Day: September 6, 2019

It missed.

Bummer.

It’s Friday morning and Typhoon Lingling* is roaring up the East China Sea straight for my front door. I’ve never been in a hurricane before, so this promises to be an exciting weekend! Things aren’t scheduled to kick off until around 11, though, so I have a bit of time to nip downtown for a welcome dinner hosted by the metropolitan Office of Education for all the new English teachers in town.

In the meantime, I am here at work with an unexpected two hours, because my morning classes of 3rd graders are busy with university entrance stuff. It’s the start of second semester in the Korean school year, which runs from March to February, as opposed to the autumnal American system.

So, I thought it was high time to give everyone a snapshot of what my school looks like, and what a typical day of work is like for me. I will have pictures once I am home at my own computer.

The Gwangju Science Academy (or the Gwangju Science High School for the Gifted, I see multiple translations) is a modestly sized high-school of about 250 students. The Korean education system is divided 1-6/7-9/10-12, so I have the equivalents of American sophomores through seniors. Each grade is referred to by their grade within the school, so the 10th graders here are referred to as 1st Grade, the 12th graders as 3rd Grade. Took some getting used to, but ultimately not that hard to accommodate myself to. There are 4 Korean English teachers – 1 each for Grades 1 and 3, and 2 for Grade 2, plus myself.

The school focuses on STEM education for gifted students from across Korea. They must be nominated by their teachers and pass an entrance exam to attend. About half are locals from the Gwangju area, and the other half come from across the country. Gender ratio, as one would expect given the STEM focus, is skewed, with 4 boys for every girl. I see 16 different classes, each containing about 16 students. The students room here on campus – there’s a large dorm building attached to the academic halls, and a surprisingly small cafeteria for so many students. Every other weekend they visit home.

The building itself is very nice. It seems to have been newly remodeled, maybe around 2012-2014. Like most Korean schools, the outside has a dirt soccer field (which seems comically underutilized at this science school) fronting a large, multi-story building. The first floor is dedicated to administrative offices, sprinkled with copies of classical paintings and a portrait of Korea’s first astronaut, who was an alumna of the school. The other 3 floors are all given over to each grade. My office is on the 3rd floor and my classroom on the 4th. The office is nice, spacious, and comfortable, shared with 3-4 other teachers at any given time. I have 1:1 planning-teaching time, so all of my lessons at this point are planned out literally until I’m 30!**

As for teaching itself, so far, it’s a dream. My classroom is spacious and all mine, to do with as I please. I have 2 whiteboards and a chalkboard, and a lovely projector/podium set up. More desks than I know what to do with, so most I have shoved into a corner to give me some open space in the back, while the rest are grouped into tables (it is a conversation class, after all).

I arrive at work at 8, where I see between 2-5 classes a day. Each class I only see once a week, and all their names are basically gobbledygook to me, so learning names is a slow process. Usually they will file in during their 10-minute passing period, then I get 50 minutes to teach. The whole school gets 30 minutes for lunch, which usually includes kimchi, some sort of spicy soup (ranging from crab to chicken to seaweed), a rice dish, a spicy meat dish, and some noodles and vegetables, plus a fruit. It’s pretty solid on the whole, but it does take some getting used to. At least my chopstick skills are improving. Then back to class for a few hours, wrapping up the day at 4:40.

And the students? There is a (literal, ahaha) world of difference between a typical American middle school (even one as nice as Wydown!) and a Korean high school for gifted children. Behavior is the first thing you notice. Students bow in greeting when they pass you in the halls. Papers are handed in with two hands, as if they were a defeated enemy surrendering his sword. And while they laugh and chatter and stare at their phones like normal students, all it takes is my shutting the door to the room (my “begin class” signal) for them to instantly cease and give me their attention.

Their English level ranges from so-so to “why are you even in this class”. Some can only more or less follow what I say (I do my best to slooooow my speech waaaaay down, but it’s hard since I’m a naturally quick speaker). But they are enthusiastic and willing in class, and it feels like my biggest challenge going forward will be finding ways to keep them challenged.

It’s, uh, gonna be hard to go back to middle school.

*I read it somewhere that hurricanes with cutesy or even just plain female names tend to have higher death tolls, because people don’t take them as seriously. I have no idea if this is true and haven’t bothered to do the research to find out, because I find the anecdote amusing enough that I don’t want to falsify it. Just remember, grain of salt, since my source at this point is literally “I read it somewhere.”

**that’s far sooner than I would prefer.