After returning from Bali I prepared for my final few classes in Korea. Most Korean schools are on vacation in late July and into August. However, that doesn't mean there aren't classes - students sign up for extra classes and camps. I taught a series of classes to a bunch of very unenthusiastic 1st year high school students (and who could blame them, I wouldn't want to take classes during my break either).

The following week I taught a class to a group of 8 middle school students. We spent the entire day studying food and below are a few photos from our class together -

This year on Wednesday May 15th teachers throughout Korea were honored with "teachers' appreciation day". In the case of Hamchang that meant a ceremony the day before where the students lined up on the soccer field and the teachers were presented with corsages (the boys were brave enough to pin them on the male teachers but I don't think a single one even attempted to pin one on any of the female teachers). Afterwards each teacher received a pair of hiking socks from the student body. Hiking socks might seem an odd gift but Korean gifts are typically though not always practical. The teachers also received a box of 24 mini cheese cakes from the owner of the school - a thoughtful gesture but not really practical, I ended up giving some of mine away to the students with whom I rode the bus later that day.

On the day of the holiday school was cancelled and the teachers all went to Sangju for the annual teachers' volleyball game. This was an entire day event of eating, drinking and playing volleyball. Each school had a selected volleyball team that played the tournament style game. From what I gather tournament volleyball is a bit different from sport volleyball and it took me a game or so to catch on to the rules (I was a bit confused for awhile why kicking the ball was an acceptable way to volley the ball back over the net.) I was fortunate that my friend Grant also works at a Hamchang school and attended the tournament so in between his games we could sit and chat, otherwise it would've been a very lonely day in the sun while my co-teachers gorged on meat and drank alcohol. From what I gathered Hamchang's volleyball team did well - they were in the semi-finals when I left the tournament at 5pm though I suspect they must have lost since nothing was said of it the following day.

Early on in the month of May my school held its annual sports festival. These festivals are common place in Korean schools - often times they involve a series of athletic competitions (some serious, others rather silly). At my school the main event was the soccer tournament. The students also participated in a water balloon throwing contest, wrestling and a relay race. As with anything else in Korea the festival began with speeches from the principal, the P.E. teachers and for some reason me. Every once in awhile it strikes the fancy of the administration to have me give a random speech. I guess I should be thankful they asked me 10 minutes before I headed home the night before rather than the morning of the festival. However, they did tell me I could arrive at my usual time in the morning and I only happened to get to school early so I could work on a few lesson plans - a plan which was thwarted because the festival started 30 minutes earlier than I was told. Organization does not seem to be a virtue in Korean culture.

The biggest draw during the festival was the soccer match between the middle school soccer team and the high school soccer club (pictured above). I've mentioned in a previous post that the middle school is a training school for a local semi-professional soccer team. The boys, from the ages of 13-15 attend school from 9am-1pm and then train for the remainder of the day. I suspect their coach had high expectations for them so I think it took everyone by surprise when the high school club team easily beat them. Supposedly the loss was due to a few mishaps - the middle school players forgot their cleats (they practice in a different location) and their usual positions were switched up. Possibly it was done on purpose so the high school players, their seniors, wouldn't lose face. Either way it was an interesting match to watch and an enjoyable day outside.

After my previous long-winded tale of disappointment and frustration about an issue with my school I thought the follow-up entry should be something positive like the Amazing Taste! ~ the cooking class I led with my night class students at the end of April. Overall the class was a major success though there were a few hiccups.

For some background information on my after school class read more about it here in the entry "Mindy's Global Class." After weeks of learning about other countries I decided to let the boys learn how to make a few different recipes from around the world. A couple of students asked to learn how to make curry but I decided it was too time intensive for a class such as this (I hope to lead a cooking class on curry before I leave though). I found a few recipes from countries which we had studied or would study. I decided on Vietnamese spring rolls, peanut butter blossom cookies, guacamole and chips, soda bread and tortilla Española. One student specifically requested to make soda bread so I added that to the list - it seems he really enjoyed eating it during our lesson on St. Patrick's Day. I chose the tortilla for the lesson because it went over so well in my night class the previous semester and we had also studied Spain during our class on Europe.

Faced with the prospect of having 14 students working with knives, hot oil and other potentially dangerous times I  asked my friend Grant to assist me with the class (I actually paid him my hourly fee). I felt more comfortable knowing that there would be another adult there to help supervise and having him in class gave the boys the opportunity to speak English with someone other than myself. I suspect they really enjoyed chatting with him since many had never met a male (or even non-white) foreigner before.

The day before the class I prepared all the materials at my home - cutting up and/or measuring out all the ingredients and putting them into marked plastic containers. I also gathered all the cooking utensils and other items necessary for the class. At school the next day I created a little packet for each boy with the recipes we would be using and a little back ground information about the dish.

At the start of class I stressed the importance of good hygiene - I've noticed that levels of hygiene aren't quite up to what the U.S. holds as a high standard. This is especially true regarding washing ones hands after using the bathroom or sneezing/coughing into one's arm (or even hands!). After marching the boys into the teachers room and making them wash their hands we started our lesson.

The students divided into smaller groups and went to their designated areas. Each group came up to me and got their ingredients and then began the process. Grant and I (and eventually my co-worker Ms. Yu) intermingled with the boys, helping groups as they needed it. Sadly, we immediately realized my first mistake - I forgot the rice papers for the group making Vietnamese spring rolls. Instead they had to make lettuce wraps which aren't quite as tasty.

While I walked around helping the different groups we quickly discovered my second big mistake. When I halved the cookie recipe for one of the groups I neglected to cut in half the amount of banana used (I don't eat eggs and banana is a good substitute for eggs). The dough was much too wet and I had only brought a limited amount of flour. Jae Myeong, the student pictured above on the right kept yelling "it's your fault!" at me as he tried to form into balls  the much too soft dough.

Though there were a couple of issues overall the cooking lesson went quite well. It easily ran over the 2 hour class and so the boys got to miss the supervised self-study class they had following it (something which I think they didn't mind at all). After all the food was prepared we cleaned up and then everyone sat down to eat. I asked them in a following class what they thought of the food and surprisingly most said their favorite item was the soda bread. The least favorite dish was the guacamole - I suspect because of its completely foreign flavors and texture. 

I'm going to provide a spoiler for this story by saying that it has a happy ending - well, in a way. I wanted to preface the story with a reference that it has a somewhat positive ending because as you might guess by the title this isn't a happy post. This entry highlights one of the reasons why I lost a lot of respect for the school administration for which I work and just added the fuel to the fire of why I am eagerly counting down the days until I leave Korea.

This story is about my after school classes which I've talked a lot about my on this blog. They will be some of the best memories from my time in Korea and I've really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of my students better. Of course, I do not do these classes for free - they're extremely time intensive and I try to incorporate a few hands on activities which require purchasing some materials. The story itself is a bit long because it involves explaining some of the intricacies of working in a Korean school.

Last fall I was approached by my handler (a fellow English teacher who is paid a set amount monthly by the board of ed for "helping" me). He asked me if I was interested in teaching 40 hours of after school classes and I jumped at the chance. I was told that I would be paid 30,000 won an hour per class. This is more than the 25,000 won minimum specified in my contract and I stated as such - telling him that it was too much. He brushed off my protests and told me that was what Korean teachers are paid. This was confirmed by my predecessor - he also had been paid the same amount as the Korean teachers and therefore I took my co-teacher at his word and believed that I would be paid 30,000 won per hour. Since I knew I would be purchasing a lot of materials out of pocket I asked my co-teacher if the school had a budget for the after school class. A few hours later he came to me and told me that after discussing it with the vice-principal the school would pay for 100,000 won worth of materials as long as I supplied receipts. I agreed and immediately started planning my lessons taking into account the 100,000 as well as the extra money I would be receiving hourly (nearly 200,000 won).

I think the lessons I planned went over well - the boys got to carve jack o' lanterns (a first for them) and had the opportunity to try food from all over the world including a proper Indian meal for the Indian holiday of Diwali. The students created posters for speeches and we even had a cooking lesson during one of our classes. Our final lesson was a Christmas party complete with food (some of which was prepared by the boys at the party), sweets and an ice cream cake. Since I have 16 students in my class and I had to find and buy a lot of common and unusual ingredients (orange pumpkins, international food, markers, etc)  it probably won't surprise any one that I easily spent 300,000 on everything and I was happy to do so because the students really enjoyed the classes.

Unfortunately by the end of the semester I hadn't been able to fulfill the full 40 hours of classes - I only taught 32. Part of this was because I didn't start teaching at the school until a month into the semester due to my previous contract and also because of miscommunications. I didn't realize that I could add additional days to our class schedule or extend class periods in order to meet the 40 hours. Korean co-workers aren't known for being forthcoming about all the details necessary for the native English teacher to competently do one's job - and I neglected to ask the correct questions. 

In mid- December I turned in my receipts to be reimbursed for the materials I purchased  and a few weeks later I turned in my attendance sheet. My co-workers asked me to fabricate some of the dates to fill out the hours so it would show a full 40 hours because it would be "too difficult" and "too much paperwork" to pay me for fewer hours. I flat out refused - the school receives money from the public and I didn't want to be part of taking money which should help educate students.

At this point I went on my month long trip and didn't return to school until February. When I returned I was asked again adjust my attendance sheet - I was assured I would not be paid extra but it was necessary for paperwork. I finally agreed and found myself having to change it multiple times to suit the needs of whomever is in charge of paying out the teachers (by the end of the saga though I have never met the man I strongly dislike him - it sounds like he fudges a lot of paperwork because "it's too difficult" to do do it correctly). I began to check my bank account to see when I was paid and finally noted that I had been paid for my teaching hours but not reimbursed for the materials. I approached my handler about this issue and he made a few calls and claimed that the amount I had been paid actually included the reimbursed money. From here there was a lot of discussion and a lot of frustration. I'll save you the blow by blow but the end decision was that I had been paid too much - I would only receive 25,000 won an hour (per my contract) and so the amount I had been paid included my hourly wage and the reimbursed money as well as a bit extra. My school would kindly ignore the extra and not require me to pay them back. It was explained to me that it was "not possible" to pay the possible 30,000 won because my contract only allowed for the 25,000 hourly pay. This simply isn't true, as I explained before my predecessor was paid the same hourly wage as the Korean teachers for 2 years though his contract also stated a smaller amount.  I was somewhat incredulous at this stance since I had been very honest and upfront about my hourly wage and told him that the school should stand by its word and I wouldn't believe anything they said in the future.

I guess the discussion regarding my payment was on-going - I'm sure everyone in the school knew about this somewhat private concern because there is a lack of privacy in Korean schools and my co-workers enjoy gossiping. They speak openly about me in the office in Korean while I sit at my desk (it's one of the reasons I am thankful I don't speak much Korean, I suspect I'd truly dislike some of my co-workers if I knew what they were saying). In the end they told me they stood by their original assessment - I had been over-paid. The entire experience really soured me on the school - I went out of my way to create a integrative educational experience with a lot of original material while the Korean teachers just read from a book during their classes and not only did I feel it was not acknowledged by the school I felt disrespected.

I didn't let this sway me from teaching after school classes again for the second semester - I just reminded myself I was doing it for the students and planned out plenty of hands on activities for them dipping in my own pocket for the supplies. So far we've dyed Easter eggs, enjoyed food from around the world, had a night dedicated to cooking and we're currently making pinatas. My reward was when after sports day every single one of my students came to my night class and they told me how their friends said they pitied them for having to attend the class but they didn't mind because they loved my class. It really warmed my heart to hear that and reminded me why I shouldn't regret staying a second year. But this isn't the "happy ending".

For a few weeks the issue was completely disregarded until one day at lunch one of my co-workers handed me an envelope. She explained that the English teachers felt bad that the school refused to pay me the proper amount and it was known that I had spent a lot of extra time and money on the students. The teachers conferred and decided get together and give me the 100,000 won difference, each one giving a set amount. I was extremely touched by this action and so I baked cookies and distributed them to the 5 English teachers to thank them for trying to right the wrong that the school had done.

I'm still disappointed with my school and the fact that the administration didn't keep it's word. However, I continue to remind myself that I what is important is that I have a good relationship with my students - I enjoy teaching them and they enjoy my classes. I leave in just 3 months and then I can put this issue and many others that I've encountered here in Korea behind me. While I'll be sad to leave my students in August I am very much looking forward to leaving Korea. It is definitely time for me to go home.

Last month we had a day off of classes for the annual science day. I'm not really clear about the purpose of science day. I assumed it would be a day where students would show off science projects or partake in fun experiments. Perhaps that was going on while I was busy elsewhere ... Though the day was officially called science day some students were required to sign up for an English activity - a listening test or interview. I was asked to create the interview questions based on the topic of family and then interview approximately 20 students. As usual I was kept in the dark about most of what was going on and my students were the ones to shed some light - they explained that it was a competition of sorts and the students who received the top scores would receive a small gift certificate to the school store. It was enjoyable to sit down and have an albeit brief opportunity to chat with a few students one on one and learn more about their lives. A few students were stand outs among their peers in regards to their spoken English levels and I was happy to hear they were awarded the prize.

The second portion of Science Day was a school wide airplane competition. Earlier in the day students made paper airplanes and after lunch they flew them in the gym. Out of the airplanes that landed in a specific area the teachers went out and each picked one. The students whose airplanes were picked received a gift certificate.

With the conclusion of science day school was dismissed early and I was able to

With the start of the new school year I began a new series of night classes for 15 high level 1st year high school students and 1 middle school student (his mother is my co-worker so she requested if he could join). We have classes twice a week for two hour intervals. During our first class I asked the boys to write a few different topics which they would like to study and most of them wrote other cultures.  Luckily for all of us studying other cultures is a passion of mine (I do have a degree in cultural anthropology after all) and so I sat down to plan out the next 12 classes about world cultures.

The first few classes were basic get to know you classes - we did introductions, talked about music and since one class coincided with St. Paddy's day we studied a bit about Ireland and the holiday. After those first few classes I felt like I knew them a bit so I could plan other class activities appropriately. I spent free time during the next week and almost an entire weekend planning out a 50 page workbook including a variety of activities on other countries and cultures. We focused on 3 countries per continent so the boys would understand how diverse the world is - even on the same landmass. I also made sure that one country featured from each continent was English speaking in order to show the students that English is truly a global language. For each country we had a corresponding activity - the first country we studied had a comprehension portion, for the second country the boys got to try a traditional food and for the third country of the night there was a hands on activity.

Though there were plenty of bumps along the way overall I think "Mindy's Global Class" (so named by my students) turned out quite well and the boys enjoyed it. Below is an overview of our classes.

After spending a class discussing travel, travel desires and what one needs to travel we started our series of classes on the different continents. Our first class was on Europe since the date corresponded with Easter. I wanted the boys to have the opportunity to dye Easter eggs but wasn't sure how to fit that into a lesson on Europe. After some research I discovered that the American tradition of dying Easter eggs was started by German immigrants who brought the practice over with them in the 1800's. With this information I decided we would study Germany as one of the countries for that class.  We also learned about how Easter is celebrated in Malta and enjoyed pimientos asados, a popular Spanish tapa. I took the above photo at the end of class - it seems to be Korean tradition for people not to smile in photographs which is why so many look sullen.

Our next class was on Oceania where the students learned about Sing Sing (dance festivals) in Papua New Guinea, got to try some fresh tropical fruit and ended the class with designing their own ta moko (Maori tattoos). While the mango went over incredibly well the boys didn't care for the fresh coconut at all - they described it as tasting like plastic (and I agree, it wasn't a particularly good coconut).

Asia was our third destination and so I coordinated a skype chat with the former Native English teacher of Hamchang who moved to Japan last August (pictured below). After the students grilled him on Japanese girls and food and being completely shocked that the average Japanese person does not care about Dokdo/Takeshima ( an island to which both countries lay claim) we transitioned into learning about India. The students had their first taste of Indian food (chana masala and rothi) before class was dismissed. Sadly we didn't have enough time to talk about Vietnam, our final Asian destination.

Stop number four on our world tour was South America. We learned about the bio-diversity of Guyana, food in Brazil (accompanied by an avocado milkshake) and the history of Peru with a treasure hunt/quiz. This was the first class when I actually witnessed my rambunctious students being deadly quiet - it seems that concentration type activities like crossword puzzles and maps keep the students entertained.

We moved onto Africa in our next class. My friend Kwame recorded a video about his country Ghana last semester for my class so I played it for the students. It seemed to be a hit - one boy sang along to his song and a few practiced how to say "hello" and "goodbye" in Kwame's native tongue. Afterwards we enjoyed some chakalaka, a popular dish from South Africa and we ended class with the boys writing their names out in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Our last class before a 2 week moratorium on after school class due to mid term tests was a cooking class which I'll write about on a different day.

With a new school year comes a hundred or so new students. Hamchang is a village of sorts with a dwindling population. For the most part students attend a local middle school and test into a high school. Approximately 2/3 of the middle school students are local boys that live in  Hamchang or the surrounding area and travel to/from school every day.

However, a few years ago the middle school enrollment was shrinking due to the declining population of Hamchang. The school officials decided to coordinate with the local semi-professional soccer team and begin recruiting young soccer players. They hired a couple of coaches and now one of the two classes in each grade is composed of soccer players. These boys come as far away as Busan and Masan (in the southern part of the peninsula) and spend part of the day studying and the rest of the day training. These young boys (some as young as 13 years old) live in dormitories and only return home to see their families once a month for 3 days.

Since the middle school graduates only 30-40 students a year and the average high school grade has 120 students boys come from throughout the Sangju and Mungyeong area. Many but not all of the boys live on campus in basic dormitories and are only permitted to go home once every 2 weeks for 2 days. Their day typically starts well before the 9am official start of school. All of the high school students take a class beginning at 8am and after the final bell at 4:50 many continue to take extra classes. For those that live in the dormitory they have scheduled night classes and self-study until 11 at night. It's completely disheartening to know that for many of the boys their lives consist of school, studying, eating and sleeping with limited time for anything else.

One of the highlights of my job is that I teach after school classes twice a week. I posted a few photos and even a video of my high school night class last semester. It was a great experience because it gave me the opportunity to get to know some of my students better. Sadly those boys are now 2nd years which means they have to study even harder as they progress closer to their intense final year of SAT preparation (a test which can make or break a student's future). However, with the onset of a new school year I met over 100 new students 20 of whom elected to take my after school classes. Twice a week I teach 40 minute classes with 4-8 middle schoolers during their optional 8th period (pictured above after we dyed Easter eggs). An hour later I lead 2 hour classes with 15 high school boys - our classes typically focus on cultures around the world so they've affectionately dubbed it "Mindy's Global English Class." We've done a lot in those classes together so I'll post more about it as well as photos from the activities in my next entry.

If you've been checking in on my blog periodically you might be under the impression that I have been traveling continuously or just recently ended my trip. In actuality I returned to Korea in February and haven't had the time to keep my blog updated. Quite a bit has happened during the past three months including the end of a school year which was marked by graduation.

The school year in Korea runs from March to February with 2 month long breaks in between (August and January). As in the U.S. the school year here concludes with a graduation ceremony for seniors. For me the graduation ceremony at Hamchang Boys Middle and High School was a somewhat surprising event. Korea puts a large emphasis on education both in terms of money spent and time devoted by students therefore I thought that graduating from high school would be viewed as a significant achievement with a grandiose celebration - or at the very least acknowledgement of each individual student.

The ceremony was held on a chilly Thursday morning in February. When I asked my co-worker why it was held on a workday instead of the weekend when more parents could attend she said it was because Korean families like to spend the weekends together. I find that reasoning a bit difficult to comprehend since many Hamchang students take extra classes or study at school or tutoring programs until 9-11pm at night. They return home only to sleep and then are back at school early the next morning. Those that live at school are only permitted to go home once every two weeks because parents demand that the school has Saturday classes. Therefore it's a bit hard to believe that the ceremony isn't held on the weekend because it impedes on potential family time.

On the day of graduation HBMHS's rather small gym filled up with students, teachers and a couple dozen family members and friends of the graduates. Due to the timing it was not surprising to see that most of the attendees were students' mothers (most are housewives), many of whom had small bouquets of flowers to give their sons after the conclusion of the ceremony.

The actual ceremony itself seemed more akin to an advertisement for the school - the promotional video for Hamchang Boys Middle and High School was played multiple times before a variety of school officials and teachers gave speeches. The only real recognition of the students' achievement was when each class was called forth to receive their diplomas. Instead of individual students being brought forth by name the students simply shuffled through the line in single file to receive their certificate.

In a matter of an hour or so the entire event was over and the boys left their life of a high school student behind. Many of the students will continue on to college, one even was accepted to Seoul National University, Korea's most prestigious university while other students will get jobs. Within a few years all of the boys will begin their mandatory military service and after that most will be a part of Korea's work culture.

In retrospect while I realize it's not the nature of Korean culture which emphasizes the group over the individual I wish for one day the spotlight could have been completely shone on the boys and their achievement the highlight of the day's event. I hope that after the ceremony the boys were able to  celebrate their graduation with their friends and family.

I've been teaching a night class for a few months now and with the end of the semester I decided to host a Christmas party for the boys. The boys spend most of their waking hours either in school, in extra classes at school or a private academy or studying so I wanted to host a party during which they could have a lot of fun. Since the boys enjoyed our cooking lesson I found a few easy recipes which they could make -  the only problem is that cooking at school is a bit problematic since I have to bring all the ingredients, cooking utensils and other items to and from school. Therefore, I decided to host the party at my apartment and asked four other foreign English teachers to assist me.

On the 26th my students and I left school in the evening and took the bus to Jeomchon where we walked to my apartment. All but two students were able to come so a total of 12 boys were there in addition to 4 teachers and myself.

After arriving at the apartment we had a brief meeting before the students divided into smaller groups to cook. Half of the students headed into the kitchen to cook while the other half got to relax and watch Tv (in English, of course).

Three boys made pico de gallo salsa. They worked off a basic recipe which I gave them and prepared the dish with  a little guidance from Aunup.

While half the students were in the kitchen cooking the other half hung out in my main room watching TV and chatting with a couple of the other English teachers, in the picture above they were chatting about the Lord of the Rings with Priya and Aunup while Grant and Rebecca were helping in the kitchen. I think the boys really enjoyed the opportunity to speak in English with other foreigners.

The boys in the picture on the left made guacamole while the boys on the right made no bake chocolate cookies. Another group of 3 boys made mini English muffin pizzas. After the food was completed the boys got to enjoy the finished salsa, guacamole, pizza, mini cookies in addition to tortilla chips, cookies, chocolate bark and pop. While they ate they watched the movie Scream which they had requested after watching a brief clip of it during a Halloween lesson. Below is a picture of me with my students at the end of the party.