I am risking life and limb by writing a blog at work, but then again I dont have a lesson until 4.30 so I have an hour an a half to kill.
I am beginning to feel increasingly sorry for Korean children. Usually they go to school from around 8am until 5pm, then they get on buses and are ferried to their various academies. Each child attends a multitude of extra classes in order to become better at maths, science, music, English, Japanese, art... you name it you can do an extra class in it. At the moment, however, the students are on a 5 week break from their regular schools. So what do they do? They come to academies all day instead! In the UK in school holidays we did nothing, watched TV and went on trips with our friends. Here they are just given more schooling. Poor little things, quite a few of my students fall asleep in lessons. You cant help but feel for them.
Intensives are also bad news for us teachers. I usually work 3pm-11pm. This suits me great. I am not a morning person, I never have been. Getting up around 9.30 going to the gym, have a lazy lunch and then dragging myself into work is great. But now, as the students are here all day, I am here all day. For the next 5 weeks I start work at 8am and finish at 6pm. It has only been 3 days and Im sure my body will get used to it but at the moment I am just sleepy. I realise to normal people these are just regular working hours, but when youre not used to it, it is a bit of a strain to the system. Oh well...4 weeks left!
