7 doesn't appear to be my lucky number, when it comes to teaching classes at least. First it was M7 that caused me hassles (they're tamed now) and now it's T7.
T7 are a class that have been getting gradually worse and worse. There's a bad chemistry in that class and they're not the most charming of kids. About 8 years old all of them, Matt is the worst. Cheeky, know it all and unfortunately much brighter than the rest.
The class have become a running battle, but for from being a pain, I'm actually beginning to enjoy my twice weekly confrontations. Teaching as in life, I'm pretty laid back, but you push me too much and eventually I'll lose patience. T7 have pushed me and now I'm laying down the law.
Esther got it yesterday. There's 7 students and 6 desks and each kid takes a desk to themselves. And so Timmothy was left standing in the middle of the class, like some kind of retard, just standing and unwilling to sit anywhere. Esther happens to be his cousin and they've sat together in the past so I told Timmothy to sit next to her.
And Esther grizzled and shook her head and refused to let Timmothy past. So I let her have it. Her English is poor but she understands "Are you a baby?" and "Out?" Very reluctantly she let Timmothy past and proceeded to burst into flood of tears that took 20 minutes to subside. She gave me a look of pure hatred, one of the most evil looks anyone has ever given me (no exaggeration).
And I smacked a kid today. In gym, one of the new kids got into some nonsense fight with another. It was clearly him to blame and him just being selfish are kids are inclined to do at that age (about 4). So I pulled him away and scolded him. He tried to hit the kid again so I pulled him back and told him again. And he started trying to hit me, over and over, so I grabbed him and walloped him on the backside. Not hard, but enough for a warning.
They don't hold grudges though. 10 minutes later he was running around, as happy as anything.
So gradually I'm becoming a hardass teacher. Only with a couple of classes. I treat each class as they deserve to be treated. Most are nice kids and as a result they tend to enjoy the classes. But asshole kids have got to learn that if they behave like assholes they'll get treated like asshole.
Wednesday, 10 March 2004
Tuesday, 9 March 2004
Slipping Into The Stability of Normal Life
My life's started to settle into a bit of a routine now. Unlike travelling, where every day can be an absolutely new experience, living abroad can be much like living at home in many respects. I work till 7pm, then on weekdays go home most of the time, to my apartment or the Manor, and just relax.
The Manor will soon be no longer, by the way, as Kristi is moving to a place nearer her work. A shame, but it was fairly inevitable as the distance she commuted and lived frm downtown made things very awkward for her.
So it's just teaching as usual. Mostly going quite well - I feel I'm beginning to become a fairly good teacher. I'm a very laid back teacher and the kids like me. I'm finding it very non stressful too. There are moments when a rowdy class might get a bit wearing but I find I'm gliding into classes feeling very calm.
As I'm now a Monday to Friday man (11-7, not 9-5, but close enough) the weekend has become my drinking time. Not Friday last week actually, then I went to a DVD room with Greta, Matt, Laura and Tim and watched Battle Royale and Finding Nemo (again). Saturday was an excessily drunken night though. Just general drunken enjoyment although it did end with a bunch of us in a restaurant at about 6am and me taking a photo of some Korean girl who was with us. And she grabbed my camera and ripped the film out. I was furious so laid into her angrily, before storming out. I think I've made an enemy.
It was 4pm on Sunday before I was able to leave my bed fully, I was that hungover and destroyed.
But life is fairly calm and stable right now. It's all settled. My main group of friends has formed in the last few weeks and so it's quite nice having a reliable bunch of people to hang about with. They are: Matt, Kristi, Laura (maybe flatmate Tim), Greta, Mik and maybe the Irish girls Eileen and Maebh, and with a number of other people closely associated.
Ok, I've got 6 straight lessons now so I'm going to get ready.
The Manor will soon be no longer, by the way, as Kristi is moving to a place nearer her work. A shame, but it was fairly inevitable as the distance she commuted and lived frm downtown made things very awkward for her.
So it's just teaching as usual. Mostly going quite well - I feel I'm beginning to become a fairly good teacher. I'm a very laid back teacher and the kids like me. I'm finding it very non stressful too. There are moments when a rowdy class might get a bit wearing but I find I'm gliding into classes feeling very calm.
As I'm now a Monday to Friday man (11-7, not 9-5, but close enough) the weekend has become my drinking time. Not Friday last week actually, then I went to a DVD room with Greta, Matt, Laura and Tim and watched Battle Royale and Finding Nemo (again). Saturday was an excessily drunken night though. Just general drunken enjoyment although it did end with a bunch of us in a restaurant at about 6am and me taking a photo of some Korean girl who was with us. And she grabbed my camera and ripped the film out. I was furious so laid into her angrily, before storming out. I think I've made an enemy.
It was 4pm on Sunday before I was able to leave my bed fully, I was that hungover and destroyed.
But life is fairly calm and stable right now. It's all settled. My main group of friends has formed in the last few weeks and so it's quite nice having a reliable bunch of people to hang about with. They are: Matt, Kristi, Laura (maybe flatmate Tim), Greta, Mik and maybe the Irish girls Eileen and Maebh, and with a number of other people closely associated.
Ok, I've got 6 straight lessons now so I'm going to get ready.
Thursday, 4 March 2004
World Drought
The 2/3 year old is still crying. I've started collecting his tears in a metal bucket. I'm going to tour the earth and solve world drought.
Wednesday, 3 March 2004
My New Classes
I'm really enjoying the start of term. I was oddly nervous before it kicked off, but now I'm finding it great fun. The last couple of months I realise I was a little like a fill-in teacher, just picking up where the previous teacher left off, and to be honest I feel my predecessor made a bit of an arse of some of the classes and I'd my work cut out just getting everyone to the same level, and to behave a bit better.
But now I've got all new classes - some absolutely new kids and some classes that are the previous classes jumbled around a little with a smattering of new kids, Some old faces from my first few weeks have returned too. Best of all, most classes are starting new books afresh, so now I can dictate the pace. The classes feel like MY classes now, which makes a big difference.
I got the Forest class today. They're the new class, about 8 of them. And my God they're young. One child, who has done little else but cry, is possibly the smallest thing I've ever seen. If he's 3 years old then he can't have been for long. None of them speak any English. Fortunately I had them for gym and I did surprisingly well - just getting them to "catch the ball" and "throw the ball". Most of them were very well behaved. We had the tiny crier who didn't even make it to the gym, and we had another crier who spent his entire time looking lost and forlorn in the gym, mostly crying. Every time I tried to involve him he just shook his head.
He was the same kid that gave me one of my most personally amusing moments of teaching so far. I went into my Rainbow class to begin a lesson yesterday. Rainbow are a bit older, maybe about 7 or 8. They're quite bright and with good English, and there's about 11 of them, sitting behind desk arranged in a horse-shoe shape in the classroom. In the middle of the horse-shoe and the class was this little boy, looking baffled, confused, upset, slightly traumatised, while all of Rainbow sat looking and pointing at him in wonder, some laughing. So I walked in and he looked at me as if to say "What's happening, help me, help me" so I carefully led him out the room to somewhere less upsetting.
I'm still on 42 classes a week, even though there's been a few changes to the schedule. I think the director has the sense not to push me up any more.
David, however, has been upped to 45. That may only be 3 more classes a week, but believe me when you're up at the 40 level, every extra class makes a massive difference as it can be the difference between 6 straight classes and 2 classes, 40 minute break, then 3 classes.
I think he's feeling the pressure already. All he did yesterday was whine. Just bemoaning his situation and how exhausted he was. My pity for him has waned somewhat, as it's all very well whining and whining about it to himself and when I'm around, but he says nothing to the director. Of course she'll screw him if he'll just lie there and take it.
Today, he actually yelled at another teacher, which is unimaginably out of character for him. He's a 50 year old man, and I think if after less than 2 days of this schedule he's like this, he may not make the rest of the year.
But really, he's got 20 years English teaching experience. If he's just going to accept whatever he's given then it's his own fault.
I've been meaning to write more about my weekend as the more I think about it, the more I realise it was a pretty mental one, especially the Friday night with the Korean nightclub and the norebang with random Korean girls. When I mentioned it to Daniel (the Korean teacher) he said he'd no idea who the girls were, and to keep my lips sealed about the whole thing. Why? What happened? Sometimes I wish I had better drunken memory.
(most of the time it's definitely a blessing)
But now I've got all new classes - some absolutely new kids and some classes that are the previous classes jumbled around a little with a smattering of new kids, Some old faces from my first few weeks have returned too. Best of all, most classes are starting new books afresh, so now I can dictate the pace. The classes feel like MY classes now, which makes a big difference.
I got the Forest class today. They're the new class, about 8 of them. And my God they're young. One child, who has done little else but cry, is possibly the smallest thing I've ever seen. If he's 3 years old then he can't have been for long. None of them speak any English. Fortunately I had them for gym and I did surprisingly well - just getting them to "catch the ball" and "throw the ball". Most of them were very well behaved. We had the tiny crier who didn't even make it to the gym, and we had another crier who spent his entire time looking lost and forlorn in the gym, mostly crying. Every time I tried to involve him he just shook his head.
He was the same kid that gave me one of my most personally amusing moments of teaching so far. I went into my Rainbow class to begin a lesson yesterday. Rainbow are a bit older, maybe about 7 or 8. They're quite bright and with good English, and there's about 11 of them, sitting behind desk arranged in a horse-shoe shape in the classroom. In the middle of the horse-shoe and the class was this little boy, looking baffled, confused, upset, slightly traumatised, while all of Rainbow sat looking and pointing at him in wonder, some laughing. So I walked in and he looked at me as if to say "What's happening, help me, help me" so I carefully led him out the room to somewhere less upsetting.
I'm still on 42 classes a week, even though there's been a few changes to the schedule. I think the director has the sense not to push me up any more.
David, however, has been upped to 45. That may only be 3 more classes a week, but believe me when you're up at the 40 level, every extra class makes a massive difference as it can be the difference between 6 straight classes and 2 classes, 40 minute break, then 3 classes.
I think he's feeling the pressure already. All he did yesterday was whine. Just bemoaning his situation and how exhausted he was. My pity for him has waned somewhat, as it's all very well whining and whining about it to himself and when I'm around, but he says nothing to the director. Of course she'll screw him if he'll just lie there and take it.
Today, he actually yelled at another teacher, which is unimaginably out of character for him. He's a 50 year old man, and I think if after less than 2 days of this schedule he's like this, he may not make the rest of the year.
But really, he's got 20 years English teaching experience. If he's just going to accept whatever he's given then it's his own fault.
I've been meaning to write more about my weekend as the more I think about it, the more I realise it was a pretty mental one, especially the Friday night with the Korean nightclub and the norebang with random Korean girls. When I mentioned it to Daniel (the Korean teacher) he said he'd no idea who the girls were, and to keep my lips sealed about the whole thing. Why? What happened? Sometimes I wish I had better drunken memory.
(most of the time it's definitely a blessing)
Tuesday, 2 March 2004
Tiny Tot Mullet
It's very exciting. Some of the new "Forest" class are very very young indeed - David claimed one was about 2 years old. So we're talking babies almost, and all expected to be fluent in English within 3 weeks. Well, not exactly. But most excitingly, one little girl who looks so small as to almost not exist, has a MULLET.
Yes, a tiny Korean girl mullet. She's been crying almost all day, like a few of her compatriots. I don't know why she's crying though, if I had a mullet like hers you'd never be able to wipe the grin off my face.
Yes, a tiny Korean girl mullet. She's been crying almost all day, like a few of her compatriots. I don't know why she's crying though, if I had a mullet like hers you'd never be able to wipe the grin off my face.
New Term
It's the start of a new term and I'm sitting waiting for my first class - I don't start till about 11am now. For the last hour a young child has cried loudly continuously. I'm feeling strangely nervous about the new term, as it's a whole set of new classes and many new students. But at least I'm not a hysterical wreck like the crying child. Though I don't think it would be terribly appropriate for a teacher to be howling uncontrollably in the main entrance.
Sunday, 29 February 2004
Weekend
I think I passed out on the subway this morning. I was rather drunk, and I'm sure I got on the subway at about 6am, maybe 7. And I'm sure I was going in the right direction. Because suddenly it was 9am and I found myself on the wrong side of the city, at the end of the line, and the only way I could possibly have done this is to do an entire revolution on the subway.
It's been a fun weekend of drinking. With Kristi away to Seoul for the weekend with the keys to the Manor, I've had a void in my life and so alcohol has been my only companion. But a trusty companion it always makes.
On Friday night it was a "boy's night out" with my school, that is me, Daniel the sometimes annoying Korean teacher, and David. We ate food, had some drink and then ended up at some fantastically large Korean nightclub which had thunderingly odd music (an ultra bouncy version of Cliff Richard's Congratulations being one example). There was a stage with dancers bopping about. Poor David, who doesn't drink because it makes him ill, was clearly very very miserable at this stage, but me and Daniel were guzzling the beer and it was great fun. I was dancing quite a bit, and I think even became sleazy Nev and was molesting some poor girl on the dancefloor, but the overwhelming memory of the club was the sheer size of it.
Things got strange here, and I ended up at some goddam norebang yet again, with Daniel and some Korean girls. I have absolutely no idea who they were, how we met them, if they spoke English, how we got to the norebang or anything really, except that my singing was truly truly awful.
Last night was a party at Eileen and Maebh's house - two Irish girls. It was Maebh's birthday. It was good fun, plenty of familiar faces, and we all progressed to a couple of bars and clubs and I recall it being a generally good night, except for my subway mishap.
I get tomorrow off work as it's a national holiday so I think the plan is to go snowboarding in the north of the country. With Mik, Laura and a NZ girl called Greta. We're getting an overnight bus at midnight tonight, and I think before we're watching a couple of films in a DVD room.
I watched Finding Nemo on Thursday in a DVD room. It was great. I thought it would just be some stupid kids cartoon about a damn fish swimming about, but it was so enjoyable I'm seeing it agai today. That, and a Korean film recommended by Greta called The Two Sisters, or something, which she says is the scariest film ever.
Anyway, I'm in a diabolical writing mood as I should have written far more details but I just don't give a royal damn. I've got better things to do than to write for ages telling you my news.
It's been a fun weekend of drinking. With Kristi away to Seoul for the weekend with the keys to the Manor, I've had a void in my life and so alcohol has been my only companion. But a trusty companion it always makes.
On Friday night it was a "boy's night out" with my school, that is me, Daniel the sometimes annoying Korean teacher, and David. We ate food, had some drink and then ended up at some fantastically large Korean nightclub which had thunderingly odd music (an ultra bouncy version of Cliff Richard's Congratulations being one example). There was a stage with dancers bopping about. Poor David, who doesn't drink because it makes him ill, was clearly very very miserable at this stage, but me and Daniel were guzzling the beer and it was great fun. I was dancing quite a bit, and I think even became sleazy Nev and was molesting some poor girl on the dancefloor, but the overwhelming memory of the club was the sheer size of it.
Things got strange here, and I ended up at some goddam norebang yet again, with Daniel and some Korean girls. I have absolutely no idea who they were, how we met them, if they spoke English, how we got to the norebang or anything really, except that my singing was truly truly awful.
Last night was a party at Eileen and Maebh's house - two Irish girls. It was Maebh's birthday. It was good fun, plenty of familiar faces, and we all progressed to a couple of bars and clubs and I recall it being a generally good night, except for my subway mishap.
I get tomorrow off work as it's a national holiday so I think the plan is to go snowboarding in the north of the country. With Mik, Laura and a NZ girl called Greta. We're getting an overnight bus at midnight tonight, and I think before we're watching a couple of films in a DVD room.
I watched Finding Nemo on Thursday in a DVD room. It was great. I thought it would just be some stupid kids cartoon about a damn fish swimming about, but it was so enjoyable I'm seeing it agai today. That, and a Korean film recommended by Greta called The Two Sisters, or something, which she says is the scariest film ever.
Anyway, I'm in a diabolical writing mood as I should have written far more details but I just don't give a royal damn. I've got better things to do than to write for ages telling you my news.
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