first time teaching

so i am offically an ESL teacher. some may find that hard to believe considering my lack of communication skills at times, but i think im doing a pretty good job so far. Wednesday was my first real day of teaching, on MWF i have 6 classes with kids ranging from age 8 to 15. then on tu/th i have 4 classes (1 hour though).  working at a private school i nice because i have no more than 10 kids in one class, some only have 4.  for each level there are sample lesson plans already made so you are given exactly what you are to teach each day. there are also many worksheets already made up so although the prep takes alot of time its not hard work at all.  the kids here have stamp books that they fill up and get prizes for finishing a page etc, so i work on the basis that everyone starts out at 3 stamps a lesson then take them away for speaking korean, not doing homework or hitting another classmate (which has only happened once so far).  i had one challenge the other day, trying to explain what it means to say eh on the end of a sentence. it was in a reading book and they stopped and asked why there was no question mark if it wasnt a question. I told them it was a Canadian thing and to make fun of us for it haha.

this weekend was relaxing, although on saturday morning i was about to jump in the shower when i heard katie calling for me...i go to her apartment and her kitchen cubboards had fallen compleatly off the wall and she was holding them up.  so we had to maneouver them into the hall way these are not light by any means, and were only put onthe wall with 5 little screws, oh i was also in a towel during this whole thing.  saturday I went shopping with a friend in meyong-dong one of the shopping districts and found many cute things...only made for people with no chest so could not fit into any of them without looking vey unprofessional. so ill have to keep searching for the place that will accomodate my chest.  afterwards i went out to another party district to one place called mikes cabin - it had actual bunk beds in it and then to pooh bar. which looked like winnie the pooh had thrown up over everything.  

sunday was an interesting day. katie - a coworker - was in what we thought was goin to be a fashion show.  when we got to the place it turned out to be some sort of middle school talent show with many acts that went up that did not really know what they were doing.  the hair part was good - what katie was actually there for - but sitting through 2 hours of earwrenching singers was not so fun, there is a video of one on my facebook, check it out.

more korean culture tidbits

valentines and White day, here they have two couple holidays, valentines is the  14th still but it is a day that the girl gives a gift to the guy, then white day comes a little later and the guy gives a gift to the girl.  hallmark makes double here

fourth versus 13th floor, here they are not superstitous about the 13th floor, but th 4th floor. some elevators you may see go 1, 2, 3, f, 5, 6, etc.  not all have this but ive been in a few. im not quitesure why its the 4th floor that gets them. ill have to look that up