Ok, here's the quick recap. I spent almost 6 weeks at TLBU in Goyang City outside of Seoul, teaching English at an immersion camp. There were 18 of of us, including Kirsten and Liz (roommate and friend from college). We probably put in close to 300 hours of work during the 5 week camp, so it was really a crash course in teaching Korean children. I had Daffodil class, which was the middle/upper intermediate level. The kids ranged from monstrous to absolutely lovely and amazing. Kirsten, Liz, and I made some fantastic friends amongst our co-workers, including our boss. TLBU is an English-language graduate law and business school for Asian students. They take a couple from each country--Malaysia, Japan, China, Vietnam, Singapore, etc--and they are all scholarship based. It was a really intriguing and unique program. The kids came from all over Korea and they stay in the dorms, so we were involved with them practically 24/7. There are so many things I could say about TLBU but I don't have enough time to write about it.
Me with my Session 1 kids--I knew them the best because I was with them for 3 weeks.
Three of my favorite boys from Session 1. Check out the bandaids on Sung-bong on the left--he had so many mosquito bites.
My girls of Session 2. Really, really cute.
Aaaaand 3 of my Session 2 boys.
So now I'm at Munsung Middle School in the south-west of Seoul. It's a fairly low economic area, so the majority of the kids speak *terrible* English. I teach extra classes from 3:30-5:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays, and those classes are a blast--those kids actually are paying to attend. There are 10 kids and they all speak fantastic English. They are motivated, funny, intelligent, quirky, and truly interested in learning. I only really teach 22 hours a week, so I usually teach 4 45 minute classes a day. I only teach the 1st and 3rd graders (7th and 9th in the US) and I only see each class once a week. Basically, I teach the same lesson ten times. It's a fairly low stress job and my Korean co-teachers (I work with 4 of them--one for each class) are fantastic. They translate a lot of what I say and they are so nurturing. The school as a whole has been overwhelming warm--they're always inviting me to dinner, offering to take me to the bank or a clinic (when I had a cold), etc. A lot of the teachers speak English pretty well, interestingly enough.
Munsung Middle School. It's a bad picture, but there are 2 wings. It's a big school! Over 1,000 kids.
Half of my classroom. The kids are practicing dialogues.
I have a million pictures so far, not only of my kids from TLBU and Munsung, but of all of us in the city doing tourist-y things and of our nights out on the town. Seoul is a city that never sleeps--there is ALWAYS something to do. An "early night" is coming back home around 2:30 AM--staying out until 5:30 or until the sunrises is not at all uncommon. So check out my flickr website for the rest of my photos--I update them every few days. Jen's Korean photo page. I also have a Veoh video page and I'll post that link as soon as I have a handful of videos up.
Leave comments if you please!
Love from Korea,
Jen
