Ok so I woke up this morning at 5am because I couldn’t sleep and it was snowing. It’s not that cold but it makes the city look soo beautiful. So what has happened since landing? I went to the school straight after landing and get the bus to Suwon. After observing a class or two the school closed for the evening and 2 of the Korean teachers took me for dinner at a local Japanese restaurant that basically has a bbq set inside the table and small slices of beef and chicken were brought to the table to cook on the bbq. Also they brought over some of their national Korea dishes Gimchi ( cabbage that is either pickled, brined or marinated in red pepper sauce which is a bit too spicy for me) and Bibibap( plain boiled rice ad various vegetables such as cucumber, shredded carrot, radish, bean sprouts in brine, pickled or plain). I was then told at the meal that they hadn’t gotten my flat ready yet so they would put me up in a hotel for the night and yesterday we went flat hunting. We went and looked at 3 flats I could live in by myself but they were extremely small and didn’t actually seem to have a proper shower, the bathroom consisted of a toilet, a sink, a shower head and a drain in the floor. Apparently most single flats don’t have a shower cubicle you just stand in the middle of the room and hold the shower head above you- strange. I was a bit uncomfortable with that but we had one last option, to live with one of the Korean Teachers Martin and the English teacher who will move here soon. We went to look at the flat and it was huge and very nice, brand new and 30 seconds away from the school. I decided I would like to live there but it will not be ready until Sunday so I am still living out of a suitcase. Last night I stayed with one of the Korean Teachers flat, Martin.
Anyway today I will be teaching 5 of my own classes which will be starting at 2.30. each class is about 45 minutes long and the basic premise of the school is that children finish normal school and go to a private language school. The younger children finish school a little earlier and have the earlier classes. Not all children take English classes, they could choose to go to taeqwandoe school, or music school etc 2 to 3 times a week and some may choose to do a few different activities bless their little souls they must be exhausted after a full day at school and then all these after school clubs! Anyway, what happens is the Korean teacher takes classes that can range from 2-10 children ranging from 6-16 yrs old depending on their ability. They will go through a module in a particular text book and after 2-3 lessons will finish the module. This is where the English teacher comes in. I will take this class and go over the basic premises of the module that they have just been through and make sure they are pronouncing the words correctly, that they can use the words in a grammatically correct sentence and that they understand what they are saying.
The ‘Village’ that the school is situated in is called Dongtan which is very close to Suwon. It isn’t what we would call a village as there are vast amounts of apartment blocks and new building being built because it is a very new village. It will very quickly expand and more and more businesses will buy the empty building space that dominates much of Dongtan at the moment. Mike (the American teacher at my school) took me up and down the street last night in one of his free periods and showed me how little there was just around the school but there are new bakeries, and supermarkets popping up everywhere, one of which was much like a Tesco express and Mike seems to think is owned by Tesco (but it has a totally different name). Anyway I better go and get ready for my first day of teaching! Exciting! And I may be going to a bar in Suwon after work which is well known as a meeting place for English, Americans and Australians so that will be nice. Speak soon xxx
