Why does Smokey the Bear put out forest fires, or Mr. Rogers have a wonderful neighborhood that you can visit when you’re feeling a bit blue? Why does Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero in the Sopranos become an FBI informant, or Dennis “Cutty” Wise from the Wire leave the game and open up his own boxing gym? Why does Christian travel half way around the world to teach English at a preschool for an entire year, without having even the slightest bit of teaching experience?
What can I say? As the title suggests, we all have one thing in common…..we do (or did) it for the kids, man. Actually, that’s being slightly disingenuous; Smokey the Bear puts out forest fires to primarily protect, you know, the forest and animals like Bambi and other creatures of his ilk or what have you, but i’m sure he’d be equally proud knowing that he may have saved a child or two along the way.
Ok, maybe i’m still being a bit disingenuous; teaching is what provided me the opportunity to live abroad, but I can’t say with a straight face that I came here planning to change the world, one Korean preschooler at a time. The entire reason for moving abroad was to immerse myself in another culture/s that are different from what i’ve become accustomed to in the United States. Really, the only way to immerse oneself would be to either live or travel abroad for an extended period of time. Vacations are great, but they’re fleeting. One minute you’re there, scaling Machu Picchu or kissing on the Eiffel Tower (while taking a selfie doing both of course), the next you’re back home, reading Calvin & Hobbes in a onesie.
Nevertheless, despite my dis-ingenuity, probably one of the best ways to culturally immerse oneself would be to teach at a preschool where practically everyone, teachers included, speak little to no English (HA! The joke is on you Christian, the disingenuous-bastard-whose-referred-to-himself-in-the-third-person-twice-already. But like post #1, I digress)! So, that’s why I figured for blog post #2, I should delve into life as a preschool/kindergarten teacher further.
I’ve already talked a bit about my job in my first post, so i’ll try to spare everyone by not talking in circles. Being three months in, I can definitely say that I lucked out for a first year teacher in Korea. I teach at a hagwon (private school) and while you often get paid more for teaching at hagwons, the hours are substantially longer and vacation significantly lower than what you may typically receive at a public school; lots of teachers still opt for hagwons because you can interview and apply for these schools directly since they are privately run whereas applying to the public school system means you can give a list of preferences but you have no real control over where you end up necessarily. My hagwon, however, offers vacation that is more in line with public schools than other hagwons. Even though there was a bit of a “hit the ground running” approach (no real training, not a great deal of help with figuring out the little things like “what bus should I take to work” etc. etc.), the other teachers and staff have been very welcoming from the beginning.
If you scroll down to the bottom of this post, I put up some pictures of an impromptu trip to the park that not even the teachers were expecting (I felt so bad for a few of the women who wore high heels on the mile long trek to this park via an outdoor trail). Now when you see the pictures, you know you’re lying to yourself if your first thought isn’t something along the lines of, “DAMMIT, THESE KIDS ARE ADORABLE” because they really are. So. Damn. Adorable. As far as your second or third thought goes, well, mine is generally something like, “Ooph, not really tryna have one of these little fellas for another seven years at the earliest (sorry Mom)” so I won’t begrudge you for feeling similarly. Taking care of myself is already enough of a challenge as is.
Overall though, it’s been a lot of fun working with these little guys every day. As you can expect, the language barrier makes everything a bit more difficult and more interesting. There’s a noticeable difference between my 6 and 7 year olds in terms of what they can say and understand. I enjoy working with the older ones more because everything runs a little bit more smoothly in terms of, well, everything. The language barrier is half the fun though….the kids erupt into laughter any time I try to say something in Korean and I chuckle to myself while nodding any time they make a long, drawn out statement or question in Korean which is pretty much every few minutes of every class, so lots of laughs to be had by all parties involved.
I would say one downside to the language barrier has to do with the fact that the kids don’t take you quite as seriously. You’re in a bit of a tricky situation because not only are you dealing with little children, but their parents also pay A LOT of money to send these little munchkins to the school, so in some ways being a foreigner, you’re walking a bit more of a tightrope then you would if you were a Korean teacher or even teaching at a public school. I mean don’t get me wrong, i’m not letting these kids run all over me and i’ll raise my voice/do my best Stone Cold Steve Austin impression when I have to, but I just don’t quite have that authoritative voice/look that will have these kids thinking they’re about 5 seconds away from a call home to Mom and Dad.
In some ways though I think that’s all well and good. Sometimes towards the end of the day, they’re just not paying attention or talking in Korean non-stop and it’s so hard to get them to do their work but then I just think to myself “Man, when I was preschool, we got have an hour long nap every day; in Kindergarten, we only went to school for half a day, and these guys have been here since 9:00 and it’s 3:45 right…except no naps and no half days”. That’s why I generally try not to be too strict or get bent out of shape if Jiwon runs around the table a few times yelling in Korean anytime a song comes on, or when Yoon is trying to have a seemingly serious conversation about only god knows what as I try to explain the directions to her for an activity, or when MJ is entirely in his own world making his pencil fight his eraser in an epic battle at pretty much any given point of the day. These kids teachers and parents will be pushing them to their limits for the next 10+ years (maybe i’ll write another post about this another time, but believe me, these kids have their hands full from an early age), so who am I to say no if a kid is being just that and goofs off in my class for a while (note: I don’t want anyone getting the idea that our school is overloading these kids with work; they have tons of gym/play/arts & crafts time just like any other preschooler or kindergartner would, but yes their days are undeniably longer)?
Alrighty, well I could probably go on for a while yet, but for the sake of not wanting to ruin this wonderfully crafted, jocular, insightful post (what it is in my mind) by having it become a bit too redundant and mundane (what it likely already is to you, the audience), I will leave you with a simple quote:
“Travel early and travel often. Live abroad, if you can. Understand cultures other than your own. As your understanding of other cultures increases, your understanding of yourself and your own culture will increase exponentially”
Tom Freston
All it takes is one Stone Cold Stunner and they’ll all get in line haha! Psyche! Hope your coloring game is reaching new heights!