A Day in the Life of an English Teacher

Written by Bessie about Korea, Republic of. Feelin' happy

The usual day starts with counting how many days of work are left. Current count: 7.

A kindergarten class on Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving)

Kindergarten.....
9:45 The buses pull up and adorable little kids in matching outfits come running inside. We start the day off singing the "Good Morning" song to the tune of Happy Birthday to each student. It's a thriller.

Kyle and his class of 4 year olds ; Some of my old kindergarten class.

"Bessie Teacher, Willow spoke Korean!" "Bessie Teacher, bathroom" <Say Please.> "Bessie Teacher, she took my eraser."

That's all day, everyday, all the time. If they can speak English that is. Otherwise it's "Mul jusayo." "Odi? Odi?" and lots of other Korean I don't understand.

Look at that love!

10:00-2:30 The kindergarten day passes with us going between classes of 3, 4, and 5 year olds trying to get them to fill out books and keeping them in their chairs. It's hard to comprehend how the kids spend so much time in class. These preschoolers & kindergartners are at school 4.5 hours/ day and get only 2 weeks vacation. A year in, I still don't get it.

Funny to teach 3 year old Phonics when they're still learning to wash their hands. / Some of the new 4 year olds.

The Big Kids
2:30-8,9,10 pm?
Elementary and grade school kids start rolling in after their normal school days. Like we do with the kindergartners, our job is to torture *ahem* teach them English, but trying to make it as enjoyable as possible. The kids come 3-5 days/week for atleast 2 hours/ day some even longer. We teach them from American text books (yes, Scott Foresman & Scholastic are popular in Korea) and a variety of Korean books for conversation and preparing them for English level tests.

3rd graders in class / 6th graders taking a test

Some students seem to really love English & work hard, some despise it and are generally tortured. Overall, they all come as an after school activity, and we're somewhere in the mix of piano, Japanese class, tae kwon do, extra math and science classes, art classes, I could go on and on. The kids here study a lot - I recently wrote an article about it; I'm sure people could write books.

I know you want to see it in action. Here's a video I put together a few months back.

At least the kids can be great.
The days at our hagwon (private academy) are generally long and tiring. 3 days a week I'm teaching from 9:45-7:45 with some breaks in between, but by Friday night I'm exhausted. We're in class 30 hours a week, but I'm at work 47 hours. May not sounds long, but with the kids it feels it.

Calling kids monkeys and them calling me Banana Teacher (I have yellow hair) gets me through the day. Thank goodness the kids can be great, because of rest if it is not so great. Growing up with 3/4 of my parents teachers, I remember hearing the same thing, and I'm sure that's true with most teachers.

Kyle and the old 3 year old class.

Like most English teachers here, we have virtually no say in what we teach the kids, how much homework they get, or when they take tests. It's good and bad in that we don't have to plan lessons, although too many times the books I'm teaching kids are totally not on their level.

That's it, 7 days left.
Every day's a new adventure. Some of it I'll miss, other stuff I won't. Will there be a nosebleed? How many times will a kid try to give me a "poop-needle" or steal my markers? At least my students moved past pointing to my stomach saying baby and talking about Kyle and I holding hands. They really struggle with the idea that we're married and don't have kids yet.

One of my students drew me a map to get to her house.

I could definitely see teaching English somewhere else again. It can really be a lot of fun, and I love watching as the little kids pick up more and more words and copy the little ways I say things. Then again, I could stick to working with adults, and keep some more of my sanity. Gotta love 'em though.

Some of my girls' slippers and me.

« What does that say? One year's worth of miscommunication

We made it to Baekdo, »

March 23, 2010 C J: I happened across your site while looking at teaching abroad information. I spent the whole evening "traveling" around the world with you. I thoroughly enjoyed your posts and look forward to seeing where you go next. Thanks for the insights into everyday culture in places I may never see. I appreciate you representing Americans well as considerate travelers.

March 23, 2010 Bessie: Thanks for stopping by CJ! We love to blog to share what we see with people. Glad you're enjoying it.

And thanks for the 'considerate travelers' comment - we do our best to represent our country well!

March 23, 2010 Paul: kids start going to school at 3 years old?? wow lol

March 23, 2010 Bessie: nutty right?! and it's 4.5 hours/ 5 days a week with no summer vacation - just 2 weeks off all year.

March 23, 2010 Rose P.: Bessie and Kyle - keep up the great work!! Love the video and the picture with the slippers.

March 23, 2010 Bessie: Thanks for following, Rose! :)

March 23, 2010 Alex: I loved that video! So cute!

March 23, 2010 Linda: Although your "students in attendance" day is longer than mine was, the actual hours devoted to "the job" were about the same counting the early arrival and hours spent after school preparing lessons, grading papers, or organizing for the next day. It is a kind of physical and mental TIRED that is hard to explain to anyone who hasn't done it. Looks like you've gained confidence since those early days of brainstorming e-mails we used to get you started. Loved the video and photos. Question! Why are the kids wearing coats!!!

March 24, 2010 Bessie: TIRED is the word!! :) I have gained a lot of confidence getting in front of a classroom of kids - Kyle has too. I actually feel like a teacher now, although I would have rather not had a "baptism by fire" jumping into the classroom.

They're in coats because it's cold. They either just came in from outside or some of the classrooms with all the windows got pretty drafty. The floor heat in school is pretty great, especially for warming toes!

March 23, 2010 Pres: Working with kids is such a blessing, Bessie! You have the privilege to immerse yourself into the great world of childhood every single day. Keep up the great job!

March 23, 2010 hotel bedding: Just found your blog - love it!!!

March 23, 2010 DADDIO: Great video and photos. Wonderful to see you and Kyle healthy and at work. I'm sure you will always cherish these amazing memories as you blaze a new trail away from Seoul in a few days. Warm regards. Miss you bunches...

March 24, 2010 Bessie: There are definitely things I'll miss about not being in a classroom - the kids can be A LOT of fun. Kyle might not use the word cherish exactly, but it's priceless seeing him in a room with a bunch of 4 year olds that think he's the greatest. :)

March 24, 2010 Shannon OD: Oh man, those little kiddos are so cute - it must be so incredible to look back on a year spent with these kids and have to leave! Great vid and love the little girl with the finger heart love :-)

March 27, 2010 Bessie: It does feel great to look back on a year with them - they grew and changed a lot in one year. It also feels great to be leaving and start a new chapter!! :)

March 27, 2010 hotel bedding: Such sweet little faces - too cute :)

March 31, 2010 Jess: Just found this site stumbling, and am enjoying reading about your adventures! I'm an English teacher in Japan, and WOW Korean kids are so much more advanced than the Japanese ones! I wish they'd start them that early here!

April 01, 2010 Kyle: To be fair, these are private school kids. The public school kids are way behind this level.

April 03, 2010 Carin: Wow guys..You are living life! Inspiration.. I taught in Taiwan and I'm (We are) definitely going back after I got married..I suppose it is because they don't eat that much kimchi.. Enjoy your travels! It is great reading about them and learning so much! Greetings (And Happy Easter!)- Carin

April 03, 2010 Kyle: Thanks! I don't know if we're inspirational; we just like living a global life. We've heard good things about Taiwan, glad you liked it there!

May 01, 2010 GRRRL TRAVELER: Wow! Nice article on a day in the life of a EFL teacher in Korea. I appreciated the video too. I never knew how many hours went into hagwon teaching or student's learning for that matter. I'm on the public school end, so this stuff is very interesting to know.