It’s Sunday and I’m unsure of the date! Uh, March 8th. I’m writing this on Rob’s laptop because we don’t have internet at home yet. I’m not even sure when I’ll be able to upload this, as every time I got to blogspot on my work laptop, everything apart from our writing is in Hanguel!
So, we’ve been in Busan just over a week now. I remember when I first started working in Karlsruhe…. Weeks seemed like months and months felt like more than a year had passed! In a new country and culture almost everything is new and we are but sponges, soaking up all of the new information, adapting as best we can. All of that new experience changes our perception of time drastically.
Rob’s already described a lot in so much detail, so to summarize what it’s been like for me: in our first week I’ve started a new job, met hundreds of people (of which only about 15 names will be remembered next week), improved drastically with reading Hanguel considering I haven’t been studying it, become capable of correctly pronouncing most of my students’ names, we’ve been communicating as best as we can with limited Korean, easy English and a lot of sign language, started forming our own physical understanding of this city’s layout, lived in two different locations, visited and got to know some people at two different churches…. So it somehow feels like we’ve been here much more than a week already, in a lot of ways.
Oh I can’t resist, because my first few days at school were really hard! So I here’s where I go into more detail. My first day of school was mostly very boring. My main co-teacher, Noh Hyun Jung, took me to school early and we sat in the teachers’ office basically all day.
My school’s teachers’ office sounds a bit like Rob’s: every teacher has their own desk area facing a cubicle wall. 4 teachers face the wall on either side. The vice principal has a stand-alone desk right in the very middle of this long room filled with teachers. The students open the sliding doors and come and talk to teachers freely between lessons. So I especially had a lot of visitors that first day, being the new foreign teacher (aka super star). Some were too shy to do anything but wave, smile and giggle. Quite a few bowed and said hello. One took my hand and bowed until her forehead was touching my hand. Many try to speak to me for more than just hello. A couple of them have a decent sized vocabulary, even if they don’t speak very fluently or grammatically correct. Occasionally they are just being silly. A giggling group visited to tell me they love me and that one of them was my predecessor’s girlfriend. Sometimes it’s awkward, because they are just hovering around me, the conversation has drawn to its natural close and I have to tell them “I need to get back to work now, so see you later. Good bye!”
So on that first day, without any computer and barely any Korean, I met my 3 other co-teachers, one of which is also new to Bansong Girls’ Middle School this year. Then I met and instantly forgot the names of some other friendly teachers. Many of the teachers are very friendly, but their English seems to be only slightly more advanced than my Korean and even my co-teachers have big problems understanding me sometimes. They are also very busy. They have more classes than I do, plus they have so much administrative work, it’s insane. I’m very aware of this, so I try not to be bothersome to them.
Korea seems to be the opposite of Germany when it comes to organisation. All anybody could tell me was that I probably wouldn’t have to teach that first day. I just read until about 9.30am, when the old principal and vice principal gave exit speeches and left. Then I just continued to read through my 3 new textbooks and the empty organisational files my predecessor had left me and made notes of things to ask my co-teachers. After an hour or so a new principal and vice principal arrived with an official from the Busan Office of Education and there were more speeches. Then we went back to doing our own things, which for me, was reading and making notes. At 11am we had an “opening ceremony” in the school gym, which was basically an assembly with only 2nd and 3rd graders. (1st graders started on Tuesday.) The new principal, vice-principal and 8 or so new teachers were introduced. When it was my turn to step forward and bow to the audience, the students screamed like I was a rock star, much to my surprise and embarrassment. Since then, two of my English classes have screamed in the same way when I enter their classrooms too. It’s very loud. I’m sure the excitement will wear off soon.
After the opening ceremony, it was back to reading for the rest of the day until 4.30pm, apart from a Korean lunch with the teachers in the teachers’ cafeteria.
On day two at school, I wanted to cry in the morning. I just felt left out because I can’t speak Korean. I can’t read the teachers’ notice board, or understand the announcements, or go to the staff meetings. I also felt like every one was too busy to help me out. There still wasn’t a schedule, so I had no idea if I’d be teaching that day or not. I had brought in our laptop, but couldn’t hook it up to a printer, so once my basic lesson planning was done, all I could do was try to get my co teachers to understand that I need to be able to have internet access and print before I can teach and that I can’t bring this laptop in each day, since I share it with Rob. Once they understood that, I got a school laptop that afternoon and since then I’ve been surfing the internet if all of my school planning’s finished. That has been a real outlet to my prior frustration, I have to say, although I feel a bit guilty that I’m there surfing for all to see when my colleagues have so much to do. But I’ve offered my help for anything and until we have some meetings about what my co teachers would like me to cover and when and what the lunch time and after school classes should cover, I really can’t plan that much more. I also wish my school laptop’s computer settings were in English, as then I’d be able to change the setup to how I like it, but apart from the software, it all defaults to Hanguel still.
My first classes on Wednesday – Friday with all three grades went really well. The students got to speak a lot, have agreed to my rules and had fun. From all of those classes, only a handful of students refused to speak English with me. With 700 students from a poor, often difficult background, a handful reusing to speak so far is much better than I what I was told at orientation to expect. My co teachers let me run the classes and assisted with monitoring the students’ work, making sure they understood and keeping the students in check. They were all surprised I could run a class. They didn’t understand I have prior teaching experience and they’re all quite happy with me, I think. On average, the 1st graders seem to be better in listening comprehension and speaking fluency than the 2nd and 3rd graders – especially the 2nd graders. I’m looking forward to next week. On Monday and Tuesday I get to meet those classes I haven’t yet met and I’ll be spending a lot more time lesson planning, having to use some material from their seemingly random textbooks. I’m going to have to have some meetings with my co teachers, although I still don’t have access to their schedules.
Apart from work differences and the language barrier, I hadn’t thought I was feeling culture shock much yet. But then we went to watch “The Watchmen” last night at the new local cinema… Here Hollywood movies remain in English, as there are plenty of Korean movies in Korean playing all of the time as well. At the end of that movie as the lights were slowly raised, I looked at the people walking out and it took me several seconds to realise they were all Korean, every one of them. Then I felt surprise at how much I had really escaped reality by watching that movie. I momentarily forgot what country I’m in!
Since I got a laptop and started teaching, I haven’t felt bad at all. The other teachers have begun to show real interest in getting to know me and I’ve found out some very interesting things about them. I’m super motivated to find a Korean course now! (And keep practising German.) There’s still a lot to do in terms of registering, changing banks, getting internet at home… general set up stuff. I feel really blessed to be at such a great school, with enthusiastic students, teachers who really care about quality education and their students’ well being. I feel really blessed to be in this awesome fully furnished apartment with Rob. I have a practice room! We’re praying for lots of guests and are seriously considering getting two little dogs. I feel really blessed about the churches we’ve found. We’ve met some wonderful people there who will probably become good friends and I’ve already got the electric bass from one of them. When we speak with our fellow EPIK colleagues, I realise that Rob and I have already seen a lot more of the city than most. Spring is clearly almost here, so I’m happy to report that after a slightly difficult beginning to the working week, I feel like we’re doing really well. I can only sing God praises.
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