Teaching over here in Korea has been an adventure. I came here knowing very little about the culture, language, and what I would be teaching. Once I got into my classroom I felt like a real teacher. I would have my own students and my own room for three weeks. (Ironically no Education majors came here to teach.) I got this special feeling when I had my own 12 students that were all beginners. They knew very little English and I knew nothing about Korean. Somehow we were able to communicate properly and I could teach them.
The lesson plans were all given to the teachers and the students got a book to follow along. However, we had to make adjustments and adapt to each classes’ needs. So it was a new day every class period. Some days we would struggle a lot and other days we would blow through the material. Looking back at it now, two hour classes for three weeks was not enough time to really learn English. The whole point of the program was to get the student to talk. It took the first week to get most of them to talk at all.
The last day of class was bittersweet. I worked hard to teach and they worked hard to learn. We then surprised them with games and s’mores. The students surprised us by bringing cakes, food, and drinks. It became a time where we just stopped teaching and got to know the students better. They gave us a little bit of Korean culture and we gave them our American culture. Teaching here is something that I would do again and again. It is so hard to describe what happens because each day is a new adventure. Each day is a new memory and a new experience.
Eric Fromm