If they can sit on an ice cream cone and tell you what flavor it is.
The above joke was told to me by a fellow EPIKer, his name is Tim, he was going to be placed somewhere in some different province, there is a good chance I will never see him again. That is what I didn't like about the orientation. I was socializing with people that there was a good chance that I would never see again, and with that thought in my mind, I close myself off from showing my true colors and everything turns into a performance. And then I imagine that everyone else is doing the same thing, which makes me even more crazy. And then there are those people who pre-judge you and you can feel from them that they're not going to take you seriously because they are not going to have to know you for that long, which makes you act like more of an ass.
They gave us these sandwiches:
mmmmmmm
There were about 100 of us, all native English speakers, from all corners of the globe. One thing that I enjoyed about the atmosphere was that eveyone had a common interest, some people had more teaching experience than others, but you could be assured that everyone that you talked to had some interesting story about how they had heard about the EPIK program. They were all interested in hearing your story, but, still, there was a common apprehension that is difficult to describe (that I outlined in the paragraph above).
Our living quarters were a college dorm. I shared a room with a guy who went to school at UC Davis, so we shared some common backgrounds and interests. We talked about lots of important things like movies and music, he told me that some of his college friends are in a band called Sholi. There were communal bathrooms, and a separate shower room. Our room was kind of small, but we only had to spend 3 days there.
The orientation was rushed, but it was easy and the directions were clear. We arrived thursday evening at the NIIED (National Institute of International Education), most people didn't do much except eat dinner and go to sleep, but some of us groggily went into Seoul and explored. We didn't have to explore very hard, because the campus is located on a fairly busy street where there are tons of stores and lights and bars and places on the street to buy meat sticks and the like. A few blocks down the street I was a little surprised to see a "Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf", something I hadn't seen in a few years since I moved to Florida from California. We found a place called HOF, the sign was a big neon mug of beer, so we went in. At first glance it seemed like a normal enough place, but then we realized that every single chair was covered in an identical sheepskin cover (god I hope that they were fake). We ordered a "big pitcher", a friend of mine asked (to no avail) what kind of beer it was, but it was pretty good, and yes, it was a big pitcher. It was 13,000 won, and there were 4 of us, and it was plenty. We were tired, and we didn't stay for more than an hour before we decided that it was time for us to go home.
The room:
The view from the room:
There were pretty wreaths on the dorm room doors:
The next morning at 7:30 AM the wake-up call came. (If there was one major thing about orientation that I disliked, it was that they did not once mention or acknowledge the concept of jet lag). In each of the rooms there was a speaker on the wall that played a song that I imagine was meant to be soothing, but it was at such a high volume that it was much more irritating than soothing. Some harps and bird chirps were accompanied by some violins, and in a way I thought my brain was going to explode. But it was effective at waking me up. The meals at the orientation were Korean cafeteria food, so we're talking rice and meat of some kind and a soup, and a fruit. I've since heard that the meals were disgusting, but I didn't find them to be all that bad. There was a lot of iceberg lettuce (I mean jeez, they could at LEAST have romaine right?) But they were free and hit the spot.
One thing that I have noticed about all Asian cultures is that they make it a point to announce and acknowledge when anything begins and ends. So we had an opening ceremony in which the President of EPIK spoke for a few minutes, he spoke softly down into his chest, rendering the mics on the podium in front of him irrelevant. Then we listened to more of a charismatic speech by a woman who had been with EPIK for 5 or 6 years and had some interesting points to make. But, in spite of the worthwhile kernels of specialness that riddled both speakers' speeches, I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. It was only 10 in the morning, but it was like 14 hours different than what I was used to. I'm sure that I was not the only person who had trouble staying awake that whole day.
And then the next day, it was Saturday, and yes, we had an early wake-up call and a full day of classes. 6 classes at 1 hour each. I was very impressed by the fact that upon our arrival we were given books that outlined in detail every event that was scheduled for us. They must have finished printing them like an hour before we arrived.
And Sunday, early wake-up again, more lectures on how to be an effective English teacher. It was all so awe-inspiring, there was an overall sense of "you'll be fine" coming from all of the lecturers. We were told what to talk about on the first day of teaching, and given suggestions on games to play, and what discipline tactic works best with what age group. That information was all well and good, but I found that one thing that was lacking in my mind was the actual demonstration of the concepts that they were describing. I wanted to see some lesson plans in action, I wanted to see video of Korean students. There was one guy lecturer who taught elementary school students who had short videos where he showed some of the exercises that he found to be most effective with the kids. These videos were by far for me what stuck in my mind. Because someone can tell me until next month all of the ways that I can go to a website and get lesson plan ideas that I will have to tailor for my students, but watching someone in action, that is what really gets to me. In my years of education, that is something that I've learned about myself. I used to memorize the way piano pieces sounded, I used to try to emulate the way my guitar teacher strummed the strings, I tried to run and kick the ball in the same way that my Dad or other soccer coach would. So I wanted to see some lesson plans in action. Even if they are 20 minute long videos.
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