I can now confirm that a Whopper in Korea is the same as a Whopper in the US. Burger King has a lot of the same things as home :) One of the big differences though was the Coke. It was a little different. Not bad, it just had a little bit of a different taste. Overall, it was a little bit of America near my apartment. I also found a local street market! I saw a lot of different stalls with food and other things to buy. I also found a really local grocery store but I didn't go in. I might go explore there this weekend. I also want to build up some of my language skills to order from the different food stalls because a lot of the food smelled AMAZING!
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Here's my drawing of the US (the picture cut off Texas and Florida) and a glimpse at some of my picture cards for my lesson! I'm supposed to start teaching my American culture lessons tomorrow and I'm kind of nervous. I think that I've really worked to scaffold and make these lessons accessible to many of the grade levels. I have even worked with my cooperating teacher to ensure that the lessons are appropriate for each grade that I will be teaching but it's the first lesson(s) so I don't really know how it will all go. I'm using some elements of GLAD and trying to make the material really accessible for all of the students but we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Things here at my school are going really well! I've co-taught one English lesson so far and I have taught a lesson about my hometown(s). Because I am in a public Korean elementary school, a lot of the instruction during the day is in Korean. This means that it is really hard for me to be a regular classroom teacher. Instead, I am what the teachers call a "subject teacher" my job is essentially to provide English instruction as a native speaker of English as well as to share lessons about my home culture. I am planning on teaching a 10 week (one lesson per week) unit on America and American culture. The scary thing is I will be teaching these lessons to all of the grades in the school. First grade through sixth grade. That is kind of scary but I'm really excited to take on this role of being a bit of an EFL (English as a foreign language) specialist which is extremely similar to my endorsement that would allow for me to teach ELLs (English langauge learners) back home. I will essentially be teaching the same lesson to every class but it will be tailored to meet the language and developmental abilities of each grade. I'm supposed to start with some fourth and fifth grade classes on Thursday so I hope it goes well!
Last night, we as a school went out to dinner! It was really great! We ate a lot of traditional Korean foods and we also went out for coffee afterwards. I posted pictures of this in the pictures page here. (Click it, it will take you to the picture page :) ). I had a lovely night and tried several new foods like stingray/skate. It had a good taste but the texture was very different from how it looked. I had a lovely time after school today with several of the teachers. Every Tuesday, the teachers get together to play badminton and have a good time. I really enjoyed badminton all throughout school but I never really had the opportunity to play it recreationally so it was really nice to be able to go play a fun sport with several of the teachers from the school (even the vice principal!). It was a great time! I really enjoyed how we could all play a sport together and not really need to use our language. We were all simply having fun! I am now glad that I was forced to take some of those PE classes in school :) knowing some of the rules to badminton came in handy! I know this post was a lot of different things smashed together but a lot has happened in just a few days! Please go look at the pictures page if you want to see some of the pictures that I have taken while I've been here! It's a bit more interesting than just reading all of this :). This was my dinner tonight. I decided to be brave and go out to this place called hansot doshirak or hansot lunch box. I had found it on my map and thought that it would be interesting to try. I had also looked at their menu online and it looked like they had food that I wouldn't mind eating. I went to the shop and it was really small. Like REALLY small and all of the menu was in Korean. Luckily there were some signs with pictures so I was able to find a picture that looked good and read its Korean name. I decided to go with something that said "chicken" in the name. I figured that might be good! I went into the shop and successfully ordered my food! In Korean! By no means was my Korean great but I got food and the lady that took my order understood me (I'm assuming since I got food) so I'm happy. The food was a bit spicy but it was good!
If you want to read what all of the food was, click on the picture with the food and I will have a description there. :) I went on a bit of a short adventure today! I had a mission to go buy some indoor shoes because in the school we are supposed to change our shoes so that we keep the inside of the school clean. I went to the Japanese chain store Daiso and after a bit of trouble finding the actual store and needing to use Google Translate a couple of times, I found it! I accomplished my mission in buying indoor shoes and I found a cute pair of socks! To give myself a bit of a reward, I went to a bubble tea shop called Gong Cha. I had heard really good things online about Gong Cha and they were not wrong!
Gong Cha is available in Asia and only a few parts of the United States. I think it originated in Taiwan and it is supposed to be one of the best chain stores for bubble tea. The internet was not wrong! It was a bit scary going into the shop where there was no one else except the two people working behind the counter. Luckily the menu had a bit of English and I could read a bit of the Korean on the menu. I had also looked up kind of how Gong Cha works when ordering. I picked my size, tea/drink base, pearls, sugar level, and ice level. The workers behind the counter were very helpful and very understanding when it came to my inability to speak Korean very well. I can kind of say, "excuse me," "sorry," "yes," and "no" but that did not help me much in ordering a drink! I had seen on the internet that the iced black tea drink with 30% sugar and the tapioca pearls was good so I decided that I would get that! It was delicious! I really enjoyed it and it was a wonderful treat! I also felt really accomplished in having ordered something in a Korean shop all by myself! I hope to go back and maybe try a different kind of tea or drink base. I think it is strawberry season here as I keep seeing lots of pictures of strawberry themed drinks and pastries so I might try something strawberry soon! Overall, this was a successful adventure and I found several other places that I want to go to and shop and a few places where I want to go get food! We'll see how that goes! Today I taught my first "lesson." It wasn't much of a lesson. It was more of me just talking about my hometown and where I went to school. Luckily I had a book and some playing cards with pictures of my home state on them and I had the students working to look through these pictures and sort them from what I had shown them and what other pictures they saw. It ended up being a pretty short lesson but I think I have already learned a lot about teaching English in an EFL setting versus an ESL setting.
In my lesson, I also shared about some of the things that I like like K-pop (BigBang) and Hamilton (which none of the students really knew anything about which was not surprising as I figured it was a bit of a shot in the dark). I also shared that I really liked to read. I then asked the students to share a bit about what they like so that I could get to know a little about them. Some students were more eager to share than others but whenever I would go up to a student and ask them, "What do you like?" they all had an answer that was pretty good! Although the management strategies differ a bit from 2nd grade, I think that working with these 6th graders is going to be a great experience in teaching and learning for both me and the students. Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I've posted. After about 24 hours of travelling I made it to Seoul, South Korea and my apartment at about 8pm Korean time on Monday the 27th and at about 4am Oregon time. It was a really long trip but I am really happy to be here! I spent yesterday (the 28th) at my school meeting staff and faculty members and getting to know the building. The school is really close to my apartment!
My apartment is a very nice size and it is quite close to at least one convenience store, the subway, and a lot of different shops and cafes! I'm hoping to post some pictures soon of both my apartment and some of the surrounding area! Today (March 1st) was a holiday and yesterday the 28th was the students' last day of break. Tomorrow I begin with the students in the classroom. I'm really excited to start teaching and working with and learning from everyone in the school! I am so excited to go to Korea and begin my student teaching! I’m really hoping to learn a lot about the Korean language and to have a unique experience within a school. Because I will be teaching in an elementary school, I am excited to gain more experience and pick up some new skills in working with students who are English language learners! I am also excited to learn about Korean culture and how it is both different from and similar to my own culture. In preparation for my experience, I have done a bit of specific research in relation to my host school such as what the neighborhood is like and what is taught in the school. I have been in touch with my cooperating teacher to learn a bit about the Korean National Curriculum that is taught in schools. Although I have only been learning about my host school for a short time, I have been learning about Korea and Korean culture for a while. I have been interested in Korean pop music and through that I have discovered different people who have blogged about life and culture in Korea. I also have several friends who grew up in Korea and have shared parts of their culture with me. I have also previously visited Korea as a tourist and I am very excited to visit again as a student teacher. There are a lot of things that I am excited about for this experience. I’m excited to meet new people who are in the same profession as I am but may have a different perspective that I can learn from. I am also excited to learn more about the Korean language and pick up as much as I can. I’m also excited for all of the delicious Korean food that I will get to eat! Although I am excited for a lot of things, I’m a bit nervous about getting to know the neighborhood and community that I will be living and working in. I want to be able to get to know this community and do my best to be a part of it. I’m not always the most outgoing person which can make this hard but I hope to do my best to make this experience great. Some ways that I have strategized to do this are to get to know my mentor teacher as well as my supervisor and principal because they are already members of this community and will have a lot of knowledge to share with me about where I will be living and working. I’m also hoping to reach out to people who I already know and have met in Korea. This would help for me to get out and do more things and get to know the country even better. I’m already really excited for this trip and I am looking forward to the experiences I will have in this program. This will be a new adventure but I am hoping it will be amazing! |
AllisonThese are the chronicles of my time before, during, and after student teaching in South Korea! Archives
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