Saturday in Seoul!

So it's been like three days since I updated, but it was a few really exciting days! Let's see...

Wednesday I taught my advanced class with Lauren, and I think it went really well. The advanced kids were so unbelievably cute. Most of them were probably late middle-school early high-school age, and they were just amazing. One kid, I think, was fluent, but the rest of them were just adorable! They were really nice, raised their hands to answer questions, and so polite! I did a quick mini-powerpoint about different kinds of characteristics to teach them some new adjectives. The teacher told me they'd know most of the basics, so I used some cooler words (hunk, chick, bird, senior citizen, elderly, hot, sexy, etc.)... and I used pictures of Korean and American celebrities to illustrate the qualities, which I think they had fun with. Then we played the game where you tape a card to someone's back with a name on it, and they have to figure out who they are by asking 'yes' or 'no' questions. I was worried about how it would go, but they seemed to have fun, and it took the amount of time I'd estimated. After the break, we played American/Korean Pop Culture Jeopardy in teams, which I think they liked even more. Have I mentioned how cute they were? One of the girls said, "Brittany, you are so pfunny!" (They don't have an 'f' sound in Korean, so they have a hard time with it, and it usually sounds like a 'p.') I said, "Thank you!"

Then... I found out my placement! I'm going to be teaching in a city called Naju, which is in Cheonnam-do (the province South-Cheolla). See the links below to see a map and some more information about Naju. There's a new program this year with a few spots where an ETA can teach at two very small schools (schools with would be too small to warrant an ETA by themselves). I only live at one homestay, obviously, and I only go to one school each day. It's also the schools' job to arrange my transportation and stuff. So I asked for that program, or to be placed in a single-sex high school. I didn't know, in fact, that the schools in that program would all be co-ed middle schools. So now I'm teaching at two co-ed middle schools. Interesting! I'm not really disappointed at all, because most of the students I've been teaching in the past week are middle-school age, and they're super-cute and nice and polite, so it might be for the best. I'm a little sad, because I know I can't be as academically rigorous as I could at a high school, but I'm really happy to be at small schools.

One school, NMS, has a total of 6 classes and about 110 students. Two seventh grade, two eighth grade, and two ninth grade. The other school, DMS, has... wait for it... 84 students total. One class of each grade. So yeah, I'm really happy about that, because it means I'll probably get to teach at at least one of the schools twice a week, and I'll be able to really get to know the students and teachers (hopefully). Which is something I'm really excited about. So yeah... I can't wait to GO!

If you Google my town, which is the first thing I did, you'll see that it's actually quite famous, because there's apparently a statue of the Virgin Mary that has cried blood on, I think, a couple of occasions. I'm not sure if I'll be checking that out, but there are some interesting pictures on the internet. Go to www.images.google.com and then type in "Naju" to see what I'm talking about. I can't seem to find out much else about the city, except that it has famous pears. But whatever! We'll see what happens!

I also got some information about my homestay. Because the schools have never had an ETA before, they're apparently really excited, so they've already set up my homestay. Unlike 90% of the ETAs, who will be in apartments, I get to be in a four bedroom house. Apparently there are five people in the family, which is awesome, because that means I'll most likely have some host siblings, at least one of whom probably goes to my school! yay! And according to the Coordinator, my host parents probably speak English pretty well, which will be a relief!
I can't actually wait to get to GO. I mean, I know we're here for the practice teaching during these two weeks, and for three more weeks of language instruction, but I didn't come to Korea to live in a dorm with a bunch of Americans and go to classes. I came to TEACH and meet Korean people! So I'm starting to count the days.

Map: This map doesn't actually show Naju, but if you look in the Southwest corner you'll see the name "Chollanam-do" in red--that's the name of my province. You will also see "Kwangju" in black... that's something like the 6th largest city in the country, and the capital of Chollanam-do. Naju is about 40 minutes from there by bus.

A Wikipedia article about Naju...
Naju's City Website

Good news... language classes are going a lot better lately. Probably because I'm putting in a LOT of outside work. I don't have much free time, but I devote a huge percentage of it to studying. I've got a lot of vocab to learn, a lot of grammar to master, and just a lot of speaking practice to do. But I've started reading the chapter ahead and translating everything in the book, and trying to do the exercises ahead of time on my own. I find that once I've seen the concept explained (very briefly) in (poor) English in the book, I'm able to understand her explanation in Korean a lot easier. It's going well so far, anyway. I'm only miserable during the last part of class, with the teacher I don't like.

I'm not sure what else I was going to blog about. Happy birthday to someone special! I didn't forget... really. :)

Oh yeah! I'm going to Seoul this Saturday! I'm going with Tim, my roommate Amy, and Meghan (the girl I hiked with, and who is also in Naju! Tim speaks quite a bit of Korean, so we're going to make an adventure of it. So expect another massive set of pictures and a lot entry on Sunday night. I have my last lesson on Monday morning, so I'll be scrounging to finish that, no doubt, but then I'll have lots of free time for studying next week!