Some of the kids at work on a quiz during the recent English Winter Camp. No doubt the boys at the front were sharing answers. The one on the extreme right was one of my success stories as far as I'm concerned. Lee Dong Ha is his name. A true pain in the arse for most of the year - his hijinx causing me to interject with the memorable refrain "you are a pointless little boy, Dong Ha" at one point - during camp he actually seemed to try for a change and I heard him say at least 3 English sentences. Never has "my favourite colour is red" been such an interesting thing to say. Nevertheless, on the second to last day of camp, I returned from the staffroom only to find him standing on the ledge and walking all over my colleague's materials. But that's what these kids are: a constant work in progress. There is one step forward, one back, two forward, one back. I learned further lessons about patience, leadership and forgiveness during my year as a teacher. Though, it should be said, when I turned to see Kim No Ah (the one in the black hoodie) climbing over the archways at the back of the room, I gave them a serving which even I didn't understand. Further back, the girl whose face is obscured by her book - Hayley (I named her after my niece) - was the quiz champion. She spelled 120 words correctly over the course of the 2 week camp - not a single error. I was highly impressed; unfortunately she can't speak a word. She gave me a card on the last day which was really sweet. The lad in orange and black - Edward - is a nice kid. During the year he was having a fight with one of the more popular kids and I had to step between them to prevent it escalating. So I got a thankyou card from him too.
I recently took 14 of the lower ability students for a 2 week "English Camp" through the simple material to try and give them a boost before they go into the 6th grade later this year. There is no actual camping, and the children only spend 1.5 hours at school of a morning, but needless to say when I was first told about this I had the image of roasting marshmallows and singing with them around a fire, somewhere in the wilderness. Fortunately I was wrong.
The first week of this camp was actually the best of my short teaching career. For one, there were less than half the usual number of students, and I was able to write the material instead of teaching from the usual "Konglish" textbook - complete with the memorable phrases "I'm hungry. I want some hamburgers," and "It rained. It was not fun." So I used basic subject matter like numbers, colours and food to explore sentences and focused on the question words "what, when, who, etc..." The idea was to give them plenty of practice at speaking. Many of them seem to remember and understand quite a bit but falter when they have to reproduce something, so there was repetition every day and then the chance to speak alone. It was a moderate success. They seem to prefer things which they can be "first" at rather than "good" at. Wordsearches for instance: give them one of those and it's 14 heads down until the first person shouts "finished!"
In that first week I had a genuine feeling of satisfaction with teaching, which I described in the last entry. The kids listened and all participated. I saw progress and witnessed previously mute kids make a few sentences after all. The second week was not so enjoyable for me; the kiddies appeared a little more restless than they were in the first week, and my lessons were not as fresh. Understandably, everyone is sick of English and school and wants to go home. Which is why when the principal gave them some extra vocabulary exercises to do during the break, I had a particularly hard time selling it to them.
I remember from my own childhood, that no matter how much I disliked school, there was always the afternoon, the weekend, and homework-free holiday periods in which to forget about it completely. Over here, school follows the kids around everywhere. Most of the students attend a "hagwon" or private academy for extra tuition several nights a week, many of which don't stop operations until 11 pm. My good friend and veteran of the Korean campaign Lianne once described how when she arrived 8 years ago one of her first questions was "what are all these kids doing out so late?" the answer was - they are returning from their hagwon. 8 year old kids finding their way home on the subway close to midnight - that and so many other things about education here are wrong. Another of Lianne's refrains is "ask your kids how many of them have climbed a tree," to which there is usually complete silence. There is no such thing as a "normal" childhood but I maintain I had a freer and healthier one than the one on offer in Korea.
All of this pressure is so pushy parents can one day boast that they have a son or daughter in one of the top 3 Korean universities. The day of the entrance exam for universities is a huge occasion. The exam itself is ridiculous. Literature based subjects like history are examined through multiple choice questions. My co-teacher Seonah says that 80% of the content of this exam is presented in multiple choice format; there are around 800 questions and the exam goes from 8am until 4pm. The education industry is based around getting students through this one day of intense pressure and almost every parent wants their child to "go up to Seoul" one day.
The students mostly participate in this system because they know that securing their place within a Korean university means they have just won what amounts to a 4 year holiday. Parents who desire an education for their child save money and send them overseas. Seonah was actually kicking around Sydney during 2007-2008, earning her degree from UTS and trying to learn English from us. Ha!
Here they are. A nice bunch overall! On the last 2 days I let them watch the 1990 classic "Home Alone." I totally forgot John Candy was in that film! The quintessential jolly fat man cheered me up "enormously." Dong Ha, in the green hooded parka, kept zipping up his hood on the count of 3 despite my directions not to.
The other day I purchased a new camera - a real beauty! Apart from reading up on all of its functions, I just have to exchange my currency, pack, and load my favourite music onto the ipod before Wednesday night. Because it's then I take the proverbial slow boat to China.
