Countries I've Been To

Create Your Own Map of Visited Countries

Via EFL Geek, who doesn't think he's traveled sufficiently. As an aside, some of the best traveled people I've met have been Korean elementary teachers. Quite a few of my students past and present have been to many more countries than I have. By the way, don't forget to see that bit of red in the middle of the map; I've been there twice.

Speaking of maps, readers might recall my earlier post on Taiwan about Google Maps' listing Taiwan as a province of China. As reported by the BBC, Google has sinced fixed the problem.

Adult Students

It was the last day of term, as opposed to the program, of my elementary teachers. I sprung an invitation on them last week, which I didn't realize would inconvenience them. Nevertheless, we all went out for supper today, and they were, as always, very kind. It was a wonderful time. I really have grown very fond of this group, like I was of my first group of adult students. They spoiled me tonight!

In other news, the 7:30am program for adults, which was taught by three teachers at my school, has been cancelled due to lack of enrollment. This is bad. On the one hand, I'm worn out, and I need a bit of a break. The last two months have been wonderful, but also stressful, as I seek to get a better job in order to provide for my future wife and family. I also had the unusual bullying problem in my one class, and all my other classes were more rowdy than usual, too. On the other hand, I will also lose the experience that those three hours a week added. Fortunately, the elementary teachers program remains firmly in place for the Tuesday/Thursday classes. The school could likely have given me a term off the morning classes, but now that opportunity in the morning is gone for good; hence, I'm not has happy about the break as I would be otherwise. Fortunately, I may have just picked up a language partner, as I remain on friendly terms with two of the gentlemen from that program.

Of Blogging and Bloggers

I had occasion to meet both the Gypsy Scholar and the Big Hominid in the last two days. They are both very interesting, very nice people.
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On another note, I hope you all like the pictures I added at the top. Unfortunately, my computer has suddenly become unhappy loading the pictures (although not the ones on the top of the page), and refuses to cooperate unless I allow both cookies and ads on my firewall. Sometimes, firewalls seem more trouble than they're worth. But if anyone else has problems loading the page, please leave a comment and let me know.

By the way, I've just finished the (X)HTML chapters in my book on the subject, and am about to start the section on CSS, which is what really gives (X)HTML its power. Exciting stuff! Within the next few months, I hope to be able to create a website that will reflect both my interest in teaching English to adults, as well as my growing interest in website creation.

Cultural Differences in the Classroom

Yesterday two cultural differences combined to give me a very bad day.

As detailed a few posts ago, there's a bully in one of my classes. Or, perhaps there are three. These girls all gang up on the youngest girl, and gossip about her in Korean, and give her "the look" as often as possible. This goes on everyday, but it's been getting worse lately. Anyway, yesterday the mother came to school, and before class chewed out two of the students. They were sullen all day, but persisted in trying to communicate in Korean even after being told to desist. Eventually, I had them spaced far apart from each other, and I gave them a detention afterwards.

Now, let it be said that I have no problem with younger students showing respect to older students. I DO have a problem with older students who will bully younger students. I had some very harsh words for the students after class, and I kind of regret it. On the other hand, I didn't shout, so it's possible the students didn't realize how angry I was. I hate shouting, and rarely do so.

There's an interesting twist on this story. When I asked my class of elementary teachers what I should do, they said I should love the older students much more than the younger student. They said I was wrong to try to treat the students equally, since the older students feel gyped (Note to the Gypsy Scholar: is this word used reasonably? One person informed me otherwise, but I've been saying it all my life). It would be almost impossible to convey to Korean people just how utterly repulsive this idea is to a western person, especially a Canadian or American, whose societies tend towards egalitarianism. As for not saying "onni," well, in theory my school prohibits all Korean during children's classes anyway, so Hai Song & Co. don't have a leg to stand on.

On the other hand, while I am happy to be an instrument of change for the better in society, I don't want to make it worse. English education is changing the country, without doubt. People are more individualistic than they used to be, which is both a blessing and a curse. If hierarchy is the glue that binds the society together, gives it order, keeps it safe, who am I to interfere?

On the other hand, the office staff in my hogwan agree with me, and here we come to what I think is a situation that traditional Korean society has not really had much time to reflect on, namely, what happens when children of different ages are present in the same classroom. This isn't a problem in public school, where teachers only teach one grade. In a hagwon, on the other hand, the classes are sorted by ability, and not by age. In fact, one comment by one of my teacher-students was quite telling, "well, that's a hagwon, and that's what happens in hagwons."

In any case, my hagwon has its policies, and right now I'm on the right side of those policies, so things will continue. As for the bullies, they'll soon be separated into different classes from the youngest girl by the office staff when they draw up new classes for next week.
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There was another cultural difference in view yesterday. It's traditional at my school that the elementary teachers go out for dinner on the last day with the teachers. Usually the teachers themselves bring this up. However, this time, nobody did, so I did--but at the end when some of them had left. I said we would still meet in the room, and leave a note and cell number on the chalkboard, as we always do. The response to this was surprising: "Why didn't you tell us before?" (And I have to say that the person who said this had excellent expression!)

I then said, although not in so many words, that since the point of the event was to have an enjoyable time, we would not have to go, since I don't want to inflict enjoyment on them.

Since the place we would go to is close by, and since people are free to either eat, or not eat, I didn't think this would represent a problem for the teachers. Apparently they thought otherwise. Well, chalk up another one to experience.

I've posted before about how cultural differences can create meaning and enjoyment, so I guess this just comes with the territory. Still, it's kind of surprising to suddenly encounter such problems after over an entire year here.