Kindy's

Ah, kindy's -- or as the rest of the world refers to them: kindergarteners. Not sure if anybody watched that video I posted from YouTube a few posts ago -- but my group of kindy's are exactly the same. I don't know why South Korean students under the ages of 7 or 8 insist on having to yell EVERYTHING but it's definately something I'm going to have to grow used to. But you definately can't deny how cute these kids are -- they can barely speak English but are somehow some of the funniest little people around. Maybe in a few months I can bring a digital camera to class, tape them, and show them all to you.

So how does it work? I get to school everyday at 1pm (except for Wednesday -- I get there at 3pm on that day) and I teach several classes throughout the day. Each class is usually divided by age/English proficiency... so I could teach kids from ages 4-15 or 16 (those are Korean ages... when kids are born here, they're born at the age of 1... so a kid aged 4 in Korean is really 3 to us.) Each class goes on for 40 minutes... the beginning of the day is reserved for Kindergarten classes, and as the hours go by, the students I teach usually get older. Some of these kids speak great conversational English while others are just awful and make the experience a heck of a lot more difficult.

You'd also think that stereoptically being Asian means these kids would be harder workers and do their homework and participate... WELL... not really. Kids are kids. On top of that, these kids also go to public school, martial arts, sports activities and/or other sorts of things ON TOP of the schooling they do with us. Korean parents all want their kids to learn English and be active and stop at nothing to make sure these kids attain (or at least attempt) these goals. The end result? Most of these kids get up at 6am, don't get to bed until 11pm and are constantly doing something.... which ultimately means that when they're in our classes, they don't want to be there..

But anyway, it's definately been an experience thus far. Teaching English is not an easy job (at least not at my school) yet, but it's definately a great learning experience... and I'm sure as time goes by, it'll become a lot easier for me.... or at least I'd like to hope so...

- Gilad