Wednesday, July 8, 2009

It's the least of anyone's worries but my own, but through nobody's fault I feel like my vacation is rapidly vaporizing. I wish something definite could happen, so at the worst I could just make other plans. Oh well, the random mooch should stop complaining.

Perhaps I should take the opportunity to describe what on earth my job entails. Perhaps it's a good thing that I took two months before making the post, I've needed the time to figure out what on earth I'm supposed to even do. My one issue is the lack of real training, but I knew that going in, and besides, if I really wanted to be on top of things for this job, I would have majored in education.
Although, considering I absolutely don't wish I had majored in education instead of music, this is a really fun job.

The school, which is technically a cram school, or hagwon (sorry, I can't type in hangul on the classroom computer for some reason) actually operates during daytime hours since its bread and butter is kindergarten. I *think* how Korea operates is that there are private kindergartens kids can attend from age 5-7 (Korean age, which starts you at age 1 at birth, and then you gain another year at the Lunar New Year. I think. This is all conjecture. I refuse to go by my Korean age though, because I already feel old here)
After that, kids go into elementary school, and then middle and high school like normal. Then they continue to go to cram school in the afternoons/evenings, because parents here are REALLY into education.

At first I thought all the cram schools were basically restricted to the upperclass since it costs a fortune, but I think many families have both parents working just to give their kids an edge too. Sometimes several jobs, too. It makes me feel like a slacker in comparison, but then I remember that I worked my ass off in public school too.
Haha, oh man, what happened.

SO! All the foreign teachers live in the same apartment building, which is a leisurely 15 minute walk away from the school. It's a glorious commute, through a park too, but it'll probably suck in the winter. Not nearly as much as the 2 hour subway commute for my last job, haha!
We don't really need to be in the classroom until 9 am, but I like to roll in around 8:45 to get a little downtime before the swarm descends. My morning kindergarten class is five days a week from 9:30-2:30, and then Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have 2 afternoon classes, each an hour and a half, and I get done at 6. Tuesday, it's one afternoon class until 4:40, and Thursday I'm freeeeeeeeeeeee after 2:30.

It's apparently a brutal schedule, and the first couple of weeks were tough, but I think I've figured out how to manage my energy, and that's by being super strict and not letting the kids act out.
But these kids. These kids. Specifically my morning class, because they are basically billingual after only a year and a half of english. Oh man, these guys are some seriously precious cupcakes. I adore these kids so. much. I wish I could post pictures/videos of the munchkins, but I'm not letting images of my precious cupcakes loose on the wild internet sea.

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