The Wonderful Adventures of the Hemp-Berries » ESL

The Frustration Station

The Hempberry — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 23:28:23 +0000

Nearly a week back into school and I now remember why I was so eagerly looking forward to winter break. The same frustrations, same disappointments, and the same general bullshit is still around, waiting for me like a giant lightning shooting crab waits for you when you wake up from a bad dream and go back to sleep, where lightning crab picks up where you two left off.

I now teach all eleven first grade classes at my high just once a week and now five second grade classes as well. I taught each first grade class twice a week last year and it was a total cluster fuck. I had forty teen boys per class, no working equipment, and no help in class. There were two teachers that were there to help in class but they either “went for lunch” and never came back or just beat the kids. Not much got done. This year is going to be even more of the same. The assistants who will probably never show up to class are the two Japanese teachers who of course don’t speak any English. Not much is going to get done during these next three months either.

The equipment is also completely broken as per usual. A small part of me was super hopeful that it would be working so I could do more stimulating topics and lessons with students. None of the computers or tvs worked in any of the classes last year, limiting what I could do. I tried doing lessons for the students but it’s nearly impossible to keep forty students per class interested in anything you’re trying to teach without giving them something to look at to keep their interest in you. Last year was a year of word searches and crosswords and I hated every second of it. It’s looking like these next ninety days will be more of the same. I feel awful doing things like this but what choice do I have given the circumstances I work within?

I came to this school last June, feeling confident that I could do a great job at a new a school in a new city for me. How wrong I was. It’s been a pretty disappointing year teaching wise but it will all be over in just over ninety days. I just need to keep reminding myself that.

More Student Abuse

The Hempberry — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:26:33 +0000

Yesterday I witnessed a teacher choking a student at my high school here in Korea. The teacher began shoving the student then began choking him for a few seconds at a time. The student was in tears but the teacher would not relent. He eventually stopped and the student ran away. This kind of stuff happens here on a daily basis. Because I am not Korean, my word if I reported these abuses would not stand up. If anything, I would somehow be blamed for all of this happening. This is the way Korea works.

I am however going to start bringing a camera into school and start to record any instances of student abuse. Maybe if the teachers know they are being recorded, they will stop hitting students.

Discipline and Punishment In Schools in South Korea

The Hempberry — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:00:20 +0000

The stick, a slap across the tigh of a student, or smacking a student across the backside of their head, all common things in the South Korean school system. You’ve no doubt witnessed it at one point or another during your time in Korea. It is used by teachers to keep students in line, motivate, and intimidate.

The most common symbol of discipline is the stick. The stick being a bamboo rod, a plastic rod, a tree branch, or a golf club shaft. This is used to hit desks or students, depending on the situation. It’s pretty normal for me to hear the whack of a stick from a nearby classroom while I was at my desk in the main office. It made me shudder every time I heard the noise.

Discipline from what I’ve witnessed in both of my school varies greatly by gender. At the girls high school, students were not hit by teachers. The teachers would intimidate them by hitting the stick on their desk or just yell at them. This is what my students told me. In cases where students were fighting or caught smoking, teachers would pinch a student’s face really hard for fifteen seconds or until the student started to cry.

Discipline at the boys high school I am working at is way more common and brutal than it ever was at the girls school. The boys have been kicked, punched in the stomach, slapped across the face, and hit with bamboo rods. It sickens me to see these kids being hit. When I ask teachers about this, they just reply “Korean culture” and leave it at that. What does hitting a student teach them? Some students laugh as they’re being hit and turn it into a game to deal with the punishment. How will this affect the students in the future?

My students say that there is less abuse in schools than before but that it is still very common and feel that it will be for some time. I can only hope that as time goes on, the sticks will be put away and the fists become unclenched and that teachers find other ways of dealing with students.

Deskwarming

The Hempberry — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:16:35 +0000

It’s that time of year. Deskwarming has begun. This is the time of year where regular classes have come to an end and “summer vacation” has begun. For most of us, we either spend eight hours a day at our desks or tteaching extra classes. The time is supposed to be used by foreign teachers to lesson plan for the rest of the semester. Most of us already have that done in advance, teach from books, or just spend it on Facebook. Deskwarming is anything but productive. The following video has recently gone viral amongst us teachers in Korea. It’s something we can relate to.

Deskwarming is not all that bad though. It does have its downsides but is not the end of the world.

Accomodation in Korea: Officetels

The Hempberry — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:59:49 +0000

Coming to Korea for the first time and wondering what type of apartment you will be living in during your stay in the country? This article will try and explain what exactly your abode will be like. Prepare to learn about Officetels.

What is an Officetel you ask? Galbijim has the definition of an Officetel as a type of apartment with a few more amenities available than usual. My definition of an Officetel is a studio apartment that consists of one room plus a bathroom. I spent two years in Mokpo living in an Officetel that my school provided for me. It consisted of a small entrance way, a small bathroom/shower stall, a main room with bed, tv, and stove, and a small closet where the water heater was kept. Some Officetels I’ve seen had balcony’s as well. Some Officetels are also a loft apartment (slightly more space).

Officetels are much cheaper for schools to rent for their foreign teachers to live in than renting an apartment. This also goes for famalies too. I’ve seen many famalies with 4-5 people in total all living in a one room studio. You will most likely end up living in one of these tiny places. I had mixed feeling about living in an Officetel. Some days it was alright and some it was shitty. Here are some pros and cons to living in an Officetel.

Pros
- The small size of an Officetel means that it’s easy to cool or heat.
- Officetels are small and don’t take a long time to clean.
- You can multitask in the bathroom (shower while doing laundry while brushing your teeth)
- If you don’t need lots of space to live, Officetels are perfect.

Cons
- Poor construction. These places are built cheaply. Windows leak air, things never work, etc. Be careful.
- If you can’t stand living in small spaces, you’re screwed.
- The walls are very thin.
- You can’t fit more than 4-5 people into an Officetel comfortably.
- One room and one room only.
- No bathtub.
-The last picture. Make sure you switch your shower/sink back onto the sink before trying to use the sink or you’re in for a surprise.
- Lack of sunlight. My apartment was built before the larger apartments across the street were. The apartments blocked all sunlight from entering my place. My Officetel also had two sets of windows, one of which was tined and the other was frosted glass.

Welcome to your (probable) new home when you come to Korea. Officetels generally aren’t that bad to live in. I liked it my first year in Korea but not so much my second. The lack of light was getting to me as was the lack of space. But for one year in Korea, this is a great type of accomodation and will be fine for living. I’m going to also post some flickr searches of Officetels as well as Youtube results. Click on the links in the previous sentence to see.

The Hempberry — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:02:26 +0000

Last week was my first week back at school. There have been many changes over the winter break. Changes I thought would never happen at my school. For the past two years, I have been teaching (or trying) to teach classes of 30 teens English without the support of the Korean teachers at school. Some teachers would come to class then sneak out the back door as soon as class begun, leaving me trying to keep a class in order. Usually I could hold my own in the class and keep the class going, but sometimes having a Korean English teacher there would have greatly benefitted the students with learning. My Korean is pretty limited and I can’t often translate things effectively into Korean or English for them sometimes. This year, I have FOUR teachers to help me in class and so far the difference is night and day compared to the past two years. The students are learning more and the classes are flowing much smoother and I am also enjoying teaching again. It’s also been great to see my students again too.

Seventeen days to go! I’m off to Suncheon this weekend to explore where I’ll be living in two months and meet some people. It should be good. Have a good weekend!

Class Sizes for Grade 1 in High School

The Hempberry — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:33:01 +0000

At my high school for the past two years, there have been eight of each grade (1,2,3). Korean teachers across Jeollanamdo have been laid off and as a result, high school first graders have been compressed into seven classes at my school. I now teach fifteen classes a week instead of sixteen. Both classes I visited yesterday had around thirty seven kids on average per class in them. Yowza! But there is a silver lining to a larger class size. I will finally have Korean teachers in class to help me with teaching and coteaching which will be a very welcome change from teaching solo the past two years. The downside to a much larger class size is students will get much less time with a teacher than before and (perhaps) a slightly reduced quality of education. I also feel for their homeroom teachers who have even more kids and even more responsibility as well.

I don’t know about cities outside of Mokpo and whether this is the norm at other schools but all my friends teaching in high schools have said that their first year classes have been cut down to seven as well. I would be interested in hearing what other people are experiencing.

Roboseyo’s Open Letter To New Teachers In Korea

The Hempberry — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:26:29 +0000

This should be read by anyone who will be coming to Korea for the first time or is thinking about coming to Korea for the first time. Roboseyo’s open letter can be found here.

Lesson: Phobias

The Hempberry — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:47:47 +0000

I did this lesson last week with my high schoolers. I began the lesson by asking them what they have a fear of (spiders, insect, mouse). I then gave them a brief definition of a phobia and told them three phobias I have and asked them to try and guess what they are. I then gave the class six examples of phobias and showed them some youtube clips of fear factor. I then asked them to work in groups and create a phobia and explain it to the class. The lesson went pretty well and got some interesting phobias. I posted the lesson Waygook and the lesson can be found by following this link.

PS. You must join waygook.org if you want to download the lesson to use. Waygook is a great resource site and has a very active community. It’s well worth checking out.

Lesson: Protests

The Hempberry — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:19:52 +0000

Several weeks ago I did a lesson with my students about protests. I started the lesson by asking them what NIMBY (Not In My Backyard Is) and they certainly knew it. I then gave them a definition of what a protest is and asked them why people protested (money, work, freedom, safety, etc). Students were given examples of protests to watch on youtube then I asked if they knew what a protest chant is. I gave students an exmaple of a scenario protest (students protesting against me) and the protest chant the class had to should was “Go Away Zach! Don’t Come Back!!!” Students were then asked about NIMBY and what things they would not want near their homes (garbage, nuclear power plants). I then gave the students their worksheet and a scrap peice of paper to make their protest sign on. Students would choose one thing to protest, give me a reason why they are protesting, and had to say their chant as a group and hold their sign high in the air for all to see. The lesson was real successful and most classes had some really interesting things to protest. I have postes the lesson on Waygook.org and the lesson can be downloaded by following this link.

Here are some of the protest signs some classes made.