At SAMSAN I have never been more confused in my life. In the form of a teeny-tiny 10 year old girl I had a 'manager' (their words) who didn't speak a word of English telling me what to do.
"12:30" she writes on a piece of paper. 'luncheetime' She smiles and rubs her stomach. She gestures me to follow her with that perculiar motion they use (the way we beckon someone forward is only used on dogs here, and considered VERY rude to use on a person). I follow her into the cafeteria, she shoves kids out of the way so I'm first in line, and takes my tray for me. She seats me in the EXACT middle of the cafeteria. All of the students are sitting on the left, the teachers on the right, and I am in no man's land, sitting all by myself surrounded by five empty tables in all directions.
What kind of manager IS this?
She pulls out my chair for me, so I obligingly sit down, then she dissapears, leaving me all alone to consume my lunch.
I eat a mushy green bean.
It's not a mushy green bean.
It's the hottest pepper I've ever eaten in my life.
Now I'm sitting all by myself convulsing! in the middle of the cafeteria giggling and snorting to myself while tears run down my face. I found it funny. Although come to think of it, maybe foreigners acting like lunatics is WHY I had to sit a good 10 metres apart from everyone else?
A few minutes later one of the teachers comes over and beckons me to sit at her table. I eat in total silence with them. Everytime my chopsticks go to my tray, three pairs of eyes hover about an inch away from my chopsticks. Maybe they are evaluting my skills? It's unnerving whatever they're doing. I wanted to shoe those eyes away, but I was worried I'd fracture their bones again, so I refrained.
Oh I forgot. There was some talking when I ate two mushroom slices in a row. Lots of talking. Lots of questions directed at me. In Korean. I smiled.
Later I looked at the kids trays and THEY didn't get the hottest peppers ever. Lucky little snots. (Just kidding they're REALLY cute).
After lunch my 'manager' takes me to this lonely little room on the top floor. No one else uses the room, or the ENTIRE FLOOR as far as I can tell. It's becoming clear to me that it's VERY important that I have VERY minimal human contact. The room contains, a couch, a fan, and a fridge. Here I am to (from what I got from her mimes) sleep, sit staring into space, or do prep work. For FIVE hours Thursday and Friday!!!
But I'm not complaining. I like all the prep time!
Teaching is also much harder in Samsan. Winnie really likes teaching so she does most of the work at YeongDang. I fought her a bit about it (shouldn't I do SOMETHING besides the game? Isn't that why I'm here?) but I gave up. If she wants to do the lion's share of the work, more power to her.
SAMSAN however, I go to their classrooms, and the homeroom teacher stays too. I don't have a 'co-teacher' persay. The kids are a lot better behaved because their teacher is there, but I don't think they understand a word I say. Neither do the teachers. Oh well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment