Book sample 2a

Call it a hunch.  Call it intuition.  Maybe some kind of creepy 6th sense.  Whatever it was, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the folks at Buseok Elementary School believed in me.  The privilege (burden) of educating the next generation of Koreans was placed on my shoulders.  Thousands of young minds were in my care.

Actually it was more like 53.  But still.

The first hint that my principal placed an inordinate amount of confidence in me as an English teacher was the sound of the door slamming shut behind me.  Except for the 14 sets of beady little eyes staring back, I was alone.  For the first time.  In a foreign country.  12,000 miles from home.  Alone.  To say I was shoved into the classroom kicking and screaming would not be far from the truth.

Not 24 hours ago my wife and I were fresh off an airplane and standing outside Incheon International Airport awaiting the director of the recruiting agency through whom I had secured employment for the following 12 months, and now we found ourselves in the middle of the countryside in the tiny rural farming community of Buseok.  This was my first time outside of the United States, and the swirl of Korean conversation around me caused a bit of light-headedness.  My burps were reminiscent of the fish, seaweed, and kimchi I was served for lunch only half an hour ago, and I was still not quite myself after the standard medical examination for foreign workers I had undergone that morning.  Blood was drawn.  Not my favorite activity, as this procedure generally causes me to squirm like an embarrassed school girl.

But the door to my classroom shut nonetheless.  (I could have sworn I heard a dead-bolt fasten from the outside.)  I was given simple instructions: Teach.  But...

What grade is this?

What do these students already know?

Is there a textbook?

What about a curriculum I'm to follow?

What time does class end?

Wasn't a co-teacher promised in my contract?

Is it too late to rethink this?

There exists a common misconception when it comes to foreign English teachers and their students.  It may seem painfully obvious, but never underestimate a Korean school teacher's ability to miss a small snippet of common sense, which is: I speak English...my students do not.  It would seem easy enough to understand.  But alas, it was not.  Because of this lapse in communication (I thought I made it abundantly clear in the interview process that I was an American, and as such we would have a bit of a language barrier) my days were spent dealing with alternating versions of the following scenario.  

Imagine if you will...