Another note, this one at the end of the day

The classes we had today were great but tiring. There's a lot of information to digest and I know that I can't wait until orientation is over so that we can just get started doing what we do. A lot of this information is aimed at the extreme newbies who've never taught before but some of it is very useful, especially the stuff about Korean culture and working relationships.

One thing that is very different here is that when there is a problem, you don't go straight to the top boss. Instead, you go to the person just above you and then if they can't help you then they (not you) will go to the person just above them and then so forth. According to our instructors, our Korean co-teachers see us as cultural infants and tend to have a parental attitude toward us, as in "I must protect them and help them since they don't know how we do things here." If we bypass our Korean co-teachers in the hierarchy when we have a problem then the top boss will think that our co-teachers aren't being good parents and they'll feel very embarrassed, perhaps even betrayed. So, of course that's no good, but it is useful to know.

We had 4 lectures today:

1. Life as an EPIK Teacher
2. How to Co-Teach (we'll be team-teaching with a Korean teacher)
3. Songs & Chants (useful only for those brave people who chose to teach elementary school - myself not being one of them)
4. How to Teach Reading & Writing (actually a lot more fun than it sounds)

Notable things I came away with today:

• "As a foreigner it is sometimes best to let things go unexplained. To continue to seek a rational explanation will only result in frustration." (author unknown)
• "We're here to teach English, not change a culture." (one of our lecturers, Scott McLaughlin, on the topic of corporal punishment in the classrooms by our Korean co-teachers)

So now it's the end of the day but I decided not to go to our optional Korean classes tonight so that I could relax and unwind. One thing they teach you here is not to push yourself too hard and take a time out if you need one. It's a good thing to remember as well.