::A Geek in Korea::

So, today the countdown was finally over. Intensive classes have arrived. Now it’s one long sprint to the end of my contract and my trip to Europe. With the realization that my last month on the job has arrived, I’m more stressed out. I wanted today to go smoothly, as there was a new schedule today. It went as well as a summary execution. In the rain.

I arrived at work plenty early. I hadn’t been up and working in the morning in ages, but I was bright, chipper, and ready to go. It’s a good thing too, because everyone else was moving like they were underwater.

My first class is full of high school students. According to the schedule I’m supposed to teach them basic Grammar. In Korean. Yeah, right. I’m going to be able to explain the “be” verb to a bunch of students that read English novels for fun. What the hell? I look into what book I am given. I talk to the director. She doesn’t know anything, despite making the schedule. “Maybe the book will get harder later?”

Then, I ask the problematic Korean coworker. She gives me a “talk to the hand Director.” I pointed out that I’ve already talked to the director, and needed additional help. She tells me she isn’t going to help, at all. What a WONDERFUL coworker. Jeez.

Since no one was going to get off their ass to solve my problem, I found out that there was a schedule mistake. The books set aside for the students are actually level “two” grammar in the series. Instead of basic grammar, I’ve got to teach advanced grammar to high school students. In Korean. Jubya Tee ef? It went as well as you’d expect.

The first class was a complete and total disaster. The reason the school HAS Korean teachers is to teach Korean grammar books. For whatever reason, the best use of some of my Korean coworkers time was to sit on their ass and not help me. Nice. Now I’ve got to go to a bookstore and pick out a novel for the students to read that can be finished in 7 classes. Gah.

The next class wasn’t much better. The book the students had, and the book I was supposed to plan the syllabus from were completely different. I walked into the class knowing I had to teach a completely different book, but whoever had organized the class hadn’t done any checking at ALL to see that the books matched. What a waste of time. I’ve got to let my tolerable Korean coworker in on it before she makes the same mistake I did.

The fun didn’t stop there. My first afternoon class had students assigned to wrong levels. I had to round them up and rush through ten pages of material in an  hour. Later in the day, THREE classes had been combined into one monster class. We had to bring in more desks from classes just to squeeze the students inside. Total fire code violation.

I wasn’t only responsible for teaching the material, but also arranging for students to take their vocabulary tests, and also having the class grade their own tests. It’s nothing short of a miracle we got through them material without me losing my voice while herding the children around the school.

It’s clear the lack of a head teacher has gravely impacted the organization of the school. I keep reminding myself there is only a month left of this. I hold myself high keeping that thought in my mind. Big things are afoot. I will survive. That sort of thing.