First Day at Work

 Soon, one very long day turned into another, and the days would soon turn into weeks and months. I arrived at the school before 2pm that day to start work. It was an English Academy, or "hagwon" in Korean, for Elementary and Middle school students who would arrive after public school for 30- or 50-minute classes. Student life in Korea doesn't allow for a lot of free time, and it isn't uncommon for kids to study from morning until night between regular school and all of the various after-school academies they attend. Whether it actually results in more learning, I'm not sure, because obviously for anyone to maintain focus on a continual basis under that schedule is not easy and I found it almost impossible to have my students focus on their lesson for an entire class. It seemed like at least half the class was spent just trying to get them to pay attention, although it was much easier with the older students and by the time they were in High School, the challenge was to encourage them to interact in class or participate in discussions. 

The school was on the fifth floor of one of the typical grey concrete commercial buildings in Hyeong-gok dong. On the ground floor was Daegu Bank and there were a few other businesses and an empty floor between. Next door to the building was "Mister Pizza", there was a street vendor who sold corn dogs and various snacks just outside the entrance to the building, and many other businesses on either side of the wide street. An electronics store often played music on an external speaker as I was walking to work, popular at that time was a song whose main chorus went something along the lines of, "Anyeonghaseyo!" ("Hello!") which at the time seemed like a welcome into my new environment. 

I was completely nervous and feeling uncomfortable in my new surroundings the first day of work, but luckily another teacher name Rodney who I was replacing agreed to train me for a week. He was a stout fellow with a strong Southern drawl from Houston, Texas. At one time he had been a nuclear engineer for the American government, but had taken a turn in life after a divorce and found himself teaching in South Korea. Despite the inner battle he seemed to be struggling with, he was a very good source of information at the new job and one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. He taught me a few basic Korean commands, which were surprisingly useful in getting the students' attention, such as "choyonghihae" (be quiet), "anza" ("sit down"), "ilona sondureo" ("stand up, hands up"), which seemed rather authoritarian, but in that culture it was necessary to exhibit a strong sense of authority as a teacher. Most of the time, however, there was a lot of humor in the classes and the students were always telling jokes, which was another element of the Korean mindset that one notices right away. Rodney also demonstrated that in order to have an effective class and for the students to participate and focus the teacher needed to create an atmosphere of calm and not bring inner conflicts to work.