Korea Life: My Kinders Graduating

While I have been in South Korea, I have been teaching kindergarten at an academy. It has been and still is a highly rewarding job. I enjoy helping teach young children, not only English, but everything else they need to know for life. But, although it is highly rewarding, it is also very hard. Not only is it hard in a general teaching aspect, but also an emotional one.

I have been assigned to teach the 7 year olds at the academy. This means they graduate and go onto elementary school after one year. This doesn't mean I will never see them again. Some continue studying in elementary classes at the academy after public school. However, they will not be my students again and the ones that don't choose to stay with the academy, I probably won't ever see again.

Now I should explain that teaching young children, especially 5,6, and 7 year olds in South Korea is a lot different than teaching in the USA. The parents and school wants you to make a connection with the children, not just in a respect sense, but an emotional sense. So, while you are required to teach, it is also looked well upon to love and nurture the children. Affection is something that is expected. Which is something that I have noticed is very cultural here. It is not just the parents who are raising the children, but grandparents and relatives, older brothers and sisters. It is a group effort and everyone (not literally speaking) loves the children. So, the teachers, helper teachers, and everyone at the school love the children. I am not saying that kindergarten teachers in the USA don't love their students, but it tends not to be normal to be affectionate to children not in your family.

Writing my goodbye letters to my graduating students required wine.

Getting to the downside, in February my first classes graduated and moved to elementary school. After spending six months teaching these children, watching them mature/grow, and pouring lots of love into them, it was really hard watching them move on. I still see a lot of them daily, as they come to elementary classes. But it is not the same as teaching them and being in the classroom with them daily. I would be lying if I said I didn't cry like a baby at their graduation ceremony. I was an absolute mess.

Some letters from my students.

After my classes graduated and I was assigned 7 year olds again, I thought I could never get as close to them as I was with my first classes. Especially since I knew they were also going to be graduating in one short year and the tear fest from losing the first classes was still fresh in my mind. But after teaching them for only a month and I half, I knew that I would be just as close to this class, if not closer because I learned a lot about teaching during the first 6 months. I know that if I continue on teaching, it will always be sad to see my students go but that it is rewarding watching them grown and hoping that you really helped them. 

Korea Life: 7 Month Update

I definitely haven't been as good about posting as I had hoped when I first came to South Korea. Even my Instagram isn't updated as much. However, things are settling a lot more and I am hoping there will be a lot more time for updating on my Korea Adventures.

I am still doing a lot with working out and eating right. Even when I fell off working out and drinking a bit more, the weight gain was minimal because the food here is decently healthy. But I am back on track with my workouts and healthy eating.

I haven't traveled as much as I had hoped but I think I assumed in my first year I would be gaining my reigns. I already know I plan on staying at least another year and have talked to my current employer about staying with my current job for at least another 6 months.

I am still thoroughly enjoying everything about living in South Korea. I have so many ideas for posts about things that have changed and how I have changed in just 7 months. So, at this point I am planning a lot more detailed posts about my life here. So anticipate a comeback!

Korea Life: Drinking, Clubbing, and Karaoke Nights

My weekends have been filled with drinking and new people for the past couple months or so. But compared to the US, the drinking culture here is much different. I have realized here drinking is a marathon, not a sprint. Not a short marathon either, if you are going out for the night you aren't going home until the sun rises. It doesn't help that I feel like the clubs NEVER close here. So you could literally stay out dancing and walk out into the daylight without realizing you've been up for that long.

But lets get back to the drinking aspect. It's quite a practical/ magical thing. First, you aren't drinking hard liquor like in the US most of the time. You are drinking soju, which has a lower alcohol content than the liquors back home. But I would say the main difference here is that if you are drinking, you are eating. There are bars here that just serve alcohol, but they are few and far between. It is normal to sit at a place for hours, eating and drinking. And if you want to move to a new place, you need to order food again. Sometimes this can be a little annoying because you do get full and don't want to eat and sometimes want to just keep drinking. But I think, overall, this is a really good practice. You are never drinking on an empty stomach and the food stops you from drinking as much. The food here is also insanely delicious, so I don't complain too much about the food. Even at the clubs here, if you get a table they not only have a bottle of alcohol but also a tray of finger foods to go with the alcohol. The two things go hand in hand here. 

Drinking games are not uncommon and I have learned a lot of really fun games since I have been here. Most of the time you see people just talking and drinking, games tend to be played by younger people. They are all hand games, people are usually surprised when I whip out a deck of cards because they have never played drinking card games before. 

There is also an order of events that you start to notice here. First you go to a restaurant and eat and drink. Then you go to a club to dance and dance. Then you end the night at a karaoke place. I used try to skip the last one because I can't sing for anything but it's grown on me and I no matter how much I say I won't sing I end up stealing the microphone constantly. But it's not uncommon to want to go to a singing room here. I also feel like everyone I have been to a singing room with is an incredible singer, which makes me feel slightly ashamed but doesn't seem to stop me.