It's Tuesday, so that means that there's badminton club today! Last week the vice principal was there and today the principal was there! I actually played on the same team as the principal and we won! It was really fun, although the principal did accidentally hit me with his racket! He felt bad but It wasn't bad at all. Everyone is quite intense about badminton in our little club but It's nice because we really are just there to have fun and get some exercise so it's been really nice. Also, there's usually some food! I had a lovely time at badminton club today so I'm looking forward to playing again next week!
0 Comments
So on Sunday, I decided to go out to eat (again)! I went to the same place where I got the takeout Kimbap last weekend. This time, instead of Kimbap, I got bulgogi mandu (seasoned beef dumpling). It was quite good! It was also one of the few things on the menu that when I read it, I knew what it was! With the dumplings came some soup and some lightly pickled radishes. It was really good and I hope to go back to this place to try something new next time! This whole meal also only cost me 4,000 Won or about $3.50. It was a good size for just me! If I had wanted, I could have gone just outside of this shop and down the street a bit to get some ice cream from Baskin Robinns!
One thing that I've found really interesting about Korean restaurants is that the silverware is self-serve. A lot of the water is also self serve. The spoons, chopsticks, and napkins are all usually in a little slide out drawer attached to the table. All of utensils are inside so it's easy to get what you need and be on your way. There is often a water filter/cooler system and cups located in a container or shelf and you can just get water when you need it! It's really nice. I'm excited to maybe go back to this place at some point and try even more food! It has been two weeks since I arrived in Seoul. Now that I’m here, I’m really enjoying a lot of things about Seoul! Everything is really close and convenient. I have two convenience stores within 1-5 minutes of walking distance. These convenience stores have EVERYTHING! There is packaged and processed food and there is fresh food like eggs, meat, vegetables, and fruit. There are also household items and cleaning supplies among many other things. I’m also very close to the subway station. This means that I can go basically anywhere quickly for quite cheap. I’m also really close to the school where I’m student teaching. It makes my mornings really easy! There are so many things that I really like about Seoul, it's hard to name them all!
There are a few things that are challenging. Culturally, Korea stays up very late. Though I like staying up late, I think it's a bit tough for me to stay up late on a school night. I'm also having to learn a lot about speaking Korean. I wish that I would have studied a bit more Korean but I'm getting by. I can say a few things and get my point across as well as understand the point of the person with whom I'm speaking but it's still a challenge. There's also a difference in personal space! Overall, Seoul is living up to my expectations and very often exceeding my expectations which is great! So today, I was going to go to Myeongdong with the other English teacher from my school to go see a Korean movie with English subtitles at a Korean culture center but the other English teacher was sick so I decided to go to Myeongdong and just explore. I went with the initial goal of finding the flagship Etude House and I did find it! I forgot to take a picture of the outside but I intend to go back to Myeongdong so I'll take a picture then!
After about 40 minutes on public transportation (subway), I made it to Myeongdong. Myeongdong is a very touristy shopping district. I ended up getting off of the subway and just deciding to explore and see where it took me. I found a first Etude House and went in and found a few fun things to buy. I then went out and found a few more stores to look in. I was interested to see that there was a Lush (it was WAY more expensive here than in the US). I then found a Forever 21 and explored there a bit. I then went to a coffee shop and had a bit of a snack (a chocolate muffin!). I then just went around the shopping area of Myeongdong and found a cat cafe! I also found a store called Artbox where there were a bunch of fun characters in the store! It was kind of like Daiso but cuter! I then proceeded to get lost. I did have a map on my phone and access to the internet so I wasn't worried! It was more of an adventure! Through this adventure, I found a great view of Namsan Tower and a Gong Cha! It was great! Overall I had a wonderful day! I'm glad I spent my time today just exploring! Down below, take a look at my gallery of captioned pictures for where I went and what I did today! 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 :). 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! |
AllisonThese are the chronicles of my time before, during, and after student teaching in South Korea! Archives
March 2020
Categories
All
|