it's korean spring break!

so! the end of graduation week was pretty nerve-wracking because my computer broke and i couldn't use it for about 3 days! one morning it just turned off and never would turn back on! the "computer girl", as i call her, was super busy and never had a chance to come fix it. she looked at it quickly once and said- sorry i can't fix it now. so that was that. i spent a lot of time reading, planning for this school year and knitting. my co-teacher kindly let me use her computer quite a bit so i wasn't totally technology-free but it was definitely nerve-wracking nonetheless. without my computer i felt it was even more pointless for me to be there. it made it even more obvious that i had absolutely nothing to do at school and should just be at home lol

but! i got through it and i learned some important information. my school will have a new principal this year! this could change the entire environment of my school. this is what happened at jens's school. jens loved his school for the first year and a half. it was the reason that no matter how much i didn't like my school we wouldn't change schools because we could end up with TWO schools we didn't like. so we stayed. then...jens got a new principal last semester and it completely ruined the nice little thing he had going on there. i won't go into it but suffice it to say that the principal has a lot of sway and can make you either love or hate your school. my principal has always been pretty cool so i'm anxious to see what the new one will be like. whatever the case i'll only be there for two months so it won't matter much whether he's cool or not.

the thing that will affect me more on a day to day basis is the fact that i will most likely have a new co-teacher also. my current co-t wants to teach 4th grade this year (and didn't tell me until i dragged it out of her). no one will know what they will be teaching this year until feb. 25th. that's right, they don't tell anyone what their job will be for the semester until about 5-6 DAYS before the school year begins! i asked my co-t if she just had to prepare for the new job ahead of time and hope she got it and she said yes. she said if there is no one else to teach english then she will just have to teach english again and not 4th grade. so she will have prepared to be a 4th grade teacher for nothing. now if they told the teachers what they'd be teaching this year, say, in dec. then they could prepare all break for their new job. makes sense right? i have no idea why they don't do that.

so next week on feb. 25th i have to go to school, sit through a meeting in korean and then find out who my new co-t is (if i have one).

the GOOD news is: my school will have an english classroom this year!! yaaaaaay! it will make teaching SO much easier! you see for the past (almost) 2 years my co-t and i have had to go to each homeroom class to teach the kids english. going into each class was like going into a completely different environment everytime. this was the homeroom teacher's domain. s/he decided the seating chart (and when to randomly change it), the set up of the room, the rules, what kids could get away with, etc. it was chaos! we never had any real authority.

but with our own classroom things will be really different. it'll be OUR environment. the kids will come to us. we'll have it set up the way we want, we can post our rules, etc. AND have seating charts of our own so that we might actually be able to learn kids' names, see who's absent, etc. it'll just be so much better. i've told my school this ever since i've been there and they always said that they just had too many students and there were no extra classrooms. but this year there are less 6th grade students so they'll have one room free- FOR US! yaaaaaay! it's kind of funny that i'm so excited about something that i'll only use for 2 months. i guess it's because i know it'll make a difference for the new girl too.

by the way, jens and i have been in touch with our replacements for quite some time now. ever since we were in texas. they're a couple from canada and they seem really nice. we've been giving them lots of info about korea. they'll be taking over our jobs at the end of april (when we move to our new apt. and jobs).

i told my co-t that we've already been in touch with them for a while and she was totally shocked! lol she was like what??? already? but how? she was pretty much dumbfounded and i wanted to be like yeah- north americans like to plan things IN ADVANCE! you should try it sometime lol korean people most likely don't even think about the english teacher replacement until about a week before they're supposed to arrive lol i have to say that i will never enjoy the korean way of waiting til the absolute last possible minute to decide anything.

well after that i remembered to mention to my co-t that jens and i will need to be getting our key money back when we move. see, our first year here we were living in this tiny box of an apt. and so the second year we asked to be moved to a bigger place. well it turns out that the reason we were living in that tiny place is because it was an officetel and didn't require key money (large deposit). if we wanted to live in a big apt. complex we'd need to pay key money. neither of our schools nor city hall would cough up the money so we figured it'd be worth it to pay it ourselves for the extra square footage. and it was. (the only reason we thought we wouldn't have to pay for it was because most other couples have big apts. with no problem). i just hope that now that we're moving we can get that money back from somewhere without any trouble. if the schools want to keep the apt. they'll need to give us the money. if they don't wanna give us the money then they'll need to find a different apt. and we'll get paid back from the apt. complex. i talked to my co-t about it and she said the schools wouldn't probably just look for a new apt. which is surprising because the key money is 1 million won (which is like $650 with the exchange rate these days) and it seems like it'd be a lot easier for them to keep the apt. and just pay us back rather than search for a new place. but korean people seem to be verrrry uptight about money.

for example, last semester i asked for a raise in extra class pay - the kids' parents would only have to pay me an extra $5 or $10 a month (depending on the class) but my principal said no way. we have to have a meeting with the parents and officially change the rate between school years! can you believe it? this was between semesters and they still thought it'd be too big of a deal to ask for $5 or $10 more per month! i can't believe they'd even need to have a meeting with the parents about it at all. i would just be like- hey it's $15 instead of $10 now. period. lol but so be it.

at the beginning of this school year i'm going to tell my co-t (whoever it is) that if they want me to do extra classes this is how much i want to get paid. period. if they don't want to pay me that then i won't do them. it's the principal of it. i get paid less than other english teachers do for their classes. and i want it to be fair. esp. for the next girl. i want to get it changed before she starts working there so she doesn't get taken advantage of like i was when i started. anyway, that'll be my main beef when school starts lol

the other things i'm gonna have to let my co-t know is that i don't go to monday morning meetings and i don't go to volleyball. i just got that set up at the beginning of last semester and now i'll have a new principal AND a new co-t so i'm hoping they don't give me any trouble on that. hopefully they'll cut their losses and not worry about it since i'll be leaving soon.

i know i must sound like a hardass but i'm about to start my 3rd year here and i've learned that if you don't stand up for your rights you'll get walked on.

the way i see it i'm not gonna be in korean society long enough to reap the benefits of being a brown-noser like the rest of the young people here so i'm not going to let them take advantage of me. ya know what i mean? if you're korean, you do everything for your elders when you're young. then when you get older people do things for you. but me, i'm not korean and i'm not going to live here for more than 4 years. so i don't really fit into their society and therefore shouldn't have to work under all the same rules they do. i'll do my job and i'll even do some favors but i'm not going to be a slave if i'm not going to reap any benefits from it later.

i just wish korean employers wouldn't expect their foreign employees to bascially BE korean. we need to learn from each other. i'll do a couple extra things at school, i'll bow to everyone, i'll hand you things with respect, i'll speak as much korean as i can, etc. but then the korean people need to understand things like: we shouldn't have to come to volleyball if we hate it and that they shouldn't punish us with shortened vacations because we didn't.

anyway, i didn't want this entry to turn into a "what i don't like about korea" post lol there are just a few things i'll never like. i may understand the way it is but i feel like i'll never really accept certain things. i'll always think there's a better way of doing them lol

now let me go back a bit and clarify that i don't think there's anything wrong with doing things for your elders. i think that's great! it's wonderful to honor your elders for their sacrifice and to respect them and do nice things for them. BUT i feel it goes a little too far in korea sometimes. i feel the elders take advantage of the young people quite a bit. the elders expect the young people to do absolutely everything for them from fetching them coffee before they even ask to putting up with their illegal smoking in elementary schools to i dunno- just being ready to spring into action with a snap of the fingers. the young people seem to live in fear and anxiety of their elders. it's so robotic that it never seems genuine when a young person does something nice for an older person. it just seems like protocol. and the elders are so used to having things done for them that they don't even try to do certain things for themselves. it's especially bad with men. men seem to have authority over women in every case no matter the age. it wouldn't surprise me if some men don't even know how to make their own coffee or wash a dish.

ugh, i'd better stop now. i seem to be in a venting mood lol

i don't want people to think that i hate korea or that i'm a negative person. i'm just making social commentary. just talking about the things i see here and how i feel about them. i am grateful to be here. i'm glad i've been hired to teach english in korea. it's been a great opportunity to live in a foreign country and see what it's like. there are some great things about korea and some negative things about my own country. it goes both ways. i guess it's just easier to put up with my own country since that's where i'm from lol

which reminds me of one more thing- it seems like in korea there's all this shame around admitting that there are negative things about their country. if you ever try to mention anything negative, korean people try to turn it around on you and make it seem like you're being positive or they criticize you for being negative. it's like they just want to ignore the bad stuff. whereas in america if we see that something is negative about our country we admit it and try to change it. it's like oh that's wrong? ok let's change it and move on! no big deal! we don't seem to really feel shame about it.

quite interesting indeed.

it's even more interesting to think about how when a person comes here, or to any foreign country, they basically bring their whole country with them. the culture, the ideas, the opinions, the way of doing things. you come with more baggage than just your suitcase. and it really affects your life. if you want to see how your country has made you who you are, just go live in another country! lol

my country has made me:
see everyone as equal whether they're my student or my boss
expect to be judged on my work rather than how i socialize
sensitive to injustice
prone to activism
tolerant of different people and their different likes and dislikes
accepting of constructive critism
desire variety
want to plan things in advance (at least a little in advance, esp. when it comes to work!)
prefer central ac and heat and closed windows! lol

and on that note! i'm going to bed! have a great day or night!