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 -

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.

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.

School technically ended for the term on Friday and concluded with the school festival. I say "technically" because though the students are on break from now until classes officially restart in early February they are strongly pressured to attend extra classes all throughout the month of January.

The school festival was a school-wide event that permitted the boys to show off their art work, class projects and in the evening performance skills. I was asked to judge the Middle School pop song contest along with the Middle School vice principal and a guest judge. Each class of boys picked a song in English, created choreography and dressed in costumes and performed it in front of their peers. The winning classes got to perform at the evening festival which was open to parents and students from neighboring schools.

During the festival I was surprised how talented many of my students were - they could sing, dance, play instruments and two can even beat box. The video below is excerpts from the festival - one of the microphones malfunctioned during the evening so some of the singing sounds a bit off. All of the students who performed are in my classes - the final two performances - the beat boxing and the boys singing with the guitar are in my night classes as well.

My students in my night class are quite curious about the world outside of Korea so I decided to teach them about different countries and cultures. A few weeks ago we started a series of lessons where we study a different country during each class. Our first lesson was on India of which I talked about in a previous post and shared a photo from our Diwali dinner. We have since studied Brazil, Spain and the USA. In my opinion food is an interesting way to learn about a country so I've brought in something for the students to try in each class. As I mentioned before we had a dinner with different types of curry for India, for Brazil we enjoyed avocado milk shakes and for the USA we had a few different popular Thanksgiving side dishes including stuffing and mashed potatoes.

For Spain I decided to teach the students how to make a very popular Spanish dish - tortilla espanola (more commonly called a  frittata). We spent the first 50 minutes of class reviewing a bit about Brazil (our previous lesson) and learning about Spain. The final 50 minutes were devoted to making the tortilla, an exercise which the boys seemed to really enjoy. They all crowded around the portable burner I brought to class and carefully added the ingredients per my instructions. A few students were especially interested in cooking and stayed by the burner stirring the potatoes and onions while the other students returned to their seats to watch videos on bull fighting.

The final product was a golden omelet which the boys all declared was quite tasty. Our final two lessons are on Papua New Guinea and South Africa which we will study this week before the students begin preparing for their final exams.

As I mentioned in a previous post I teach 4 hours of after school class a week to 13 grade 1 students in high school. On the first day of class I asked students to write down things they would be interested in studying - and most of them said other cultures. After a few lessons on Halloween I decided to start a series of lessons I call "A Passport Around the World" - during each 2 hour long class we'd talk about a country on a different continent. We started off our first lesson on India which happened to coincide with Diwali, the festival of lights. Diwali is the biggest festival celebrated throughout India and I had already begun preparing feverishly for a private dinner I was hosting in honor of the holiday. Since my students have very limited exposure to other cultures I decided to bring in a tasting of Indian food for them. I wasn't surprised many of them didn't care for the curry since they rarely eat anything not Korean except for a few very Koreanized Western foods. And I was a bit disappointed that a couple of students seemed to have not even tried the food because they were put off by the strange appearance and smells.  However, I was really happy to hear that some of them enjoyed the food and saw that they had cleared their plates. What did surprise me was that at the end of class a few of the students came up and thanked me for the food and that they appreciated the new experience.

Last Friday the first and second grade high school students and teachers took a trip up to Seoul to the popular amusement park Lotte World. However, before we arrived at the park we made a short stop at one of Seoul's universities for a quick photo-op. I was quite confused by the ridiculously brief visit to the university and asked a co-teacher about it. Her answer was that the provincial education office of Gyeongsangbuk-do had provided money for the buses for the students to visit the university. Therefore the picture was needed as "proof" of the visit. I was extremely abhorred that the school was basically committing fraud - using the money intended for transportation for students to visit colleges and instead was spent on transportation to Lotte World.

The trip itself wasn't quite what I had expected. Perhaps I was a bit too idealistic but when I first heard about it I was hoping to spend some time getting to know my students outside of school but instead discovered that on such trips the teachers for the most part stayed together - eating lunch, drinking alcohol and walking around while the students were free to do as they liked in the amusement park. The amusement park itself was surprisingly small - it consisted of a stage, a couple of restaurants and stores and a few tame rides inside and maybe 4-5 rides outside. It certainly wasn't Six Flags or anything of the sort. However, the weather was beautiful and it was a really nice day to spend outside. After the trip we stopped for dinner on the way back at a buffet and finally returned back at Hamchang at 7:30 - a nearly 12 hour day which sometimes is the norm for me at the school.

This year November 8th was the probably the most important day of the year for a 3rd year high school student in Korea. It was the day when the students would take the incredibly important SATs of which their score would help determine exactly which college they would attending in March.

The test is taken quite seriously within the country - students who run late typically have police escorts to the test centers and some parents will spend the day praying outside those centers for their child to receive high marks on the test.

There's a lot I don't quite understand about the Korean education system but the more I learn about it the more I appreciate the American education system. Awhile back President Obama praised the Korean education system and on paper I agree the system looks great - Korean students regularly have outstanding test scores. However, if you work in the system it quickly becomes apparent that the system is seriously flawed and there's little I would consider suitable for the USA.