Original

Since I've exhausted the textbooks, it was up to me to invent lessons today, and I'd say today was the most successful, fun and fast moving day so far. Why? The material was original, creative, open to innovation and based on the pace of the students, not prescribed.

I used a basic formula, showing very colorful pictures out of a particular story book, describing and showing things they may never have heard of (spatula, whisk, paddling pool, towel, buffalo, garage), giving a very basic story, and having them try to describe some of the complexities. I was also asking them to "Tell me what you see?"
After enough attempts I provided the final complete answer, and those who could say it perfectly got a sticker. Sentences like: I see 8 penguins having a party in a refrigerator.

I got a lot of students to say these sentences perfectly, and I think it's the most I've gotten out of them, the most progress, and the largest number of activated students since starting at the school. This is quite a confidence booster, and says something about the prescribed material and method currently used at the school.

I would like to have Mondays as Conversation Days (how was your weekend/let's talk about X that happened in the news this weekend), Tuesdays Textbook Days (vocabularly and role playing) Wednesday as Story Day, Thursday back to the textbook, and Friday, Quizzes and a lesson based on a review of the whole week, including Wednesday.

I went through my blog the other day and found it so tedious and some the descriptions so petty... A friend of mine is a banker and I wondered what he must think if he compares my most complex problem to his, developing gearing ratios for some multi-million rand merger and setting up contracts.

It was an unsettling feeling. It made me feel a bit like Homer Simpson. But then I remembered I don't have a family, I don't have any debt whatsoever, so I have a kind of freedom that is quite rare, and I do enjoy it. I can afford to dream and follow my dreams. I have enough time and energy and resources to allocate to what excites and interest me. I can also afford to take an interest in stuff like Peak Oil, and catch up on a lot of reading. And I can pursue something as outlandish as the Ironman.

Or am I just a loser who doesn't know how to do anything? I was reading a blog about Korea that described the types of people who are here:

Young - just out of college and supposedly hip
Poor - older and less cool, and here just for the money
Older - the even older and bitter types that can't fit in anywhere, hate everyone and everything
Exotics - the people that don't fit the mould, are kind've mysterious and attractive or at least personable

I have an idea that list was made by an American. Some countries like New Zealand and South Africa aren't able to employ (aren't able to offer enough jobs) for young and youngish people, and while the author seems to think the money made in Korea isn't much, that's not true at all if you're from quite a few other countries, including, I think, Canada.

I'm one of those people who can't understand why serious Americans (or Americans who take themselves seriously) come here when their country is the greatest (and so are they, supposedly, the greatest people). If your reason is to get to know the world better, I can think of a few better countries to visit than Korea. Korea isn't a realistic mirror of how the world sees America, or the West. For a more realistic picture, visit Africa or Europe.

But let's be realistic, I haven't come here to get serious, or to get to know the world better. It's a bonus that I can, and do, but I am here because it's a job, and it pays well and it's quite good for my soul I think, and gives me time to do plenty more. (The difference is that I am sure Americans have plenty of work opportunities in their own states and counties, and are also in great demand as teachers in Europe. They seem to realise this as almost all the Americans I've met have moved on after only a few months.)
Here, sometimes the food is pretty good, and Korean people for the most part are friendly and polite, even when they are sometimes a bit rough around the edges. The ladies are very feminine and sweet, and the men often generous and sociable.
Korea is a great country exactly because you're treated as someone quite special, but lest we forget this is due to the fact that we speak English. If Korea decided tomorrow that they would rather learn Chinese, I can guarantee the white faces will flee overnight.
I don't think many people have the stamina to remain here much longer than 1 year, and more than 3 years takes a special breed of person. The culture shock here is ongoing, and it wears you down. The sheer relief of being in one's own country after a protracted presence here is evidence enough of that. When I went back to South Africa I felt like I'd come out of a desert, that color and vitality flooded back into me.
So where do I fit in?

Can I be a little self indulgent? How about a lot? I think I am one of all of those categories mentioned above. Some might not say I am young, (stop nodding) but I think I have one of the crucial characteristics of youth which is wide eyed wonder and an excess of energy. Fransa says when I teach the whole building shudders and everyone can hear my voice. She says the director can't complain that I'm not working because it's obvious how involved I am with my students. I screetch and cackle and bellow and perform and I enjoy kidding around. But you also have to take up the coat of the grown up, and leave childish things behind. I do so slowly and reluctantly, perhaps more slowly and reluctantly than I should.
But equally, you know, I feel I am poor (I still don't own a house, am still not about to start a family, and that comes from a certain kind of poverty, including, I guess, a poverty of the spirit), and I am bitter about some stuff, like the braces I had to carry for a record 7 years (and without an improvement to my teeth).

I also think it is quite exotic to be a South African here, able to speak another language amongst ourselves, and have a unique perspective on the sometimes stereotypical bunch of teachers here.
More important than all of these, I feel, it is important to be original. To have faith that doing what comes naturally is doing your best, and is the most meaningful contribution that you can make.

A special note to myself is not to be perfectionistic about everything. To make mistakes sometimes and not make excuses. To simply say: I can't do things right all the time. Or if I contradict myself, just to say: Oh did I say that, I guess I feel diferent now, or I changed my mind. I think I'm generally allowed to do that.

Maybe I have a few good ideas on how to teach, and my mission isn't just to buck the system, shake my fist and moan.
All this is pretty moot since, once the textbooks arrive, it'll be back to that. I will try to use the prescribed material and make a little more time for my own ideas, which seem to have more merit and seem to produce meaningful results with all the children.

I am very pleased to say that today I feel as though I am back to being 100% healthy.
Tomorrow I am off to Japan.