When you're a foreign English teacher, sometimes it seems that you are given an impossible job description. The recurring thing that I hear most from other teachers is that each person's respective principal or school board requires that he or she teach "conversation." What exactly does that mean? You'll be hard pressed to find a clear explanation of this requirement. Especially when you ask those that sneak it into the contract. It is much the same as asking when you're vacation time will be. "Ummm......I don't know yet." When is the semester over? "Ummm.....I don't know yet." Will all of my classes meet today? "Ummm....I don't know yet." Sound outlandish? Welcome to EPIK (English Program in Korea). Better known as the public school system.
Conversation. Teach someone to have a conversation. To converse. Maybe I should teach them words first. Then they'll have a better shot at the aformentioned "conversation." And what exactly is it that we should be discussing? Baseball? Politics? Kim Jong-il's extremely high sideburns? Needless to say I've been at quite a loss for the past 3 months as to what exactly I'm supposed to be doing. Until last week...
I have finally realized (I think) what it means for me to be a conversation specialist. It's not every day that these children get to interact with a real, living, breathing, white American that speaks English. From me they get to hear correct pronunciation, correct sentence structure, and correct syllable stresses. I'm here for them to practice and interact with.
Today my fourth grade class spent 40 min answering the question "What grade are you in?"
And they're paying me for this?
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