March is the beginning of the new school year in South Korea, unlike the fall start in the United States. It’s March 5th, and every school south of the 38th parallel starts school on the same day – March 2nd. When I mean every school, I’m talking universities, high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools… even kindergartens! That means, going shopping the weekend before this day is not a good time to find parking, because every kid is out buying a new wardrobe to kick off the semester.
I’m only three days in, and already so much is different. The biggest change is my new office. Instead of staying in the lonely gyomushil (teacher’s office) attached to the fancy English classroom, I am now seated in a real gyomushil with 5 other teachers, all teaching different subjects.
We have 500 new middle school 1st graders that just graduated from elementary, where they didn’t wear uniforms or have gender-separated classrooms. I will teach all of them, in addition to the 350 or so class of middle school 3rd graders. A total of 850, wild kids under my care.
What remains the same is that students bear the responsibility of cleaning up everything in the school – classrooms, bathrooms, and teachers’ offices. They have to sweep up dust, wipe down tables with rags, and mop the floors of bathrooms. Instead of “6th period is over, time to go home!” it’s, “6th period is finished, time to clean up the school for 20 minutes.” It’s a mad flurry of kids running around with mops, fencing with shortened brooms, and taking out the trash.
I’m especially excited to teach the 1st graders because they will be my first students not previously taught by a former Fbright grantee. I came into the semester with a chip on my shoulder because I knew that I was replacing an exceptional weoneomin sunsengnim (native speaking teacher), Tim Polakowski. All of his perfectly put together PPT files remain on the school computer to remind me of my mediocrity. But this semester it will be different, because none of the new 1st graders know Tim! I can move forward with confidence, without being concerned about comparisons. ^^
I’m definitely excited to start a new semester with ALL of my new students – not just the first graders. I’m praying for compassion and a selfless heart as I teach. It’s already paying off with a better rapport and longer conversations (in English) with students I bump into around school. Something that motivates me is remembering my friend Emily’s awesome relationship with her students at Pyeongchang high school!
This semester, I will give my students a tour of the United States and major cities. I am stoked.
Last weeks of Winter Break
In the last few weeks, I managed to visit practically all of my relatives in South Korea. Seolnal (lunar new year) is the biggest holiday in South Korea, along with Chuseok. It’s usually celebrated in mid-February and is a time to visit family and give blessings for the New Year. People exchange the greeting: “새해복 많이받으세요”, which means “receive many new year’s blessings.” So I went around to the family and did that.
I spent seolnal at my 이모’s (mom’s sister) playing in the snow with my 조카s in Jumchon, Gyungsang-do; I then went to Seoul to see my 외삼촌 (mom’s brother) and his family; worked my way up to Ilsan to visit 2 of my 고모s (dad’s sisters) and my 사촌s (cousins); then back to Seoul to hang with 2 older girl 사촌s and their families – blessing people all along the way.
In February, I also toured Seoul with fellow Fbrighters who were living there for the winter. Whenever I’m in Seoul, I stay busy with family and volunteer-related activities. I never take the time to be a tourist. So, with the hospitality of some good friends, we hung out and shopped in Myeongdong and Shinchon, ate and eye-shopped in Itaewon, checked out Insadong and the bookstores in Gwanghwamun, and even went to a pro-Korean basketball game in Gangnam.
Coming up next
The next month should be very busy with studying, applying for jobs, kicking off a new semester at the North Korean refugee school, implementing a basketball program in Ochang, all while balancing the regular 20-class-a-week schedule at Gakri middle school. I’m also starting two separate Bible studies with two Fbright friends. Please keep me in your prayers.
Ending Verse
“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14 (NASB)
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