Sorry about the recent lack of updates but I have been busy and slightly lazy. I wanted to write about the thing that I really base all my other things in life around, my job. Chungdahm is what they call a hagwon here. It is an afterschool academy that bases their curriculum on English learning, test taking and critical learning. The classes at my school are interestingly based off of golf lingo. The basic classes are EC3, EC4, Memory Mega, Giga and Tera, and Bridge. The more advanced classes are Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albatross, Albatross+ and Masters.
As a first-term teacher, I am teaching Memory Mega, Memory Giga and Par. The classes are three hours long and very intense. We expect a lot out of these kids, but the kids actually do really well with it. My younger classes are learning about the story of Elian Gonzales and the Salem Witch Trials while my more advanced class is talking about the trends of population growth in the developing world. Crazy stuff!
It has been nice getting to know my kids. My past jobs for the last two years have been very come and go. I now get to see the same kids twice a week for 13 weeks straight. Most of these kids have also been at Chungdahm for years and have a special attachment to the school.
Pronouncing the kids Korean names can be a bit difficult as everything is pronounced differently here, so we let the kids choose English nicknames. Many of the students are still in love with Harry Potter, so we do get a lot of Harrys in our classes. I once saw a "Harry James Potter" on my class list. There are also names that have gone out of style in America but seem to be really popular here. I have already seen three Irenes and an Esther.
The job has been fun for the most part. The hours are in the evening, so its nice to be able to enjoy the day and then head off to work for the night. It'll be nice in the Winter when I go to work when the Sun goes down, so I'll be able to experience a little bit of sunshine.
Hopefully I'll get out of my procrastination slump and blog some more. Maybe I'll even put up some pictures!
For all of you that don't know what a hagwon is (like myself) I googled it and it means "A private academy, meant to supplement a public or private education."
ReplyDeleteBen-Love all the info on your job. People ask me what you do over there now I can tell them more than teach Korean kids english. Have you picked out a Korean name yet?