The other foreigner teacher was a no show this morning. This isn’t actually surprising, as he’s been late several times in the three weeks I’ve been working there. The only difference was that this time when they went to his apartment to see why, all his stuff was gone. He won’t be missed.
When he wasn’t late, he was either sleep deprived, or hung over reeking of alcohol to the point where children were complaining. His typical excuse for his behavior was that a single mosquito in his apartment kept him up and prevented him from sleeping for days on end. He came in with blood shot eyes constantly. Perhaps he was trying to raise the blood alcohol level of the mosquito to the point where he would be dosile and easy to catch. He even missed classes on his schedule when he did show up at work, forgot books, homework, and generally made everyone else work harder in spite of him. He received written warnings from the director about the poor quality of his work, and it was likely he would be fired soon for his lack of professionalism.
You have to tolerate some fairly unprofessional behavior at times at these kinds of schools. It’s a bad sign when your students cheer your departure. I told the curious students he was devoured by mosquitos and disappeared. I had half the school believing me too.
Because of his departure, I needed to cover his terrible morning class. 15 students in the largest classroom in the school. These are the lowest of the low level students studying a terrible Disney branded book that is more about their characters than actually teaching English. Some of the students are downright awful, and this is coming from someone that can understand everything they say and prevent a lot of problems before they happen. I’m sure with the previous teacher not understanding anything Korean, it would be a madhouse from day to day.
My long lunch break was cut in half, so I needed to hurry home to feed my dog. In my rush, I forgot my keys, and I didn’t realize it until I was stepping out of the elevator to my apartment. So close! I had to go all the way back to the school in a taxi to get what I needed. I returned home after another taxi and quickly cooked a meal, fed my dog, cleaned up his mess, and made sure to give him plenty of water for the hot day. Then it was back to school for my afternoon schedule. I made record time and actually arrived early. Seriously, how can you arrive late for class when you live alone and don’t have a dog that demands your time?
Not only did I have an extra class in the morning, I had an extra class this evening as well.This was added to my schedule last week before we knew the teacher was running out on his contract. It’s a single girl who goes to an "emerging English" style school. All the classes are taught in English, and the girl wanted some extra practice while on summer vacation. We read a story, did some writing, and generally had a good class. It was a long day though.
I went to the game store between classes to pick up a Nintendo DS lite. The Korean voltage version finally has arrived, with Nintendo of Korea (when they eventually open) providing service. The man selling the DS lite unit wouldn’t let me open it to check for dead pixels. He also claimed he provided no warranty of after service. He could only send it for service with 4 or more dead pixels, which is the bullshit Sony Playstation Portable policy. If there is a single problem with my lite when I power it up after recharging the battery in a few hours, I might snap.
