A friend of mine is attempting to switch jobs while remaining in Korea. He has a contract that states if he isn’t going to resign, he has to wait for his replacement to come before he moves to a new school. I’m not sure how that is enforced, but he needs to work at a school that is finding his replacement despite having been hired at a new school. This new school needs teachers in the morning for their kindergarten schedule. Me being the only guy they know with the proper visa that is also free weekday mornings to teach, I became a kindergarten mercenary.
This is the first time I’ve taught kindergarten in two or three years. I signed my last contract specifically avoid ever having to teach the tiny terrors again. I started with kindergarten classes when I arrived in Korea, and I kept on them for the next five years. The classes dealing with little kids are some of the more stressful, worst hours I’ve ever worked in Korea. The two years I worked at an intensive Korean kindergarten were easily my worst. I’ve paid my dues and I won’t sign a contract that requires me to teach a single hour of kindergarten classes again.
I’ll be covering my friend’s morning classes until this new replacement shows up. It might be a few weeks until my friends can switch schools. It’s out of my hands, and the fact that I am stepping into a situation like that bothers me to a degree I normally avoid. They were desperate to find a replacement, and these are my D&D friends. I’m working with a friend to help another friend. I’m also getting paid my normal rate, so it’s hardly a favor. I’m expensive whether I’m teaching tiny kids or middle school brats.
To justify working with kindergarten students voluntarily, I just pretend it’s like my summer intensive classes got extended for another month. I’ve worked out a deal with my wife that I’ll get a little more spending cash as a result of setting up all this extra work on my own. She doesn’t have to get involved, so I’m taking the risk. It’ll thus be my reward.
I will be able to splurge my secondary income on anything I want. I’ve got my eyes on a luxurious leather chair that will make my Internet lounging in front of my dual monitors much more comfortable. That is what gets me through the long days. I’ll also be able to call in a favor from my friends the next time I want to go on vacation, which will be very useful. That’s totally worth dealing with some kindergarten kids for a few weeks…or so I hope.
The first day of classes was actually the first day of school, meaning no one knew what the hell was going on, no one had a clue what to do, and no one could answer a single one of my questions. There was a schedule, and a list of books, but no one could answer a question to a satisfactory degree. “So, I just….go in and use this book? Do I need to reach a certain page…or do we need to do any other stuff? Sing a song? What?”
Nothing.
Compounding this problem was the head teacher, my friend, wasn’t THERE today. He had an errand up in Seoul, so I had to wing it. It’s not like the kindergarten students knew that I didn’t know what was going on. They were clueless as well. Luckily, instead of 20 kids per class, there were only five students, and they had all studied at multiple schools before. They knew the drill.
I had to pull a double shift because of my friend’s absence, then headed to my normal job. It was the first day of the new semester, which is always extra work and extra annoying. I got through both workdays without incident, but I was wiped out after work.
Since I’m not going to be doing any paperwork, syllabus, or planning work at this temporary job, I can be pretty casual about it. I got shouted at by six year olds who claim to have a larger English vocabulary than I do. It’s pretty hard to take a job where stuff like that happens seriously anyway. The kids are relatively well behaved. If there is actually a program that I’m not aware of lurking in the pages the Korean teachers claim my friend the head teacher has, it should be a pretty sweet gig.
Otherwise, it’s just a few weeks of annoying kids before I go back to having my mornings free again. As long as I get paid, I’m fine with that.
