dinner and children @ work

Today I have been invited to a restaurant for dinner with a professor and his family. Professor Park came with his wife and thirteen years old daughter, who looked a little bit tired that evening, but I have been told that is a permanent condition. A few years ago, they lived in Germany for some time, so their daughter learned some German and struggled with the two languages, but now she is slowly forgetting German because she doesn't have to use it anywhere in Korea. Even more, because she has thirteen hours of English per week. That's a lot for just one subject, especially in that age. Her other subjects are time consuming as well. In the end, beside school, sports, private lessons and homework, she doesn't get much sleep. The parents are of course interested in educating their daughter perfectly, every parent does that. What surprised me was that on the one hand they complained about the overwhelming pressure in education, on the other hand their daughter has to do so many extra curriculums. No wonder kids nowadays walk around like zombies. I would, too, if my scedule were so tight.

Goethe institute

On my second day in Daejon, I didn't have much time to do some sightseeing or even just attend class at Paejae university. I only met Prof. Cho, a lecturer at the local Goethe instutute and the only one with a permanent contract. We had a nice walk through the nearby woods, talking about how to motivate students in class, the lecturers' view of teaching among other topics. Unfortunately I had to hurry back to Jeonju, as I had to teach the advanced class.

I arrived in Jeonju and at Chonbuk in time. The lesson itself was good, I think I'm starting to get some kind of routine in my way of guiding the students through the lesson. I was able to get through with almost everything I planned for that hour - this is not neccessary, but a personal goal, I don't like the idea that it is impossible to predict how far a teacher can get with the lesson when he plans it in forward. Preparing more is better than preparing not enough. I agree, but I don't like the feeling at the end of a lesson when there's still some excercise I planned and there's no time for it.

Daejon

Today I traveled to Paejae university in Daejon to get an idea how other teachers handle lessons... and big classes. There's no one and only teaching method, but experience can change the view on certain ways how to behave in class, how to present new grammar or explain new words and other problems. Katrin Park-Mensing has an experience of five years, and I think you can observe that in her lessons, as she has a certain routine, acquired over the years.

I had five hours with three different classes on that day, two advanced and one beginners class. The students in all were quite surprised when I walked into the class room, and they were as curious as the students in Chonbuk. The beginners class was different from the others: The number of students was too high, so it is especially hard to teach effectively in that class. The mayor differences I saw between the teaching method and the overall situation at Chonbuk and at Paejae were the following points:

The students in Paejae have to attend to all four years of their study to German classes. The ones in Chonbuk have only two, everything above that is voluntary, which is of course bad for the students' ability to communicate.

Mrs. Mensing uses English as well as Korean to explain words, this method has advantages and disadvantages.

The class room at Paejae are crowded, not so much with students than with desks and chairs. The teacher has no possibility to look around when the students are writing, people in the back are either sleeping, applying make-up, talking on the phone and distracting others or not able to follow class at all.

In one of the classes, the students have to do speeches about a topic which they can choose freely. In Chonbuk - and other universities - the biggest problem is how to get the students to say something at all. A speech with mandatory questions is good for listening comprehension, talking and of course, making speeches in a foreign language.

That evening I looked around in Daejon, exploring downtown a little bit. I enjoyed one bar that was small, but the atmosphere was good, and the music was livable - usually, you have to bear those ear-battering Technosounds. The funny thing was, when I looked around, beside the barkeepers, there were only me and about ten women. Looks like a good place for male singles. ;-)

traditional tea house

If you ever plan to visit Korea, try out those tea houses. In Seoul, Inchadong (spelling might be wrong) is the best place for such things, but basically, tea houses are everywhere. Most of those places are quiet and have a nice atmosphere. The collection of teas is unbelievable! The best thing of all: Let's say you bought a cake in a bakery, then you can go to a tea house and buy a tea, plus nobody minds if you eat your cake as well!
The customer is the king... I try to image what would happen in Germany if I would start to eat stuff I brought myself in a cafe - the owner would get mad at me, that's for sure.

understanding Koreans

I started to read a new book yesterday. Global citizens - Cultural and behavioral differences between Koreans and Americans. I'm European, but many things which are described in this book sound so familiar to me. If you are new in Korea and plan to stay a while, get this book.

BCM Publishers, Inc.
752-27 Yuksam-Dong, Kangnam-gu
Seoul, Korea
135-080
Phone 02 567 0644

last day of the stadium festival

I don't know what it was about, but there were tents and a lot of events taking place in the area around the old Jeonju Stadium. My host and me loitered around for a few hours, watching some kind of theatrical performance and all those tents. Some of those tents belonged to local vendors. One of them sold beds. Well, not really beds, or not beds in the western sense of the word. It looked like a normal bed, but it was heated like Korean floors are - and it was hard, because it was completely made out of marble. Why do you buy a bed if it is as hard as the floor? My hosts answered that the marble has a certain healthy effect on one's back. I prefer a soft, cuchy bed.
Another tent was showing wooden poles with carved and painted faces. some of them seemed familiar from pictures, but one of them was hilarious - called the Idiot.

After that I went back to the office to work a little bit, there won't be much time for preperation next week.

teaching at the university

Friday was my longest day in terms of teaching, I didn't have four hours on one day yet. There were two classes, one in the morning, the beginners, and one after lunch time, a more advanced class. For the beginners, most of it was o.k., but it was the first time that I tought that class. It was o.k., the plan worked out, and I thnk they understood what the lesson was all about.

For the advanced class, I had to cough up two hours about past perfect tense without using the book we usually use for most lessons, Themen Neu. I underestimated the time the class would need to read the text I handed out - something about the Wall and the German reunification, so I didn't get through with the plan I prepared. In the second half of the lesson I didn't pay attention to the time, and in the end I wasted over 20 minutes with explanations of Grammer they had before. During the preperation, I put an emphasis on the content, but partly I forgot to make up my mind about how to present it to the students. I'll have to take better care of that next time.