Christmas Eve in Korea marks the end of the second semester for Korean elementary school children. This means that Korean students will have the next six weeks without regular classes. One would think that this would also mean that the teachers have the next six weeks off, as it is in the U.S. However, this is not the case. EPIK teachers are required to be at school from 8:30-4:30 (regular work hours) during the entirety of winter vacation, minus the ten business days that we are allotted for our own vacation. During this time many teachers must participate in winter camps. These winter camps vary hugely from school to school on the curriculum, grades levels of the students, number of days and hours etc. Some teachers may have four classes a day for three weeks straight, while others may have only one week of two or three classes a day. Many teachers end up at other schools helping out other foreign teachers with their winter camps.
During the winter vacation I heard many horror stories about so many different aspects of winter camp. Many teachers were not given any curriculum or even guidelines to go by when creating winter camp lesson plans. This makes it very difficult to make weeks worth of lessons with absolutely no idea of what to teach or what level of materials to use. I heard lots of complaints from teachers about their schools telling them on Wednesday, for example, that they needed to turn in all of their detailed lesson plans that Friday. They worked all night long for a few days to get those plans ready and turned in on time. One teacher worked on 20 lessons for the first week of his camp only to go to school on Monday and have his co-teacher tell him that the Office of Education didn't accept his lesson plans, and that she spent all weekend changing them. His school did not give him any materials, curriculum or ideas for winter camp. Therefore he planned lessons that he thought would be fun and actually wanted to teach. He felt like his co-teacher thought he was a bad teacher and really guilty that she spent all that time changing the lessons.
When I was informed of what my winter camp would entail I felt like I had it pretty easy compared to many others. I was only required to participate in one week of winter camp teaching three classes a day. One of my co-teachers would be there teaching 3rd and 4th grades while I taught 5th and 6th. We would switch off grades each day. My other co-teacher would be in the room in case I needed something translated. I was really excited that I had it so easy until my co-teacher came into class one day with a worried look on her face. She told me that she had talked to the Vice Principal and that he said we had to do a second week of winter camp. The second week would only consist of two classes: one class of 3rd and 4th graders that didn't get into the first winter camp (we only allowed 20 students per class), and one class of the parents of the students. That's right. The parents. I was so intimidated by this. I had never before taught ESL to adults and had never heard of any other foreign English teacher having to teach parents. I figured it would just be awkward, that they would just sit there silently because they were embarrassed and very low level. My co-teacher who would be there to translate for me also thought this was going to be a really weird situation, which did not make me feel any better.
I dreaded the second week of winter camp all throughout the first and put off making any lesson plans for the parents' class so it didn't seem so real. But eventually time was running out and I had to face the fact that parents' class was actually going to happen and that I would (hopefully) live through it. I prepared an introductory lesson so I could gauge the levels of the students in order to create subsequent lessons. After my class of young'ns on Monday I began to get ultra nervous. I was under the impression that the parents' class would start at 9:50 and was getting my hopes up because by 10:00 no one had showed up. To my dismay, by about 10:05 the students began arriving. I said, "Good morning," to each as they walked into class and sat silently. When there were eight women students seated in front of me I was given the go-ahead to begin class. I began with an introductory powerpoint with pictures of my family, interests and favorites. I was pleasantly surprised to get lots of giggles and tons of questions about my life back home and here in Korea afterwards. As I continued on with the lesson the women opened up more and more. Although their level was pretty low they still tried hard to communicate as much as possible. They would say English words they knew and then say stuff in Korean and my co-teacher would translate. One of the greatest things was that the women thought I was hilarious. I acted like my silly self while teaching and they loved that. They loved that I tried to say some words in Korean and laughed when I sang and danced. The lesson ended up being incredibly fun because the women all had a great sense of humor and were eager to learn English. I couldn't believe that I was actually excited to plan the lesson for the next day.
On Tuesday I taught the women a "pop song" as most Koreans love to sing. This day we sung "I Have a Dream" by ABBA. It's funny how much Koreans love the musical "Mamma Mia." Many women know the tune to lots of "Mamma Mia" songs and may know some of the words to the chorus or make up their own words. I also love to sing and have become pretty open about singing in front of people. I would guess that back home people would be way less into singing songs in class and probably a lot more shy to let people hear their voice. Each day I taught another song: on Wednesday, "Let it Be" by the Beatles; Thursday, "Mamma Mia" by Abba; and Friday, "I'll Be There" by Jackson 5.
On the last day of class one of the moms walks into class with a really large bag filled with unknown items. She starts removing each item from the bag: a glass cylinder of water, a steel brief case-looking box, a small machine, and some cups. As I'm watching her it becomes more and more apparent that what she has is a small espresso machine! She opens up the little brief-case thing and she's got a bunch of little, plastic, sealed cups, each with a different type of espresso. I go over to look and all the information regarding the espresso is written in German with her notes translating in Korean. The Koreans inform me that she is a barista. Apparently anyone who can make real coffee is a "barista" in Korea. We each pick out which type of espresso we want. I am the only one that chooses actual espresso while the Koreans all choose some type of creamy, sweet coffee drink. Koreans love sweet. I just found it hilarious that she would go to all of this work to bring in an espresso machine and make everyone drinks for a 50 minute long class. To me his image is so incredibly Korean and awesome.
To top off a really good week the ladies invited me to go out to dinner and to the noraebang (Karaoke room) on Friday night. The restaurant they chose was a really nice "Western" restaurant just up the road called "White Castle." I found the name quite funny as it really actually was a "white castle." I ate a tenderloin steak and all the Koreans picked "Korean style bulgogi steak." The dinner was a total mixture of Western and Korean food. Pretty tasty. When we were about to leave, one of the women began to unclip her large fur bow, handed it to me and said "real mink." My co-teacher said she wanted to give it to me as a gift and that it was real fur. My co-teacher clipped it into my hair and all the women gasped saying, "Ahhh very beautiful!!" With all the fur that I've acquired while here I hope PETA doesn't assassinate me while getting off the plane when I go home. Next we went to the noraebang and at first sang all the songs that we learned in class. It was good that the Koreans could practice their English in a real-life setting (Yes, the noraebang is a typical Korean setting). For the next hour and a half we all took turns singing popular Western and Korean songs, singing, dancing and laughing.
The whole week with the women turned out to be a blast. Getting to know them and becoming friends has many perks. They want to take me to Costco, which is really far away from my house and a huge hassle to get to. It's also nice to get on the good side of parents, as this comes back to the administration at my school. Getting on the good side of the VP and principal at your school can have many benefits, as it is in Korean society. Because my principal likes me he let me go home at one o'clock every day during winter camp and during my desk warming days.
Now, done with winter camps, I'm off to the warm beaches of the Philippines for 17 days! Should be a really good time. If I have a chance while there I will write a blog post, otherwise I'll write ya soon!
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