Thursday, January 21, 2010

English




There were 3 different grades in the high school I taught at, and I had 1st and 2nd graders. The latter were much more fun to teach, especially given that the students at this particular high school just started learning English in middle school. Most Koreans start learning English in elementary school, but our school was quite poor (as were its students), which made it challenging at times. Overall, though, the students were very friendly. They often came to the office (above) and visited my cubicle. You can't see it, but the two vice principles sit at the front of the cubicles in two facing desks. The male vice principal was calling students and teachers to his desk about 75% of the time to yell at them; and about 15% of his time screaming into the phone in front of my desk. Fortunately he did not speak English (only the English teachers did); it was one time I was thankful for the communication barrier.
As you can see, the students were dressed in jackets and scarves as the classrooms got pretty cold. The girls in the top photo came to my desk every day and left little notes when I was gone. They were obsessed with Twilight, along with the entire school.

Kumgok High School





Here's pictures from the high school I taught at and the surrounding area. I fortunately got shots during the short-lived autumn when the leaves were in full color and the mountains were quite beautiful. Our school principal put out lots of flowers around the school grounds, which was nice before they started rotting. The school is right next to a mountain trail, which I took a few hikes on with some of the other teachers during our breaks.

More pictures...


I figured it's about time I start putting some more pictures on here...I'm afraid my blog has been woefully bare for some time now. I had tried to upload a bunch of photos while in Korea, only to have them be deleted when I published the post. So hopefully this works!

Here's a typical Korean meal called bibimbap, with rice, mountain vegetables, and a fried egg. It was traditionally served by peasants with the leftovers from the aristocrats, but is very popular everywhere today.
Koreans like having small side dishes and a soup with most meals--and always kimchi, a spicy pickled cabbage that I never acquired a taste for!