does is eat, sleep, and go for walks all day, and at the end the mom says, "Sounds great to me." You can almost hear the "wah wah waaahhh" sound effect. To explain what the mother meant by her comment, I went through the day with the kids to show them just how hard their moms work on a typical day. The idea backfired, though, as they went on to remind me just how hard they work throughout the day with their classes, academies, music lessons, taekwondo, etc., while their moms supposedly, as you can see by the schedule they had me write up, do nothing but chat, surf the net, take naps, and eat. |
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| An unprompted response during Apples to Apples. |
It's a completely different experience from teaching regular classes. It reminds me of when I used to teach at an after school program back home in Scarborough. Everyday, they ask for a movie, and everyday, I have to turn them down and stick to the lesson. They're tired and just want a break.
Thankfully, they sit through the lesson, and by the time we get around to the games, they're screaming and laughing so loudly that I'm certain the walls are going to come crumbling down any day now. And I think that's the biggest difference between regular classes and the after school classes: They let loose. I feel so good watching the chaos unfold before me--whether it's a couple of boys rocking the fuck out to "Birthday" by the Beatles, kids laughing so hard during Apples to Apples that they literally fall off their seats, or a thousand voices screaming the answer simultaneously during a game of Vocabulary Baseball--knowing that I created it.
My absolute favourite part of the day, though: Walking home after work. The school that runs the after school program is a couple blocks away from my school, so I have to walk through the residential area, which is basically a cluster of huge towering apartment buildings, in order to get to where I'm going. By the time I'm done work, all of the kids are out in full force. They're either on their way to a music class or academy, or playing soccer, or riding their bikes (killing time until they have to go to their next academy).
Much like kids back home, they're fascinated when they see their teacher outside of the classroom, perhaps because they just assume that their teachers live in their classrooms. They love to stop and talk--even if it's just to say hello, because they happen to be in the third grade and don't know how to say much else. (Those kids usually laugh and run off at that point.)
One particularly hot day, I took off my dress shirt and walked home in a band t-shirt while rocking my big headphones. One student insisted on taking a picture of this guy who claimed to be Mr. Mendoza.
Sometimes, when I cut across the field at Samsan, I'll see a small group of boys playing soccer, and I'll jump in net for a while until they have to run off to their academies.
It's just nice to see the kids speaking English outside of the classroom. It's actually inspired an idea for a video, which I hope to be able to upload in a month's time or so.
It's also made me realize just how much I'm going to miss them when I leave in two months. For a long time, I was frustrated by the fact that it's very difficult to get to know much about your students and build much of a rapport with them on an individual basis. What I've realized, though, is that we've learned so much about each other and become close simply by making each other laugh everyday, and they're damn good at making me laugh.
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