Aimee’s World Tour

I feel it is very important to preface this entry with a three word summary: Waaah waaah waaaaaaaaaah.  

On a whole, I like Korea.  Now that spring is here I’m inspired to take a second look.  The cherry blossoms are amazing.  People travel from all over to see them. 

As for school, I work at a good private school.  Unlike some that take full advantage of “cheap foreign labor” my school treats us well.  We get paid on time, are given nice apts.  and have a lovely environment to work in.  I can’t believe I have yet to post pictures of Helen Doron. 

The staff is friendly, both foreign and Korean.  However putting them under a microscope, I don’t really have any Korean friends outside of school.  As for the foreigners, they are all nice but I only feel a connection with a couple of them.  Considering that there’s only 8 of us, that’s pretty good.  I often find myself daying dreaming some of you here!

This school year (started in March) has been very demanding with a much more jam-packed schedule and rigid afternoon-classes.  A lot of us don’t feel we have the proper prep time especially on the weeks that we have to ride the shuttle bus in the morning because we miss morning prep time and walk in literally as the first class  starts.

There are often gaps of miscommunication between foreigners and the Korean staff for no other reason than the language barrier but I think this is to be expected.    What could be modified, I believe, is the  degree of disorganization up top which most of the time I attribute as a plus.  These people make ME feel organized!  But there are even days when their disorganization affects me and I wonder what ARE they doing?! Today was one of those days.

Before reading, please please remember that my experience in Korea is described in pieces.  A single post is only ONE piece of an ongoing puzzle.  A post can let you in for a little while but you must remember that you have to leave to retrieve more pieces.

With this said I feel confident in sharing my theraputic (aka whiney) stream of consciousness.

“The school year has been insane so far. It’s the perfect time to let you in on how the teachers are feeling: exhausted, unprepared and frustrated. 

Prior to writing this I had been talking to a co-worker.  I think one year in Korea will be enough.  There are so many countries out there that I shouldn’t feel guilty and stay in Korea just because I don’t think I’ve seen enough of it.  Of course that’s just how I’m feeling today.  Even as I’m writing this I know it’s way too early to tell what I’m going to do come September or how I’ll feel tomorrow. 

The school environment has been a bit ridiculous.  This private school in particular is excessively demanding. Let’s just talk about the parental factor.  I couldn’t imagine my parents having done this for a moment.

The parents, or should i say the moms. call and complain about things like their kid’s shirt being partially untucked when he/she gets home.  Honestly the list is long and irrational.  These kids are so babied no wonder all the boys out here seem so wimpy.  I don’t think a guy back home would be caught dead with a cell phone charm or a pink wallet. 

Out here children live with their parents until they get married.  If you’re not married at 33 you’re still living at home!  I couldn’t imagine.  Also it is uncommon and not really socially acceptable for the younger sibling to marry before the older one, the male being the exception.

My head is pounding above my right eye.  School is so long and exhausting. I wish we had the option of going home after school around 3 pm and only staying longer if we wanted to.  Unfortunatley we have much more intense after-school classes than last year and no time to prep for them.  I have to ride the shuttle bus every three weeks and get to school just as it is starting.  I hardly have any breaks during the day and things are just a bit chaotic. 

I had been told I would be watched yesterday by two parents.  The schedule was even posted on the board so you’d think well this is organized right?  Oh you’d think but it isn’t so.  I was told to talk to the twins and this other little girl the most so I did.  During the middle of my class I see a note through the window on the door: Leo’s mom is watching.  Oh great because he had his sock in his mouth a moment ago but I wasn’t focusing on discipling as much as offering those 3 girls a chance to speak.  Then believe it or not my helper teacher Emily handed me the attendance sheet which had a note on it: Matthew’s mom is watching.  Oh is she?  Really?  Lovely because he’s been running around like a frickin ape.  At least I knew before the class was over unlike my partner teacher Mina.  She was briefed after the fact.

I kind of found the whole thing amusing.  What else could I do though I must admit a part of me was hellah disappointed.  The kids this semester have been so rewarding.  Well needless to say, Matthew’s and Leo’s moms weren’t happy.  Leo usually doesn’t listen to either me or Mina.  Of course today Matthew and even Leo were seated and listening.  Leo had to be THAT good today didn’t he?  I  just don’t function well when I know I’m being watched.  Ellie always wants me to do something special for the lesson and it ends up not being natural.  So today when parents came for the other class I just did my usual and I think it went just fine. Actually both  Anna and Vanessa’s moms were very pleased and they had been the most difficult thus far. 

I’m able to sleep at night because I know that I try hard, that I care about the kids and that I make an effort to inform the parents.  Beyond that I have no control.  I think the school perpetuates the parental complains by catering to them.  What a waste of time. 

Lots of times the moms just like to chat because they are all very very rich and have nothing better to do.  Or they come up with some of the complaints I’ve already mentioned.  The moms seen to take every little thing their kid says and blame it on someone at the school.  (The Korean staff has to handle all the phone calls.)  I’m thinking, “You do realize your kid is like 5 or 6 years old and that by nature irrational?”  If I came home and reported something my parents would question me about what I might have done wrong, not run to the phone and threaten the school.  But this is how it goes. 

There was an interesting discussion about our weekly comments yesterday.  A Korean teacher was advising her co-teacher not to use the word “unfocused” because some  parents would go crazy over it.  I butted in with “you need to be honest in a nice way but if you’re not honest and finally this kid’s behavior gets really bad it will seem to come out of left field.”  What’s the point of patting parents on the back and wasting our time with comments that aren’t true?  Plus “unfocused” is what I use instead of, “your kid punched me in the ovary, hit 3 children, ran around and erased the board, threw his snack and ate a crayon.”  I think “so and so is a little unfocused but is doing well with his speaking” is letting that kid off pretty easy.  Actually my kids this year are soooo much better so I don’t have nearly as many crazy stories. 

Perks of working at Helen Doron: I got thrown up on by Vanessa on Tuesday and yesteday Evy peed her pants and I was the only one available to change them.   Working here we also hear lot of redundant remarks from the Korean staff.  If they neglected to tell us something, which is quite common, we get talked to just as if we had known.  I’ll say, “This is the first I’ve heard of this.”  In response I’ll get something like, “Well anyway you’re not supposed to… blah blah.” 

Today I was a bit fed up because one of the Korean teachers was saying I shouldn’t have spoken to a parent of a kid I used to have and I was rather rude about it.  I later mentioned I was sorry I had taken it personally but this teacher is always so miserable looking and I just didn’t feel like getting rained on.  Anyhoo that kid ended up quitting due to numerous complaints on the parent’s part.  Oy.  How happy am I that tomorrow is Friday?

Surprise surprise – there was quite a nice surprise waiting for me at school today… As soon as I walked in Andrea said “Hey Aimee. They’re playing your song.”  I was thinking what song?  What song do I like?  Then Andrea showed me a piece of paper.  It literally WAS my song!!!  I had been asked to write lyrics that I had assumed were for graduation and figured they were thrown away and not useful.  Quite the contrary.  I am the proud writer of our school song.  A famous singer and one of the dad’s of a kid I teach wrote the music and sings the song.  How ironic is that??!!  I never knew what I wanted to do but I had always thought I’d be a good song lyricist and here I am! haha.” 

Gonna meet a friend for dinner. 

Love,

Aimee, the persistent teacher

PS Witten when I’m deliriously tired!

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