See below for the long thingy I posted about 20 minutes ago.
But one more thing - about Korean language learnin'.
The new school year has brought many a new thing. New classes (I heart my new classes!), new lesson plans (mostly successful) and many, many new teachers.
About 1/3rd of the teachers in my school transfered in a couple of months ago. And can I just say, I'm loving it. I now actually hang out with the teachers! None of them are English teachers, and that's ok. We get by. Through my efforts in learning Korean, and their efforts in dredging up the English that they learned in school (they surprise themselves at their ability, I think, sometimes!), we manage to have fun. There's one teacher in particular who is an active learner and more fluent in English than the others (rest assured, dictionaries are still necessary!) that has been a real catalyst to this.
But all that stuff I said about not wanting to learn Korean for the teachers I work with, that's only applying to the 2/3rds that were at my school before, who made little effort to communicate with me. These new teachers, I want to learn Korean even more now than ever before, because I enjoy hanging out with them, and wish I could understand everything being said without pauses for summary, or shifts into English conversation... I know it's hokey, but there's something so nice and so normal about socializing with people from my workplace (in non-contrived situations.) I'm studying for a beginner proficiency test in October... I need to have a working vocab of approximately 800 (level 1) to 2000 (level 2) words. I think I can do it. I am aiming for level 2, but will be happy with level 1.
So. Other than wondering why the English teachers still (with the exception of 2) won't talk to me with other people around, the school situation is terrific, the Korean situation is terrific (if not still too slow!). But back to the English teachers. Why won't they talk to me if others are around to hear, when the non-English teachers, who have lower skill levels, will? If anyone can explain this to me, I'd like to know.
And, after being at my school for 8 months, the girl who studied in Australia has finally gathered the confidence to talk to me -- I've heard from her hagwon teachers that she's in my school but afraid to approach me (I'm scary, I know!), and today, she came by to visit with two of her friends. WOOOO! I think they'll come by to see me again soon. Progress is small, but one day, one day, people will not be afraid of speaking to me. (And conversely, I will not be afraid to speak to them in Korean!)
That is all for now. Really.
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1 comment:
I think the reason that the English teachers won't speak to you is because they might be embarassed about their English abilities. The other teachers don't profess and great English skills, which makes it no big deal if they make mistakes or screw up. The English teachers get paid to know and teach English and have a lot more on the line if they screw up. Is it completely logical? Not really, but you can kind of see their point.
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