The Ramblings of Loren Christopher

Disclaimer:  I do not enjoy reading Korea expat blogs that are mostly about “teaching life”, which class bothered you most this week, what your co-workers or daily activities are like.  This, to me, is boring to read.  So in no way do I intend for this blog to come across as one of those ‘today-this-happened-at-work’ blogs.  That being said, let me take this one entry to tell you a little about my work since I took some cute pictures of my kids recently.

I’ll be honest, up until about a year ago I was frightened by kids.  I didn’t know how to act around them, I was afraid they wouldn’t think I was funny.  Looking back now, I know I had nothing to be scared of….kids are great!  There is a kind of instant joy you get working with kids that I just don’t think you can find anywhere else, and there have been so many moments with my kids over the past year that have left me truly touched.

It’s funny, I can be in a bad mood or stressed out, and the kids will cheer me up with something silly or ridiculous that they say.  And sometimes they say the most RANDOM things.  Likewise there are a few terrors here and there that I have to keep under tight control, but I’ve gotten much better at that.  They know when they hear my sudden soft, demeaning tone of voice, to be quiet so they can hear exactly what I’m going to say to reprimand one of them.

I’ve made a couple kids cry over this past year.  I’m not entirely proud of that, but in a way I am, because those two kids have since become really close to me and are now among my favorites.  There’s no point in holding grudges….you have to show the kids you care about them and truly want them to do better.  It’s amazing how far the slightest bit of interest you show them can go.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m patting myself on the back here….there is still soooo much to learn.  That’s one reason I like teaching, it’s a constant growing and learning process.  And I am so so so thankful that I have an amazing hagwon (private school) to work for though.  They don’t take advantage of me or over-work me at all.  It’s rare to find such a sweet deal in Korea and I’m not sure, had I gotten a job at one of the many crappy hagwons, if I would be as stoked about teaching.

So, when I reflect on this past year of teaching, and I see kids who I know I’ve made an impact on and they will remember me for the rest of their lives, I feel so lucky to be doing what I’m doing.  Like I said, there are certainly tough times with some classes, and there will always be more ahead.  Figuring out how to make the best of the situation is a challenge that every teacher should be strive to achieve.  The pay-offs are worth it.

It’s a beautiful thing when you have a class full of dynamic kids that all get your sense of humor and have a similar one…yet at the same time they respect each other, and most importantly you the teacher.  When it is study time, they pay attention and carry on open discussions about the topic, but when it comes time to play games you’re sure that everyone will have a hilarious time (yourself included).

One such class of sixth graders just finished their semester at JLS and will be moving on to a higher grade which I don’t teach (not because I’m incapable, haha….I’m locked into a specific age/grade group).  I will miss these kids a lot.  We had a few tough times together there at the start, but in each instance I gave them a writing test where I asked questions like “What is a perfect teacher like?”, or “How could English class be more exciting for you?”.

The responses were not really what I expected, they were well-rationalized and sensible.  This class really helped me become a better teacher and enjoy my job a lot more.  They are a bit camera-shy in this video because I didn’t give them much time to prepare before we began recording, and they were nervous about making mistakes in their English.  They can speak well though, and I’ll miss ‘em!

One of the things about living and teaching abroad is that you get so many people who contact you asking questions about your life and work, because they are considering doing the same thing.  Since I moved here, I’ve had so many questions….and a few people asked me if I would make a video talking about some of the good and bad points of living and teaching English here in Korea.

I waited a while to make the video because I wanted to have a bit of experience under my belt first.  I hope you find it interesting, and more importantly, I hope it doesn’t come across that I’m bragging.  Life here really is easy and enjoyable, and I wanted to stress here that you can have an amazing time if you really are critical of which school you choose.

Well, the first lessons with my students were always fun. I had them ask me questions, mostly they inquired about where I was from, how tall I am, my age, and whether or not I’m married. Although I did get some oddball questions like “Teacha’, why are you handsome?”, or even “Teacha’, how did you become so tall?” How am I supposed to answer that one? Haha. But when I told them my height in centimeters (190) they instantly became quiet and every single jaw dropped.

They cannot seem to comprehend the fact that I don’t understand Korean…it’s really quite puzzling to them. But fortunately they’re really good about only speaking English in class, so I don’t have to get onto them about that. Let’s see….the average class size is about 15-20, and their ages range from about 7-12. For the most part they are very well behaved, a few of my classes really surprise me actually by how well-disciplined they are. But of course, I do have a couple unruly kids in a few classes….although I’ve come up with a system of discipline and rewards that seems to be working well so far.

So yeah, I really do like my job. It allows me to be my goofy self and crack jokes….I had a few of my classes yesterday in stitches because I was teaching much vs. many when using uncountable nouns. Like they said, “the desert has many sand”. So I asked, “Really? So can you count the sand?” I walked around the room pretending to pick up little bits of sand as I counted, and acted out being frustrated by the task of tallying up all the sand in the desert….they thought it was the funniest thing in the world, haha!

Well, here’s a quick video of one of my classes I had today….kinda short cause I feel weird about recording them, although they seem to think it’s normal so I’ll post more later. Hope you’re all doing well!