Teaching English

Teaching here is much different than in Japan, and of course much different than back home (thank goodness!!!). We work from 2:30-10:00pm M-F and we have the option to work Saturdays from 4:30-7:15pm for extra money. We work for ELC, which is a big company with locations throughout all of S. Korea. Our school is a five story building and has about 1,000 students that come 5 days a week. There are 7 foreign teachers and 30 Korean teachers. On the first floor and 1/2 of the second floor, every teacher has a desk with their own computer and Internet (pictured on the left). The other 4 floors are all classrooms. We teach anywhere from 6 to 8, 38minute classes a day and we use textbooks, so not much planning is needed. We're also encouraged to do additional activities with the kids, like crafts and games. Each student has a total of 10 periods they come a week, which usually works out to 2 periods a day, 5 days a week. They meet with Korean teachers for 8 of those periods, which is mostly vocab., grammar, and sentence structure. The foreign teacher meets with the students for 2 periods a week, which focuses on pronunciation and speaking. The school also offers what they call "Genius classes" for students who are much more fluent in English. These students only meet with foreign teachers. Most of the kids English is unbelievable, especially compared to the Japanese kids (which we only taught for 45 minutes, 1 day a week). We teach students ages 7-16. On Christmas Eve, the school hosted an event called Market day for the elementary students. The school had various classrooms set-up with various activities and games.

Here is a video of one of Melissa's students reading a letter she wrote to Santa Clause. This is so cute!

Her letter says:

"Merry Christmas, Santa Claus. I'm pretty Ally. This year I would like a doll, a hamster, sneakers and a cute dog. My name is Ally and I am 8 years old. I live in West Tower. Oh, how old are you? I think you're 100 years. I was a good girl this year because I bought vegetables for my mother. I also was a nice friend. Please give me the presents. Bye-Bye mister. Ta ta.



Here are some pictures of "Market Day":
This is James, the director of the school, dressed as Santa

Showing off our hand tattoos

Melissa playing games with students.

Face Painting
Snack Room

Karaoke Room

Horoscope and Tarot card readings>