Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Hagwon

So I'm teaching in what's called a Hagwon, or a private school where children go after their elementary school to learn English. There are other schools for Korean, math, etc. and I think they're called Hagwons too but I'm not sure.

Since the students are coming here after their elementary school, my schedule is as follows: m-w-f 2:25 till 8:35, and t-r 2:00 till 8:00 pm. The classes run on the hour intil 10 minutes till (so 50 minutes) and I am in a class room for 25 minutes at a time and then switch to another class room, then we have a 10 minute break except for there is a 20 minute break after the 6:00 clock class, so the next class starts at 7:10. Everything is clear so far?

The classes are small, anywhere from 5 to 11 children or so, for which I am quite thankful. The children can be well behaved but a lot act up all the time. I can empathize in the fact that they are in some type of school for most of their day and then go home to do all of their school work. I think they're even in school on Saturdays. When do they get time to be kids?!?! But that is the life that many adults live in Korea and that's just Korea in general. And unfortunately the parents pay my salary so until the kids can come up with a salary comparable to the one I receive now, boring bookwork will have to do for now.

As forementioned, a lot of the work here is just going by a book. I've found that when I can't anymore then it's Hangman/Pictionary time for the students. I've tried getting some of my students to do charades but that didn't work, i think something got lost in translation. I also heard from someone that she tried playing heads up 7-up only to have one of the children cry so I'm reluctant to try that one out. Anyways, if you do have something that might be fun for the kids to do, feel free to leave it in the comments. Hangman and Pictionary can only last for so long......

3 comments:

Sum said...

Lisa Turtle would have some good time wasters...uh I mean learning and thought provoking games....

chris said...

I forgot to throw Simon Says in there as well. Also, pictures of Arizona, the cacti and my family are wearing off their excitement. The teaching has gotten better, I will say.

brian s said...

I hope you have pictures of Mclovin to show... How do you play Heads Up 7-up again? Katy and I can't remember....