Context!

Ironically, though intending to blog about the importance of context, the scatteredness of my thoughts at the moment means this post will be largely without it. I'm in the midst of some revelations, though one never knows how fast they will stick. Maybe I'm just in a philosophical mood; maybe tomorrow will suck. Who knows? A convergence of input has made me ponder the control we have over our moods and what kind of day we have. I believe that, to a point. I believe that I can take steps to make my time here enjoyable and my job something I love. I also believe that we are innately programmed to a certain disposition, and no amount of willpower is going to make me a bottle of bubbles. (and suddenly feel like I'm writing a "This I Believe" essay for NPR...something I've long wanted to do, but never have been able to pin it down) But I've got absolutely nothing at all to lose from being more generous, less fearful, and waking up with the expectation of a good day.

I did manage to get myself a "date" with Nick the Newfoundlander. Probably won't manage another, but I enjoyed talking to him. Even managed to stop twitterpating about his accent relatively early in the conversation. He's a really interesting person; smart, motivated, and adventurous. Not that into me, though. At least I won't die wondering. He did give me a huge "Aha" moment when I was talking about the difficulties of lesson planning from scratch: there's no context. Context for me is like gravity--or something; science isn't my forte--without it, particles just fly off in every direction. Without knowing anything about my kids' language ability, their culture, their lives, Korean school practices, or what a "native" teacher lesson looks like, I'm supposed to keep these kids educated, busy, and entertained for 45 minutes. No wonder it's hard.

The lesson this week was reading Where the Wild Things Are and attempting a retelling. I may post a few of the responses--what the kids come up with and the way they express it is delightful. Context was an issue here, though, too. Not only knowing how much the kids understand--different classes had vastly different levels of comprehension and facility with the story--but just the nature of the story itself. A couple of my co-teachers told me after class that this kind of story is unknown in Korea, so the kids may have had trouble understanding it. That being the case, where do you even begin? And how do you define "imagination" or "mischief" to someone whose English vocabulary is so small? Next week, I try to explain Halloween.

Communication does seem to be improving with everyone in the school. I've been emailing out lesson plans in advance, and getting some small bits of feedback on them. Now that I actually have classes with Terrie, she can tell me what she thinks of what I'm doing. (uh oh!) I'm developing a "fan club" of students who want to talk to me every chance they get. Maybe I'll learn to make small talk in English too!

I love giving the students more creative (relatively speaking) things to do. In speaking class on Tuesday evening, I first handed out a haunted house picture and a list of directions they were to read to partners. "There is a cat on the roof. There is a mummy next to the house." Students had to draw the things in the designated places. Their pictures were fantastic! I wanted to keep them. Then I had the kids do a DIY Outburst game--gave them each a category and made them list 10 things. The spellings are interesting--always give me insight into Korean pronunciation. There's no "z" sound in Korean, so it usually ends up as a "j" or "ch" (hence Kraze Burger being said "Crotchy Burger")...and then the phenomenon reverses, so you get an item of clothing called "pazamas". On the Food list, I had to think for whole minutes and ultimately speak out loud to figure out "hilaphaniow". My favorite, though, was a dictation exhorting students to care for the Earth--one had written "bitch beach", then apparently decided the latter was correct.

I definitely made the right choice in applying to public school. I haven't taught a full week of classes since mid-September, and won't for another 3 weeks at least. Today was supposed to be an arts festival, but it, too, was a casualty of swine flu paranoia. Yesterday, however, was a surprise--some kind of career day thing or some such where each grade trotted off to a different location in Seoul for reasons I haven't been able to wheedle out of anybody. I almost had a quiet day at my desk, but, so very fortunately, I realized that did NOT mean I would get any work done and so took Ms. Cho up on her offer of taking me to the 3rd graders vocational high school fair. Korean kids can choose either a comprehensive, university-prep high school, or one that begins training for some kind of trade. And while, according to Ms. Cho, only about 10 kids in each class are looking at the vocational schools, they all got to come mess about at this fair for a couple hours before calling it a day and going home.

Typifying the Korean penchant for form over function, the schools had booths set up to attract students with activities and trinkets. Initially, I was looking for some connection between the school's specialty and their setup, but that just proves I'm still new here. Ms. Cho and I wandered around, watching kids make magnets and hair bows, laughing at the lineup of boys at the hand massage booth (girls could have their hands massaged directly, but boys had to have it done through a plastic bag); and picking up our share of tchotchkes (I have a pig charm for my phone now--I'm starting to assimilate) and free cookies from the teacher pavilion. The whole thing was outside...fortunately yesterday was the apotheosis of fall days and the event was in a beautifully treed area of town, so was quite pleasant all round.

When our day ended at 10:30, the teachers were discussing getting lunch or going to a movie. I would have just as soon gone home, but I didn't want to be a party pooper, so, awful as being in a movie theater on a day like that would have been, I was ready to follow the crowd. But then a magical thing happened...Ms. Cho asked me if I wanted to go shopping--at Costco!!! Cue angel trumpets! So we drove through this beautiful neighborhood on this beautiful day to Waygook Eden and walked among the Stacks of Yummy Familiarity and ate fabulous, unadulterated pizza for lunch. I haven't had such a good time since City Market in Cortez! And it was still only noon--rounded out the day with a walk through traditional alleys and boutique shops near Gyeongbokgung Palace, and got started on my Christmas shopping in Insadong.

I feel like I'm nearing the end of "the beginning". A good place to be!