First Week of Teaching

My first week of officially teaching has been fantastic! The staff members are great and the students are wonderful too. I have 23 classes to teach in a week and each class is 45 minutes long. There are three levels (1, 2 and 3) and it is based on their age. Basically, grade 7, 8 and 9. In each class there is a new vibe because either the class is active, passive or curious. It is different in each class, although my lesson is quite repetitive but I am enjoying being the English teacher here in Busan. My role in the school reminds me of the French teachers in Canada. They float around and teach various classrooms with their carts filled with resources. Instead, I walk around with the laptop the school provided (which has all of the textbooks electronically and PowerPoint presentations I have created) and go to each class with my stickers. Stickers are quite valuable because it is a way for students to participate in the class activities and to motivate them to learn the English language.

On Wednesday, there was a birthday party for a friend we met on Saturday. It was Amanda’s birthday at a Mexican restaurant so Nav and I got her a gift certificate since we didn’t know what she would want and we didn’t know her long enough to what she likes and not like. The restaurant has wonderful service and the food was amazing as well. Image of the pic is available on Facebook but I will post what Nav had instead. I had the same meal but chicken instead of sausage.

After the party, I headed back to my place so I took the subway and reached at this main subway station (Seomyeon) and I am supposed to take the #17 bus home. I waited 1 hour and 10 minutes (11:20pm to 12:30am) for the bus arrive. Finally, I asked one of the Koreans who looked kind of western and luckily, he knew English! He told me that the bus would come soon but he said he would double check his phone to see if he could see the service on his phone. Few minutes later he told me that there are no buses scheduled for the #17 route. I immediately flagged down a taxi and told him my address, “Danggam Dong Apartments 102”. He had a look of confusion but he still drove for a good 10 minutes. Then we came to a stop and he asked me “Danggam Dong? This?” I looked out the window and noticed that this was not my place. It was raining the whole time too. I once again repeated my address and he was still confused. Finally, I drew a picture of how my area looks like. With many apartments, a tunnel, and a U-turn that bus #179 and #17 goes by. The taxi driver told me, “Okay, okay. I take you.” Another 10 minutes later of awkward silence, he takes me to the correct place. He told me, “Danggam JUGONG” and emphasized my error like 5 times. I replied that I just came from Canada like a week ago and he was like, “Okay, Danggam JUGONG next time” and nodded in agreement. Came home at 1am and was so tired. Lesson learned though because the next day I got my address typed out on the computer in English and Korean, I printed it and placed it in my wallet right away!