::A Geek in Korea::

The school I work at operates on two floors in the building. Administrative duties are handled downstairs and online, while the majority of classes are taught upstairs. If you are upstairs, you should be studying. All the rest of the school duties happen downstairs. Downstairs, the secretaries worry logistics and fees. Upstairs is where the teaching happens. This is usually a good thing, as it keeps parents from spying on classes in a disruptive way, and it draws a distinction where the “study zone” begins. As long as a wire doesn’t get crossed somewhere onlong the line, this is how I want to keep things.

The Korean coworker and I were surprised to see a new student in a class. She had no listing in the attendance logs for the class, and lacked the proper books. She had been told to come upstairs by someone upstairs, so I let her sit in my class. She wasn’t bothering anyone, so I let her stay. She didn’t utter a word the entire time she was in class with me. I thought there was something wrong with her placement since my Korean coworker hadn’t been told beforehand and she is a very organized and well connected person.

When my class ended, I grabbed my materials, moved on to my next class, and got down to teaching. My Korean coworker went down to talk to the office staff, and told the student that she was in the wrong class. The girl showed up in my next class with one of the office staff from downstairs. This seemed odd, as she was clearly a shy girl, but was leaping up two whole levels to join this next class. I poked my head out of the room and found the director nearby. The Director took the girl back downstairs and tried to figure out where she belonged for a second time.

I went downstairs to eat my dinner, and I saw the girl again. She was sticking around until the next set of classes started. They had given her a book to read so she could catch up with the students. She still hadn’t said anything to me yet after hanging out for a few hours in my classes. Turns out she had shown up at the wrong hour, and had to wait for the last set of classes. She’d have wasted 6 hours waiting around and studying in different rooms.

When I went upstairs to teach my final set of classes, I wasn’t surprised to see her again! She was in a class that had only one other girl, which is really good. The more girls that can balance out a group of rampaging boys the better. She had the right books, and now she had seen me so much throughout the day she was comfortable enough to speak to me. She seems like a nice girl, and was clearly very patient to deal with a huge clerical error of that sort.