Red means go

It appears that bus drivers here feel a little put out about having to pause at all those pesky bus stops around town. So to make up for the inconvenience, they ignore a majority of the red traffic lights they encounter. It started out as unnerving, but now it's just one of the little joys of living in South Korea -- blinding careening through the streets, hanging on for dear life, since there aren't actually many seats on the bus. (The better to squeeze more people in, I suppose.)

I'm now in my third week here in Busan, South Korea. After a week of orientation, (during which I was given no direction except to observe the classes I would take over) I was thrown into the teaching fray. So far, I'm keeping my head above water, though I'm not sure why it seems to take me so much longer than the other teachers to plan my lessons.

School ends at 9 p.m., and while most of the Anglo teachers bolt immediately, I've been in the faculty office planning lessons until after 11 p.m. Granted, I'm still learning the ropes -- the books, the procedures, etc. And as a new teacher, I have to map out the entire class period by two-minute increments, as opposed to the brief overviews the veteran teachers are allowed to do.

The school, ECC (I forget what it stands for), occupies three stories of an office building. At 27 years of age, I am the oldest of the 7 Anglo teachers, from the United States and Canada. There are also five native Korean teachers. To me, their English skills are dubious. I hear they write and read better than they speak, which is good, since they're responsible for all the grammar lessons. Each hour-and-a-half class is broken into two 40-minute sessions. A Korean teacher teachers on half, and an Anglo teacher teaches the other half.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm generally pretty anal and organized. The Korean teachers are not. It's very slowly driving me bonkers ... Oh, who am I kidding. It's very rapidly driving me completely nuts. I was in a class today wondering why none of my students brought the right books, only to figure out half-way through the class that the co-teacher had changed the lesson plan. Of course, it was Bossman Nick who brought that to my attention, (he watches my classes through the window in the door) adding that it was half my fault that I hadn't checked with the teacher before class. Why the hell do we have lesson plans if we're not going to follow them?!

My students range in age from 7 to 17. For the most part, they're good kids, though I had the preconceived notion that Asian kids are very well behaved, and that's not necessarily the case. I get the impression they're better for the Korean teachers, and try to get away with murder in front of the Anglo teachers. I enjoy the 10- to 12-year olds the best. They're English skills are generally decent, but they still have a sense of fun. The older teens are dead inside ... Really, they're just super overworked and exhausted. With regular school, extra math classes, extra science classes, extra music classes (and on and on...) those extra English classes just aren't a priority. They're unprepared, unenthusiastic and mute in class.

The work day here is an OSHA nightmare. It starts at 1:30 p.m. There's one-and-a-half hours for planning, and classes start at 3 p.m. There's a 5-minute break between each class, and you have classes strait through 9 p.m. There are no sick days, per se. You do not accrue vacation time, though there are holidays. I go in early and stay late to plan my lessons. It's week 2, and I'm exhausted.

Of course, I'm not skimping on the fun either, but that's a story for another day.